Rome: the catacombs of Vigna Randanini

Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Diario di: Redazione GoTellGo
Autore: GoTellGo Archaeology
Goteller: Redazione GoTellGo
Categoria: archeologia
Creato il: 19/07/2010
Licenza: Creative Commons License
Nazioni: Italy
: roma
Posti visitati: Via Appia Pignatelli, Jewish Catacomb of Vigna Randanini
Parole chiave: mishna, kochim

Visit to the Jewish catacombs along via Appia Pignatelli

There are several Jewish catacombs in Rome, even if to a lesser extent with respect to the Christian ones. Six of them are known, three of which are still accessible.

These developed most likely in a period subsequent to the birth of the first Pagan-Christian funerary hypogeums of the end of the II-beginning of the III century, and do not differ in type from the contemporary Christian catacombs, except in their size, which is much less, and like the Christian catacombs, they too are found outside the pomerium, alonf the consular roads. They do however have some distinctive elements: the presence in some of them of the atrium for the pause of the coffin, prescribed by the Mishna; the absence of multiple burials (in fact the Jewish rite prescribed that the bodies were strictly separated from one another); the occasional presence of the kôchim, similar to the Christian "a forno" tomb, and very common in the East; a very sober wall decoration with repetition of the most common Jewish religious symbols (the casket with the roll of the law, the candelabrum with seven branches, the fruit of the cedar, the sacred knife for circumcision, the pomegranade, the mandrake, the horn of meetings).

The most important information is obtained however from the corpus of incriptions, many of which in Greek, from which we can deduce how, contrary to a belief already widespread in ancient times, the Jewish community was characterized by a certain well-being and a good cultural level. It is precisely as a result of the epigraphic support that our knowledge concerning the districts lived in by the Jews, the synagogue they belonged to, their funerary customs and their religious habits, was enriched.

The catacomb of Vigna Randanini, dating to the second half of the III century, was accessible from a byway of the Appia (more or less correspondently to the modern Via Appia Pignatelli). By the entrance is a large rectangular structure with a mosaic floor with black and white tesserae, which has two apsidiole in the southern side and arcosolia along the walls. The room, certainly at a later stage, was divided by a longitudinal wall along which other arcosolia were created. In the galleries of the cemeterial area there are still some cubicula frescoed with simple decorative elements, such as the seven-branched candlestick or floral motifs. One exception is constituted by the image, of certain Pagan influence, of a nude personage crowned by a Victory, which symbolizes the making a hero of the deceased. In one of the most recent areas of the catacomb there are numerous "a forno" tombs at a number of levels (kôchim).

 

Immagini associate

Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini
Le Catacombe di Vigna Randanini

Memo Associati

info

Entrance: via Appia Pignatelli.

Closed to the public.

Tel.: 060608.