Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context
The Shohet Conference on Roman, Jewish and Christian Burials

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Abstracts

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Houses of the Dead and of the Living: Endymion in Earliest Christian and in Roman Art
David L. Balch,
Brite Divinity School

Pre-Constantinian Christians valued the three-stage Jonah cycle: 1) Jonah cast into the sea, 2) Jonah and the sea monster, and 3) Jonah at rest. In the third representation, Jonah appears as Endymion, the mortal with whom the moon goddess, Selene, fell in love, who sleeps eternally while his lover visits him. Endymion sarcophagi and mosaics are found in the Bardo Museum, at El Jem (Roman Thysdrus), in Ostia, and later in the Constantinian church in Aquileia. Endymion also appears seventeen times in houses of the living in Pompeii. How might we interpret a figure who appears in mosaics and sarcophagi in Roman tombs, is popular in houses of the living, as well being one of the most popular figures in early Christian art? We may be able to distinguish meanings by observing accompanying inscriptions and related decorations.

 

From Columbarium to Catacomb: Communities of the Dead in Pagan and Christian Rome
John Bodel
Brown University

Changes in burial practices express the changing relationship of
individuals to community. Developments in Roman and North African burial fashion from the second century B.C.E. through the fifth century C.E.-from familial tombs to columbaria (familial and “professional”) to catacombs to cemeteries, areae, and church burials-reflect changing conceptions of the relation of the individual to the community (variously defined. These changes, rather than changes in the conception of the relation of the individual to the god(s), more plausibly explain the peculiar development of Christian burial grounds.

 

Sweet Spices in the Tomb: An Initial Study on the Use of Perfume in Jewish Burials
Deborah Green
University of Oregon

A Talmudic law states that no prayer is said over perfume for the dead as its only purpose is to mask the scent of the decomposing body. However, the archaeological data from Jewish as well as non-Jewish burials in the Roman and early Byzantine periods – especially that of glass perfume bottles – point to additional functions for perfume. As a result, I argue that we need to reassess Jewish burial practices and the roles of perfume and incense as they relate to these burials.

 

The Intellectual History of Catacomb Archaeology
Amy Hirschfeld
International Catacomb Society

Since their discovery, the Roman catacombs have been studied by a variety of scholars of different nationalities, religions, and disciplines. I will provide a historical overview of the social, political, and religious contexts of the study of the Roman catacombs as a means of investigating the following questions: How have the Christian catacombs and the Jewish catacombs been treated differently by scholars? How have the catacombs been presented (both physically and in publications) to a religious, academic, and general public? How does this intellectual heritage inform the study of the catacombs today?

 

Dining with the Dead
Robin Jensen
Vanderbilt University Divinity School

The traditional Roman practice of holding banquets at the grave of
deceased family members was continued by Christian converts, and eventually became an important part of the cult of the martyrs. Whether Christian or pagan, the practice of funeral meals was marked by particular tomb furnishings and special equipment, including stone tables, benches, and tubes for the pouring of libations into designated receptacles. Christian cemetery churches, essentially designed as dining halls for this purpose, were built near to the relics of saints and thus, over time, the family meal for the dead became identified with the eucharist shared by pilgrims on the saint's feast day.

 

The Abercius Inscription: Envisioning Context and Meaning
Margaret M. Mitchell
University of Chicago

One of the most famous and possibly the earliest early extant Christian
inscription (pre 216 CE) consists of two fragments of the burial monument of Abercius of Hierapolis in Asia. As with most inscriptions, we have virtually no direct physical evidence for the original context of the incised words—either on the stone that housed them, or where it and the burial itself were located. My paper (and accompanying visuals) explores how various imaginative reconstructions of the original monument, based on actual late antique Roman burials, would affect the interpretation of this enigmatic epitaph that jubilantly celebrates the deceased’s own voyage to Rome.

 

The Patronage of Women and Roman and Christian Burial Practices
Carolyn Osiek
Brite Divinity School

Roman women patrons were actively involved in providing burial locations for their dependents and clients. The most common provision for Christian burials in the earliest years continued to be private patronage, in which female patrons continued to be heavily involved.

 

The Mortuary Landscape of Roman and post-Roman Carthage (1st-7th c AD)
Susan T. Stevens
Randolph-Macon Woman's College

This project makes systematic use of archaeological evidence for burials to discern patterns in the mortuary landscape of Roman and post-Roman Carthage. Focusing on the burial information available, despite recognized shortcomings, will allow us to be more precise about the mortuary landscape at Carthage. It may prove possible as a result, to prove or disprove tentative conclusions about small groups of late burials as neighborhood burial grounds or assumed patterns of Christian necropoleis: that they are continuations of pagan burial areas, though their focus shifts to centers of martyrological cult.

 

Housing the Roman Dead
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill
British School at Rome

The cemetery as “city of the dead” in certain ways consciously evokes the city of the living, and the place of burial evokes the house of the living. This paper explores not only the language by which at some periods Roman burials evoked a domestic setting, but the perceptions and rituals which represented the dead as part of the family of the living.

©2007 The University of Chicago

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