Classical Corner: A Subterranean Surprise in the Roman Catacombs

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In 002, a burst pipe caused a sinkhole to form in the basement of the Istituto Sacra Famiglia, a convent and school located along Rome’s Via Casilina. The sisters were no doubt surprised when the sinkhole revealed not only faulty plumbing in need of repair, but also chambers in which several hundred burials were discovered. These burials, which are believed to date to the end of the second century C.E. or the beginning of the third, were of individuals whose bodies had been carefully but hastily wrapped and deposited at the same time, indicating some sort of mass fatality […]

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Endnotes

1.
Grave goods buried with several of the individuals indicate that these individuals were almost certainly not Christians.

2.
Philippe Blanchard et al., “A Mass Grave from the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus in Rome, Second–Third Century A.D.,” Antiquity 81 (2007), pp. 989–998.

3.
The catacombs of Saints Peter and Marcellinus are open to the public. More information is available on their website: www.santimarcellinoepietro.it.