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Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context. Studies of Roman, Jewish and Christian Burials
Commemorating the Dead analyzes and interprets the material remains of Roman period burials in light of ancient texts. Is the move from columbaria to catacombs the result of evolving religious identities or simply a matter of a change in fashions? What Greco-Roman and Jewish funerary images were "baptized" as Christian ones? In Commemorating the Dead, archaeologists, Roman historians, and scholars of Judaism and Early Christianity engage in a cross-disciplinary conversation on the impact of Roman and Jewish burial customs on the creation of early Christian memorial practices.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published May 20, 2008
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October 28, 2019
Excellent collection! I used this for a PhD course on Death in Ancient Rome/early Christianity. The Wallace-Hadrill and Bodel articles were absolutely biased—the former against associating Roman tombs with the domus and the latter with crediting Christian influence for the proliferation of Catacomb use over columbaria in Rome—and just plain strange when compared to other writers of antiquity. Stevens’ dense article on the archaeology of Carthaginian cemeteries would have benefitted from more maps and photos as well. Over all, it was an excellent edition I am glad to add to my religious anthroplogy/archaeology library!
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