Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:39:09.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A mass grave from the catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus in Rome, second-third century AD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Philippe Blanchard ,
Dominique Castex ,
Michaël Coquerelle ,
Raffaella Giuliani  and
Monica Ricciardi
Philippe Blanchard
Affiliation:
INRAP CIF, Tours, UMR 6173 Laboratoire Archéologie et Territoires/CITERES, France (Email: philippe.blanchard@inrap.fr)
Dominique Castex
Affiliation:
UMR 5199 PACEA Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Populations du Passé, Université Bordeaux 1, Talence, France
Michaël Coquerelle
Affiliation:
UMR 5199 PACEA Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Populations du Passé, Université Bordeaux 1, Talence, France
Raffaella Giuliani
Affiliation:
Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra, Rome, Italy
Monica Ricciardi
Affiliation:
Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra, Rome, Italy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Investigations in a catacomb revealed an early mass grave, in which the bodies were bound tightly with plaster and textile in a type of mummification. Over 100 individuals, mostly young adults, including women, were stacked in rows apparently following a communal fatal incident, perhaps an epidemic. The presence of traces of gold, silver and probably amber with many of the bodies, and their burial in an imperial property suggests a group of some status being interred in the early years of the catacomb, at the end of the second century AD or beginning of the third.

Keywords

Romecatacombslate Antiqueplague
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 314 , 1 December 2007 , pp. 989 - 998
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blanchard, Ph., Castex, D., Souquet-Leroy, I. & Poulle, P.. 2002a. Les sépultures multiples d'Issoudun (Indre, XVIIe siècle): stratégie d'intervention et objectifs de recherche. Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 14 n.s. (1-2): 199–200.Google Scholar
Blanchard, Ph., 2002b. Des sépultures de catastrophe. L'archéologue oct-nov 2002, n° 62: 49.Google Scholar
Bruzek, J., Schmitt, A. & Murail, P.. 2005. Identification biologique individuelle en paléoanthropologie. Détermination du sexe et estimation de l'âge au décès à partir du squelette, in Dutour, O., Hublin, J.-J. & Vandermeersch, B. (ed.) Origine et Evolution Humaine: 217–46. Paris: Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques.Google Scholar
Castex, D. & Carton, I. (ed.) 2007 in press. Epidémies et crises de mortalité. Archéologie, Anthropologie biologique et Histoire (Actes des séminaires de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme d'Aquitaine 2004-2005). Bordeaux: Ausonius.Google Scholar
Duday, H. 2005. Lezioni di Archeotanatologia. Archeologia funeraria e antropologia di campo. Rome: Soprintendenza archeologica di Roma/Ecole Française de Rome.Google Scholar
Fiocchi Nicolai, V., Bisconti, F. & Mazzoneli, D. (French transl. Guyon, J.). 1999. Les Catacombes chrétiennes de Rome: origine, développement, décor, inscriptions. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner.Google Scholar
Gourevitch, D. 2005. The Galenic Plague: a breakdown of the Imperial Pathocoenosis (Pathocoenosis and Longue Durée). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 27: 57–69.Google Scholar
Green, C. J. 1977. The significance of plaster burials for the recognition of Christian cemeteries, in Reece, R. (ed.) Burial in the Roman World (Council for British Archaeology Research Reports 22): 46–53. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Guyon, J. 1987. Le Cimetière “aux deux lauriers”. Recherches sur les catacombes romaines. Rome: Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Christiana/Ecole Française de Rome.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyon, J. 2004. Entries “Comitatum (in)”, “Duas lauros (inter) coemeterium”, “Duas lauros (ad, inter) territorium ”, in La Regina, A. (dir.) Lexikon topographicum Urbis Romae, Suburbium, II: 133-34, 209-18. Rome.Google Scholar
Knussmann, R. et al. (ed.) 1988. Anthropologie. Handbuch der vergleichenden Biologie des Menschen. Zugleich 4. Band I. Wesen und Methoden der Anthropologie. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer.Google Scholar
Sjøvold, T. 1990. Estimation of stature from long bones utilizing the line of organic correlation. Human Evolution 5, 5: 431–47.Google Scholar
Wilpert, G. 1910. La cripta dei papi e la cappella di Santa Cecilia nel cimiterio di Callisto. Rome: Desclée.Google Scholar