06-26-2006, 11:18 AM
The fact that they were not cremated (if truly of 1st century date), does strongly point to the bodies being Christian, because of the reseurrection beliefs of that religion. But the fact that the catacombs were built much later, leads me to believe this is just so much wishful thinking about the bodies being 1st century. But coins were often buried with the dead and maybe this is how they originally dated the finds. I have a gut feeling however, that this is just so much "catholic wishful thinking" that these are "martyred" Christians from the persecutions of Nero, and that the bodies will be of later date.
Since the bodies are supposedly those of "wealthy" Romans, it will be interesting to see if the skeletons are uniformly larger, than say, a probably more general population of the same period, in the mass of skeletons from the Herculaneum boathouses.
But the most interesting thing of all, of course, may be a look at real 1st century AD Roman clothing actually recovered from Rome itself!
Since the bodies are supposedly those of "wealthy" Romans, it will be interesting to see if the skeletons are uniformly larger, than say, a probably more general population of the same period, in the mass of skeletons from the Herculaneum boathouses.
But the most interesting thing of all, of course, may be a look at real 1st century AD Roman clothing actually recovered from Rome itself!
