Coemeterium
Coemeterium ( Latin for 'resting place', from ancient Greek κοιμητήριον , 'bedroom', 'resting place') was originally a single grave building or a burial place intended for several people. From the early Christian period to the 9th century, the catacombs in today's sense were also referred to as coemeterium .
history
In early Christianity, coemeterium was understood to be a burial place or cemetery for members of the Christian community that was initially above the ground. In the 1st century the Christian parishioners buried their dead in the general pagan grave areas.
In the 2nd century, Christians adopted the Jewish custom of burying their dead in catacombs in Rome outside the city walls. The first underground burial system of the Christian communities, the Catacomb of Calixtus , arose on the site of a pagan burial ground on the Via Appia ; more than 60 catacombs followed in Rome alone. By edict of 257, Emperor Valerian forbade Christians from practicing their cult in public and from entering their above-ground cemeteries, which meant that burials had to concentrate on underground tombs. Christian martyrs , bishops and popes were also buried in the catacombs .
It was only after the religious peace of 313 that burials increased again above the ground and in the newly created basilicas ( Coemeterialbasilika ). In the 6th century the tombs in the catacombs and basilicas began to deteriorate because these structures outside the city walls could no longer be secured and because new laws allowed burials within the city area. The “cemeteries” in front of the walls, known as Coemeteria , have now become “Kirchhöfe” in the vicinity of a municipal parish church. Coemeterium became a synonym for 'cemetery', from which the English 'cemetery' and the French 'cimetière' are derived.
According to the literal meaning of 'resting place', the graves for Christians should be places of temporary rest in anticipation of the resurrection. The funeral in above-ground cemeteries took place in simple shaft graves. In the catacombs, wall graves in the form of loculus graves were the rule, in which numerous body graves were carved in niches one above the other in the soft rock. The arcosol tomb was more elaborate , with the body lying in a niche that is spanned by an arch. For families there were also more exclusive burial chambers ( cubiculi ) and for popes the 'Crypt of the Popes' with enough space for sarcophagi and loculi . At the word crypt (Greek κρυπτός., Hidden 'secret', lat. Crypta = cave underground vault) Note that the early Christian underground cemeteries and grave spaces in the 4th century still commonly known as crypts or coemeterii were called and that the term 'catacomb' has only been in general use since the 9th century. This was originally the field name ad catacumbas (Greek κατά κύμβας = "in the caves") for the Sebastian catacomb; It was not until the 8th century that the addition ad Catacumbas was added to the name of the basilica 'San Sebastiano' on the Via Appia , and 'catacomb' has only been used as a technical term for underground burial places since the 9th century.
In the six Roman basilicas , all three naves were covered with graves and closed with a plate floor.
Early Christian coemeteries in Rome
The most important examples of cemeteries in Rome are the generally accessible Christian catacombs, in particular:
- Calixtus catacomb , also called coemeterium Callisti , on the Via Appia Antica with an area of approx. 15 hectares and around 370,000 graves on five levels, as well as more than 60 family graves and tombs.
- Sebastian's catacomb on the Via Appia Antica under the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura , which also contains pagan tombs.
- Domitilla catacombs , also called coemeterium Domitillae , on Via Ardeatina as the most extensive underground cemetery in Rome with important early Christian wall paintings.
- Priscilla catacombs on Via Salaria with an estimated 40,000 graves and early Christian wall paintings, including what is probably the oldest representation of a Mary with a child .
- Coemterium Petri et Marcellini , also called coemeterium ad duas lauros , on the ancient Via Labicana with numerous early Christian murals.
- Coemeterium Agnetis on Via Nomentana , which since the end of the 2nd century has been around the grave of St. Agnes of Rome and was expanded in the following centuries with underground passages of about 10 km. Instead of murals, numerous inscriptions and graffiti have been preserved.
Further coemeteries
- Catacombs on Malta : St. Agatha's Catacombs (around 200); St. Paul's Catacombs (around 350); Salina Bay's Catacombs.
- Catacombs of Syracuse : Santa Lucia (around 220); San Giovanni Evangelista (around 315); Vigna Cassia (3rd and 4th centuries).
There are also coemeteries in Naples , on the island of Milos and under St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . Catacombs have been rebuilt in Valkenburg, the Netherlands ( Roman Catacomb Valkenburg ).
literature
- Hugo Brandenburg : Coemeterium. The change in the funeral system as a sign of the cultural upheaval in late antiquity. In: Laverna , No. 5, Scripta Mercaturae, St. Katharinen 1994, pp. 206-233, ISSN 0938-5835 .
- Steffen Diefenbach: Roman Remembrance Rooms: Holy Memories and Collective Identities in Rome from the 3rd to 5th Century AD . De Gruyter 2007, ISBN 978-3-110-19129-5 (= Millennium Studies . Volume 11. On the culture and history of the first millennium . Also dissertation at the University of Münster 2004).
- Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai / Fabrizio Bisconti / Danilo Mazzoleni: Rome's Christian catacombs. History - world of images - inscriptions , Regensburg 2000.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai / Fabrizio Bisconti / Danilo Mazzoleni: Rome's Christian catacombs. History - world of images - inscriptions , Regensburg 2000, p. 13ff.
- ↑ Lexicon for Theology and Church (LThK), Freiburg 2006, Volume 2, Sp. 1249ff.
- ↑ Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai / Fabrizio Bisconti / Danilo Mazzoleni: Rome's Christian catacombs. History - world of images - inscriptions , Regensburg 2000, p. 13ff.
- ↑ Lexicon for Theology and Church (LThK), Freiburg 2006, Volume 5, Sp. 1293
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg, 2nd edition 2017, p. 67ff.
- ↑ Fabrizio Mancinelli: Roman Catacombs and Early Christianity , Florence 2004, p. 49