RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cemeteries
distance from the floor, with the bottom and sides straight, and the top in the shape of either an arch or a shell, or sometimes straight. These external parts are carefully constructed and decorated, often with pilasters in the front; at the back is a rectangular opening which gives access to the length of a grave usually for two, less often for one or three bodies. These graves are generally arranged in a row; in the catacomb of Tal-Liebru
3. Malta, there are two rows, one above the
other. This peculiar form can hardly be of Christian origin,, but is rather, as Mayr has shown, the development of a type used by the Phenician population of the island. In a number of burial-places it is the only form used, in others it appears concurrently with the more usual types, among which the arcosolium is the most frequent. Both in the oven-graves and in the others a headrest with a semicircular depression is common. The Maltese cemeteries, most of which date from the fourth and fifth centuries, are as a rule small, and must have served for families or other small groups. Only a single catacomb is known on the neighboring island of Gozzo.
Near the village of Trypiti in Melos, surrounded by pagan tombs, is a Christian necropolis unquestionably used as early as the fourth century, composed originally of five separate catacombs, four of which were afterward connected; and it is probable that others still lie concealed in the vicinity. The oldest, that in the middle, consists of a broad main gallery and several side corri-
4. Melos. dors. The width of the galleries
varies from 3 ft. 3 in. to 16 ft. 4 in., the height from 4 ft. 7 in. to 7 ft. 6 in. The walls contain arcosolia with semicircular arches and a few loculi, and there are graves sunk in the floor of all the passages, usually in pairs. The three undoubtedly Christian catacombs have no chambers, but the other two, which are probably Christian, have them. Bayet counted 150 arcosolia and sixty-six sunk graves in the whole five.
Far as Melos and Apulia are from each other, it would be difficult to find a closer affinity between types of catacombs than exists between these just described and those of Venosa, of which the one most fully studied is apparently of Jewish origin. Here again one finds the same unusual breadth of galleries, in spite of the friable nature of the tufa,
the arcosolium is the predominant
5. Apulia, form, at least in the main galleries,
and the floor is full of sunk graves, while chambers are once more lacking. The principal difference is in the form of the arcosolia, which in Melos are of only one kind, in Venosa of several, answering to the Sicilian variety; and in fact the Jewish catacomb of Venosa offers to a certain extent the intermediate step between Melos on one side and Sicily and southern Italy on the other.
The catacombs of Naples are the most important among those of Campania; and of these the largest and oldest are those of San Gennaro dei Poveri, whose beginnings apparently go back to the first century. Four are enumerated nowadays; but there is reason to suppose that there were originally more. The oldest is trapezoid in ground-
plan, with a maximum width of thirty-three feet and length somewhat more. Other smaller rooms open from it to left and right, the latter of which was later remodeled into a church. At the back of the large hall are the entrances to 6. Naples, two parallel galleries nearly 100 yards long, connected by numerous transverse passages. From the outer side of each of these stretch out other chambers and galleries, which in their turn ramify still further, though to a much less extent than in the Roman catacombs. The second catacomb is less important, and the other two still less. They exhibit three types of graves— arcosolia, loculi, and sunk graves. The first are the most numerous in the halls and chambers, as well as in the oldest and most important galleries; unlike the Roman, but like those of Melos and Sicily, they are sometimes in two rows, one above the other. From the irregular disposition of the loculi, which look as if they had been crowded in, it is safe to attribute a later date to them. They form, however, an actual majority of the total number of graves.
At Castellamare there is a later but not uninteresting catacomb, named after St. Blasius. Besides a nearly square entrance-hall, it contains a main gallery nearly twenty-two yards long, with an average breadth of 9 ft. 10 in., lined with arcosolia. On the left of it three side galleries 7. Castella- branch out, and at its further end is mare. a chamber from which further galleries continue. The weight of evidence is in favor of a Christian origin. The arrangement of the graves in the chambers at Castellamare and Sorrento is peculiar; they are placed in rows one above another so as to resemble a honeycomb, a form which is lacking in the older catacombs, though it is impossible to say whether it originated with the Christians of these places.
The history of the immense and widely known catacombs of Rome begins, as is the case elsewhere, with the family plot. In the first two centuries, and even later, individual Christians picked out places for the interment of themselves and their families, including in some cases their freedmen. The arrangement of the first 8. Rome, cemeteries is not demonstrably derived from pagan models, since there were many Jews in Rome and in the primitive Church there, and these also buried their dead in subterranean cemeteries. But there is reason to believe that, while it would be too much to say that Jewish traditions had no influence on the early development, the first beginnings of the Christian burial system in Rome were derived rather from pagan prototypes.
With the extension of the family plot into the common cemetery for the faithful, underground Rome became apparently a labyrinth, though really its plan is more simple and intelligible than that of some of the larger catacombs outside of Rome. Since the ground was either flat or slightly rolling, the excavation was begun by digging down at an angle into the earth, the descent being furnished with steps, usually covered with brick or marble. After it had reached the required depth (averaging
Cemeteries