Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context
The Shohet Conference on Roman, Jewish and Christian Burials
Abstracts
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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.
Changes in burial practices express the changing relationship of 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.
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?
The traditional Roman practice of holding banquets at the grave of One of the most famous and possibly the earliest early extant Christian
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.
Houses
of the Dead and of the Living: Endymion in Earliest Christian and in Roman
Art
David L. Balch,
Brite Divinity School
From
Columbarium to Catacomb: Communities of the Dead in Pagan and Christian
Rome
John Bodel
Brown University
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
The
Intellectual History of Catacomb Archaeology
Amy Hirschfeld
International Catacomb Society
Dining
with the Dead
Robin Jensen
Vanderbilt University Divinity School
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
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
