THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
forms they took, was done in various ways. In Upper Egypt commonly, but elsewhere as well, the earth removed in excavation was heaped over the grave. In other cases slabs were laid either flat on the ground or on the top of the sides where an artificial lining was placed in the 2. The grave. These slabs were frequently °f tii decorated in the fifth century with Grave, mosaic, including an inscription and various pictorial representations, sometimes the portrait of the deceased or symbolic designs. Instead of slabs, large heavy stones cut into a rough shape were used in some places, especially in the East, and in North Africa, where it was an inheritance from Carthaginian custom.
The term sarcophagus was originally used by the ancients in connection with a kind of stone found near Assos in Asia Minor, which was supposed to have the property of consuming the flesh of the corpse in a short time (Pliny, Hist, nat., XXXVI. xvii. 27), but it was often employed for receptacles made out of other stone. The early Christians, taking over both name and things, used the stone they found at hand.
3. Sar- For relief decorations, however, the
cophagi. porous and often flawed limestone was ill adapted, and marble was generally selected where these were desired. The most usual form was that of a parallelepiped, hollowed out to receive the body. The shape of the body was sometimes partially reproduced on the outside, especially in North Africa, or at least the head was semicircular; while at Rome the head and foot were alike. Sarcophagi for children seldom occur, because they were usually buried with their parents in the larger ones. When more than one body was to be placed in the same sarcophagus, stone partitions were sometimes placed in the interior. Christian sarcophagi were frequently adorned with more or less elaborate decorations, usually in relief, though the taste of the North African Christians for mosaic led them to employ it in some cases.
Wooden coffins were also used, either enclosed
in the sarcophagi or buried in the earth; but on
account of their perishable material they have
almost disappeared. A coffin of cypress was found
in the marble sarcophagus of St.
4. Other Cecilia, and Gsell found others of oak
Becepta- and pine in sarcophagi at Tipasa. A cles. plain rectangular chest of cedar, but richly decorated with plates of gold and silver, received the remains of St. Paulinus at Treves, and was afterward enclosed in a large sandstone sarcophagus. Coffins of lead were also known; but the most peculiar receptacles were those in the shape of an amphora or large watervessel. Thase easily held the corpses of little children; when they were used for full-grown persons, they were sometimes taken apart and lengthened by the addition of cylindrical pieces taken from other amphorse, and then cemented together.
IV. Equipment and Decoration of Tombs: Corresponding to the great variety of arrangement and structure noticed above is a still greater wealth
of objects pertaining to the equipment and decoration of the resting-places of the dead. Many of these objects seem natural and intelligible to-day, but others appear peculiar, especially the provision of household utensils. The furnishing of tombs with inscriptions and with painted or carved images is but an inheritance of the traditions of earlier civilized peoples, especially the Greeks and Romans; and it seems on the face of it not unlikely that the provision of these various other objects was similarly a following of ancient custom. It is indisputable that these pre-Christian peoples regarded the grave as a house, and gave it corresponding arrangements and decorations. Roman tombs sometimes accurately resemble dwelling-houses, with atrium, triclinia, and the like. Numerous pagan inscriptions designate either a burial-vault or a single grave as a house, the eternal house, etc. These same designations and an analogous form of construction are not uncommon in early Christian usage, as might be shown, did space permit, from monuments, inscriptions, and the writings of the Fathers. This conception of the grave as a house offers the only satisfactory explanation of what would otherwise be so mysterious, the character of the objects in the tombs as gifts to the dead. In themselves unnecessary if not senseless additions, they merely demonstrate the power of long custom, from which even medieval Christianity was not able wholly to emancipate itself.
1. The Grave Itself. — a. The Interior: Proper clothing for the corpse was universal, no matter what form of grave was used. Even those who died of the plague in Alexandria had their seemly vesture (Eusebius, Hist, eccl., vii. 22). Linen seems to have been the usual material, and white the color, though costly stuffs, such as silk and purple and gold brocade were sometimes used. Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Jerome protested against the use of gold-embroidered garments, and the first and last also against silk. At a later period synods even found it necessary to legislate against luxury in grave-clothes, e.g., that of Auxerre in 578. In the same century Gregory of Tours relates that a kinswoman of King Childebert was buried " with
great ornaments and much gold,"
1. Objects which, however, were soon stolen.
Pertaining The indications thus given in the
to the literature of the period are confirmed
Corpse. Dy numerous discoveries, the largest
number of which have been in Upper Egypt. Here the garments are mostly of linen, less often of pure wool or silk. As to mere ornaments, though Gregory of Nyassa says that the body of his sister Macrina was stripped before burial of rings and necklaces, the discoveries show that this was not the common practise. On the contrary, the number of such objects found leads to the conclusion that many bodies were more richly adorned in death than in life. Among them are rings, earrings, bracelets and anklets, necklaces, combs and hairpins, fibulae, etc., made of various materials and frequently bearing Christian emblems, such as the monogram of Christ, the Good Shepherd, the dove, fish, and cross. With these ornaments it is easy to confuse the amulets sometimes found,