1,600-Year-Old Paintings of Christ Discovered in Roman Catacombs

[Bible Speaks]

1,600-Year-Old Paintings of Christ Discovered in Roman Catacombs

By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | June 12, 2017 06:31am ET

An image of Christ seated on a throne surrounded by his apostles can be seen in a burial chamber in the catacombs of St. Domitilla in Italy.

Credit: Photo courtesy Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra

The ancient catacombs of St. Domitilla sprawl for more than 10 miles (17 kilometers) in a labyrinth of tunnels beneath Rome and contain numerous tombs, many belonging to the city's elite.

Now, using a technique called laser cleaning, in which lasers are used to remove centuries of grime, researchers have uncovered elaborate frescoes in two sections of the catacombs: the burial chamber used by a grain purchaser (sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as a baker) and the "introductio," which shows a "a personal presentation of the dead to Christ," said Barbara Mazzei, an archaeologist with the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, the organization that unveiled the newly visible frescoes at the end of May.

The chambers were first discovered about 400 years ago by an explorer named Antonio Bosio.

"Only the wealthiest families could afford a burial chamber," Mazzei told Live Science in an email. The catacombs date back about 1,600 years and are considered to be among the oldest Christian cemeteries. [See Photos of the Frescoes Inside the Catacombs of St. Domitilla] 

Proud grain purchaser

Once the lasers had delicately chipped away soot and other particles that had built up over the years, a 1,600-year-old fresco showing a grain purchaser,  was revealed in greater detail. Previously, researchers knew of the individual and sometimes referred to him as a "baker," but the laser cleaning of the painting allowed details of the purchaser, as well as frescoes in the tomb showing Rome's grain trade, to be seen in greater detail. The grain purchaser (who was buried in this particular chamber) is "dressed in a richly decorated tunic and located behind a large modius," which is a container used to measure and distribute grain, Mazzei said.

The walls near the image of the grain purchaser show details of the activities of the Annona, an office that handled the purchase and distribution of Rome's grain supply. The grain purchaser was probably someone of "high rank and relevance at the top of the Annona office," Mazzei said. The grain purchaser appears to be "very proud of his work and of the social level he gained," Mazzei said.

A bucolic scene with a shepherd and another with Christ on a throne between two groups of apostles were also revealed in the catacombs. "The other scenes are drawn from the Old and New Testament," Mazzei said. [In Photos: A Journey Through Early Christian Rome]

Near the grain purchaser's fresco, in another section of the Roman catacombs, the cleaning revealed details of a fresco showing Christ seated on a throne, with his right arm raised before two deceased individuals and their patron saints, who are presumably "the Princes of the apostles Peter and Paul, to be admitted in the Kingdom of Heaven," Mazzei said. "The subject is quite rare in the repertoire of the catacomb paintings."

Mazzei said there are many more frescoes that need to be cleaned in the area near the grain purchaser's tomb and in other parts of the sprawling ancient catacombs beneath Rome.

Original article on Live Science.

https://www.livescience.com/59424-paintings-of-christ-in-roman-catacombs.html

[Guest]

Jesus wearing a Roman toga.  Love it. :-)

[ARchiv@L]

3 hours ago, Bible Speaks said:

1,600-Year-Old Paintings of Christ

I do not see any sign of the "+" cross ....

why ?

[ARchiv@L]

is this the same place ?  (thanks)

http://www.domitilla.info/docs/brochures/brochen.pdf

[Bible Speaks]

Roman? Christians didn't believe in crosses? ?

[Bible Speaks]

[ARchiv@L]

I mean this cross

https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/forums/topic/34140-σταυρός/?tab=comments#comment-45807

 

[Bible Speaks]

What were the historical origins of Christendom’s cross?

“Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship.”—Encyclopædia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.

“The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

“It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact, that in ages long before the birth of Christ, and since then in lands untouched by the teaching of the Church, the Cross has been used as a sacred symbol. . . . The Greek Bacchus, the Tyrian Tammuz, the Chaldean Bel, and the Norse Odin, were all symbolised to their votaries by a cruciform device.”—The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art (London, 1900), G. S. Tyack, p. 1.

“The cross in the form of the ‘Crux Ansata’ . . . was carried in the hands of the Egyptian priests and Pontiff kings as the symbol of their authority as priests of the Sun god and was called ‘the Sign of Life.’”—The Worship of the Dead (London, 1904), Colonel J. Garnier, p. 226.

“Various figures of crosses are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs, and are considered by many authorities as symbolical either of the phallus [a representation of the male sex organ] or of coition. . . . In Egyptian tombs the crux ansata [cross with a circle or handle on top] is found side by side with the phallus.”—A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16, 17; see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183.

“These crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian sun-god, [See book], and are first seen on a coin of Julius Cæsar, 100-44 B.C., and then on a coin struck by Cæsar’s heir (Augustus), 20 B.C. On the coins of Constantine the most frequent symbol is [See book]; but the same symbol is used without the surrounding circle, and with the four equal arms vertical and horizontal; and this was the symbol specially venerated as the ‘Solar Wheel’. It should be stated that Constantine was a sun-god worshipper, and would not enter the ‘Church’ till some quarter of a century after the legend of his having seen such a cross in the heavens.”—The Companion Bible, Appendix No. 162; see also The Non-Christian Cross, pp. 133-141.