Another Catacomb

Most archaeological discoveries are made by arduous searching; in age-old Rome they sometimes force themselves on the diggers' attention. This week the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano told about a catacomb that had to call for attention twice before it got noticed.

Last year construction workers digging foundations on the Via Latina, an ancient street branching off the Appian Way, noticed small holes in the earth. The news was passed to the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, which ordered Engineer Mario di Santa Maria to excavate further. Entering through a shaft bored in the ground, he and his colleagues penetrated an elaborate catacomb, but found that all loose objects of value had disappeared. Fact was that the catacomb had been discovered 20 years before, and covered quietly by the landowners to avoid an official veto on building over it.

The complex of underground corridors, chambers and cubicles covers an area of 157 ft. by 89 ft. and has at least three levels. Its walls are decorated with an extraordinary number of pictures. "Nothing like this," said Jesuit Archaeologist Antonio Ferrua, who headed the digging, "has ever been found in an early Christian cemetery." Some of the paintings show episodes from the life of Christ (the Sermon on the Mount) and from Judaeo-Christian legend (Lot and his daughters), while others are wholly pagan. Cleopatra is shown in a flower garden, holding an asp to her breast. A cubicle is devoted to the labors of Hercules. Other pictures seem to be scenes from contemporary Roman life, such as a teacher apparently lecturing about anatomy.

Digger Ferrua believes that the catacomb, to judge from its artistic style, dates from the 4th century A.D. It was probably the burial place of a group of families and not used for religious ceremonies. This would account for its absence from ecclesiastical records. Many of the pictures are about obscure subjects, and much work will have to be done before their significance can be determined.

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