Editing Catacombs of Rome (section)

== <!--This part must contain the information that Christian historiography believes the Catacombs of Rome where a place where Early Christians hid to escape persecutions. This is because this section is linked from [[Catacomb Church]].-->Christian catacombs ==
[[Roman law]] forbade burial places within city limits and so all burial places, including the catacombs, were located outside the walls of the city. The first large-scale catacombs in the vicinity of Rome were dug from the 2nd century onwards. They were carved in ''"tufa"'' ([[tuff]]), a type of [[volcanic rock]] which is relatively soft to dig into but subsequently hardens.<ref>
{{cite book |last1=Heiken |first1=Grant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6eADAQAAQBAJ |title=The Seven Hills of Rome: A Geological Tour of the Eternal City |last2=Funiciello |first2=Renato |last3=de Rita |first3=Donatella |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2005 |isbn=9781400849376 |publication-date=2013 |page=42 |quote=Underground Roman stone quarries and catacombs were excavated, mostly in tufa deposits, in and around Rome. |access-date=2016-01-31 |name-list-style=and}}</ref>

Christian catacombs existed as a burial ground for early Christians accompanied by inscriptions and early wall art. Although catacombs were of Jewish origin in the first century, by the end of the sixth century there were over sixty Christian catacombs. These catacombs served as a connector for various Christian communities through the underlying concepts of socio-economic status shown within the art. Additionally, the art showed a story of how Christians in the first couple of centuries viewed the world and their idealistic view of how it should be.

According to L. Michael White, the catacombs of Rome have a place in the [[wiktionary:romanticize|romantic]] [[historiography]] of how [[early Christianity]] developed. This is because it has often been said those catacombs were good hiding places, and that when Christians were [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecuted by the Roman Empire]], they would go there to hold their worship.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=White|first=L. Michael|title=In The Catacombs {{!}} From Jesus To Christ - The First Christians {{!}} FRONTLINE|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/catacombs.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-14|website=PBS|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991111194857/http://www.pbs.org:80/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/catacombs.html |archive-date=1999-11-11 }}</ref>

However, White believes Christians did not use the catacombs of Rome to secretly hold their worship during times of persecutions. He says that they did not do so, in the first place because Christians were not persecuted on a regular basis by the Roman Empire, and in the second place because the larger rooms or chambers within the catacombs were not used for regular [[Christian worship|worship]], the Eucharist or assembly by Christians. White says that those catacombs' larger rooms, which had some benches along their walls and were appropriate to hold eucharistic assemblies, were in fact used by Christians to "hol[d] meals for the dead". He states such "funerary meals" were practised among most families of the city of Rome. Therefore, he explains, Christians, in their everyday life, regularly went down into the catacombs of Rome, not to hold assemblies or the Eucharist, but "to hold memorial meals with dead members of their families, just like their [[pagan]] neighbors".<ref name=":0"/> V. Rutgers considers that "[r]esearchers have long debunked the [[myth]] that Christians used the catacombs as hiding places in times of persecution", because when those persecutions took place, the exact locations of the catacombs of Rome were widely known.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish and Christian Catacombs in Rome |url=https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/places/related-articles/jewish-and-christian-catacombs-in-rome |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210915031844/https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/places/related-articles/jewish-and-christian-catacombs-in-rome |archive-date=2021-09-15 |access-date=2021-09-15 |website=bibleodyssey.org}}</ref> Frank K. Flinn considers that during the period of Christian persecutions and shortly after it, Christians held "memorial rites and Eucharist" near the graves of the more famous Christian martyrs. He adds that "[c]ontrary to novel and movie lore," the catacombs of Rome "were not used as hiding places for Christians."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Flinn|first=Frank K.|url=|title=Encyclopedia of Catholicism|date=2007|publisher=Facts on File|isbn=978-0-8160-7565-2|editor-last=|editor-first=|pages=133|chapter=catacombs|oclc=882540074}}</ref> Author J. Osbourne says that "nothing could be further from the truth" than the idea that Christians inhabited the Catacombs during the period of persecution.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Osborne |first=J. |date=1985 |title=The Roman Catacombs in the Middle Ages |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40310821 |journal=Papers of the British School at Rome |volume=53 |pages=278–328 |doi=10.1017/S0068246200011569 |jstor=40310821 |s2cid=163223163 |issn=0068-2462}}</ref>

[[File:Adam & Eve 01b.jpg|alt=An earlier catacomb wall art, depicting Adam and Eve from the Old Testament.|thumb|upright=0.68|An earlier catacomb wall art, depicting Adam and Eve from the Old Testament.]]
Christian art in the catacombs is split into three categories: iconographic, stylistic and technical. From the first to the sixth century, the art in Roman Christian catacombs progressively went into phases as well: an early phase, an Old Testament phase and a New Testament phase.

Excavators ([[fossors]]) built vast systems of galleries and passages on top of each other. They lie {{convert|7|-|19|m}} below the surface in an area of more than {{convert|2.4|km2|acre}}. Narrow steps that descend as many as four stories join the levels. Passages are about {{convert|2.5|x|1|m|ft}}. Burial niches ([[Loculus (architecture)|loculi]]) were carved into walls. They are {{convert|40|-|60|cm}} high and {{convert|120|-|150|cm}} long.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} Bodies were placed in chambers in stone sarcophagi in their clothes and bound in linen. Then the chamber was sealed with a slab bearing the name, age and the day of death. The fresco decorations provide the main surviving evidence for [[Early Christian art]], and initially show typically Roman styles used for decorating homes—with secular [[iconography]] adapted to a religious function. The catacomb of [[Saint Agnes]] is a small church. Some families were able to construct ''[[Cubiculum|cubicula]]'' which would house various loculi and the architectural elements of the space would offer support for decoration. Another excellent place for artistic programs were the [[arcosolium|arcosolia]].