Catacomb

Catacombs are chambers and tunnels deep underground that are used for burial and for rituals that honor the dead. These hand-dug structures first appeared around the third century C.E. Catacombs are sometimes associated with Christian martyrs, or people who were killed for their Christian beliefs. However, some of the earliest catacombs were Jewish burial places, and pagans built and used these underground structures as well. In the past, catacombs were an efficient and widely accepted way to bury the deceased. In contemporary times, studying catacombs and the remains they house provides a wealth of information about life long ago, offering insight into the customs, beliefs, and even the health of the people who are buried there.

Background

The use of the word catacomb to refer to underground cemeteries is traced to one specific burial complex near the Appian Way in Italy. Called In catacumbas, from a Latin word of uncertain origins, this site was the first known Christian catacomb but not the first to have been created. First-century followers of Judaism created catacombs around Rome long before the Christians began digging underground burial chambers nearly two centuries later.

To make the earliest known catacombs, both Jews and Christians dug away the soft but strong soil known as tuff. Tuff is a particular kind of volcanic soil that remains soft when it is covered by a layer of dirt or rock but hardens when exposed to air. The workers who made the catacombs exposed the softer tuff deep beneath the surface and dug into it to create openings for walking and chambers for ceremonies related to burial and storing remains. Ladders or steps cut into the tuff soil allowed access to the larger passageways known as galleries. These were a little more than three feet wide and about ten to fourteen feet tall. Along the walls of these galleries were smaller tunnels. Into these tunnels were cut many lengthwise slots known as loculi, which were the burial sites of the common people. People of greater importance or means could have a larger burial chamber. These larger chambers, called cubicula, included arcosolia, arched openings.

The catacombs consisted of multiple layers of tunnels. In some cases, as many as four or five levels of catacombs would be created, with some tunnels intersecting and connecting. The tunnels can resemble a labyrinth, or maze, and may be many miles long. For instance, the Appian Way catacomb was roughly 68 square miles in size and contained the remains of more than 875,000 people buried between the second and ninth centuries.

Jewish and Christian catacombs were similar but had a few differences. For example, the earlier Jewish catacombs were mainly the burial site of poorer people. They contained little in the way of adornment and had only a few larger chambers, which were used for preparing bodies for burial. Christian catacombs have other chambers in addition to those used to prepare remains. These included some large enough to hold underground funerals and others with carved-in benches and tables that were used by relatives to hold memorial meals near the remains of their deceased loved ones. Some of these catacombs feature works of art depicting Christian themes. These artworks range from simple scratched symbols, such as the symbol of the ichthys fish, to elaborate painted frescoes.

Most of the catacombs eventually fell out of use and were forgotten. When some Christian sites were rediscovered the 1500s, it was initially assumed that all the bones within were those of early martyrs. Later, it was determined that the sheer number of bodies buried in the catacombs—more than 6.5 million in the Roman catacombs alone—meant that they could not all have been martyrs. Archaeologists and other researchers later determined that people of all backgrounds were buried in the catacombs, in part because only the most important people could be buried within Rome's city limits.

Significant Catacombs

The most famous catacombs are those near Rome. Both Jewish and Christian tombs are found in the miles of underground tunnels, some of which remain unexplored. While it was originally thought that some of these tunnels served as places of worship during times of persecution, researchers have since determined that was not the case. Catacombs closer to Christian saints often include more remains because people wanted to be buried close to these important holy people. All the underground burial sites of Christians around Rome are owned by the Catholic Church. There are six Jewish catacombs around the city. Some experts believe these catacombs were built because the early Jews did not want to follow the Greek and Roman practice of cremation but were reluctant to conduct public burials.

Paris, France, is also home to some well-known catacombs. Unlike the Roman catacombs, the Parisian burial chambers are housed largely in former limestone quarries, five stories underground. More than six million people are buried in about two hundred miles of tunnels deep beneath the city's streets. In most cases, the bones have been removed from their original resting places and stacked in piles lining the hallways. Some of these remains were removed from traditional graves when cemeteries became overcrowded and began posing a health risk in the late 1700s. In the twenty-first century, the catacombs under Paris became a popular tourist attraction.

St. Paul's catacombs in Malta are another famous example of this burial practice. Located on the island of Malta, the catacombs were used until about the fourth century and are similar to the Roman catacombs in design and purpose. The one and a half square mile site provides the earliest archeological documentation of a Christian presence on the island.

Bibliography

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Geiling, Natasha. "Beneath Paris' City Streets, There's an Empire of Death Waiting for Tourists." Smithsonian, 28 Mar. 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/paris-catacombs-180950160/?no-ist. Accessed 14 Oct. 2016.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Books, 2010, pp. 160, 680.

McQueeney, Kerry. "Inside France's Empire of the Dead... Startling Images of the Skulls and Bones That Line Catacombs under Paris." The Daily Mail, 6 Aug. 2012, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184393/Paris-catacombs-The-skulls-bones-inside-Frances-Empire-Dead.html. Accessed 14 Oct. 2016.

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"St. Paul's Catacombs." Heritage Malta, heritagemalta.org/museums-sites/st-pauls-catacombs/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2016.

Valsecchi, Maria Cristina. "What's Inside Rome's Ancient Catacombs?" National Geographic, HYPERLINK "http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/rome-catacombs/" science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/rome-catacombs/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2016.

White, L. Michael. "In the Catacombs." Frontline—PBS, Apr. 1998, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/catacombs.html. Accessed 14 Oct. 2016.