Another Sensational Catacomb Find

Although I shouldn't be, I am always a little surprised when I read of new archaeological discoveries in Rome. When visiting the city we see first-hand so much large, in-your-face antiquity -- the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Forum, the Circus Maximus, the catacombs, and so much more -- it's easy to assume everything that could be discovered has been discovered.

But then I read that archaeologists have barely scratched the surface of ancient, largely underground Rome. The reality of this became apparent to me on a 2008 trip when Diane and I visited the ancient necropolis and St. Peter's tomb deep beneath the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican. The saint's remains had been resting there for almost 2,000 years before the Vatican began a ten-year excavation starting in 1939. (By the way, you can read the fascinating story of those excavations in a wonderful book by John Walsh, The Bones of St. Peter -- out of print, but available online in used copies.) On that same trip we also visited the extensive excavations beneath the Church of St. Cecilia in the Trastevere district of Rome. Tradition holds that the church was built over the martyred saint's house which the excavations have seemingly uncovered, offering us a glimpse of daily life in ancient Rome. After visiting these and other similar sites one realizes that virtually every structure in modern Rome sits atop some ancient predecessor.

For archaeologists a lot of the problem is simply time and money. Archaeology is a time-consuming and expensive undertaking, especially in an urban setting. And this leads to another complicating factor, one near and dear to the heart of any realtor: location, location, location. Archaeology tends to be highly disruptive when conducted in a modern urban environment. Not many city homeowners would respond favorably to an archaeologist who knocked on the front door and said, "Look, we're pretty sure your house sits on top of an ancient shrine to the goddess Partula. You don't mind if we come in and dig under your living room do you?" I know what my answer would be: "If you've waited this long, you can wait a little longer. Come back after I'm dead." As if to validate this less than enlightened attitude of mine, an archaeologist friend suggested that his successors would still be excavating ancient Rome a thousand years from now, still uncovering wondrous things, still learning about early Christianity, and still learning about those remarkable people who built and lost an empire.

These strange thoughts came to me as I read of another wonderful find in the catacombs. It shouldn't surprise us that most finds these days are at sites like the catacombs, protected sites where archaeology can proceed with little outside interference. Although it still takes time and money, at least it doesn't have to compete with the claims of the modern world.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might recall a post last summer (July 1, 2010) in which I mentioned the discovery in the Roman Catacombs of St. Tecla of the earliest known paintings of the apostles, St. John and St. Andrew. Now, a year later, there has been another remarkable discovery, this time in the Catacombs of St. Gennaro in the city of Naples. Yes, Rome isn't the only Italian city with catacombs.

St. Paul (left) facing the deceased person

While restoring an arcosolium (an arched recess in a wall in which human remains are entombed) in the catacombs, an image of St. Paul was uncovered. It's a beautiful, intense, and very expressive image and dates from about the year 500 (photo above). As you might imagine, for a such a fresco to survive 1,500 years is remarkable in itself.

The excavations are being conducted by the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology and supported by the city and the Archdiocese of Naples. You can read more about this discovery here: Another Paul

To learn more about the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, here's an interesting Catholic News Service story: Indiana Jones and the Christian Catacombs? Not Quite.