Table Of Contenti
Commemorating the Dead
ii
iii
Commemorating
the Dead
Texts and Artifacts in Context
Studies of Roman, Jewish, and
Christian Burials
Edited by
Laurie Brink, O.P. and Deborah Green
with an Introduction by
Richard Saller
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
iv
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To Robert M. Grant, Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early
Christian Literature, the University of Chicago, whose lifelong
commitment to investigating the origins of early Christianity within
the cultural, historical, and social context of ancient Rome inspired
this project.
In memorial to Estelle Shohet Brettman,lüz, the founder of the
International Catacomb Society, who desired to preserve and
document the Roman catacombs in order to illustrate the common
influences on Jewish and Christian iconography. May this publication
forward her legacy.
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Preface vii
Laurie Brink, O.P., and Deborah Green
Preface
Our fascination with the artifacts of the ancient world began when we
worked on the archaeological dig at Caesarea Maritima, Israel. As two
text-based doctoral students of Judaism and early Christianity, our ex-
perience of uncovering and analyzing material remains provided a view
into the ancient world that had produced our texts, a view that reading
alone could not fully provide. The richness of the conversations among
Israeli and American archaeologists, ancient historians, and textual
scholars further fueled our recognition that fostering dialogues across
the divide of academic disciplines would benefit not only our own aca-
demic work but the work of all who participated, helping to lower the
wall of academic territorialism. More than thirty years ago, Church
historian, Robert M. Grant, acknowledged the chasm between the re-
search efforts of classicists and those of scholars of Christianity:
The early history of Christianity is Roman history, and I should claim that
Roman history itself needs the collaboration of those who try to relate the
Christian movement to the whole life of the Empire, not explaining everything
Christian in Roman terms or everything Roman in Christian terms but trying to
understand identities, similarities, and differences.1
Our own attendance at conferences and participation in interdisci-
plinary courses further confirmed our recognition that research about
the ancient world would benefit from cross-disciplinary work in which
scholars of various academic fields investigated, analyzed, and inter-
preted texts and artifacts in context. Similar work by Eric Meyers and
James Strange in the areas of Judaism and Christianity in the Galilee
laid the foundation for a more expansive project that would include
comparisons of the two religions with Roman religions and cultural
1 R.M. Grant, “Introduction: Christian and Roman History,” inThe Catacombs
and the Colosseum: The Roman Empire as the Setting of Primitive Christianity
(ed. Stephen Benko and John J. O’Rourke; Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1971), 24.
viii Preface
dispositions.2 However, we also recognized the need to confine the
topics of study in order to accomplish meaningful comparisons.
One arena in which historians, archaeologists, and scholars of Ju-
daism and early Christianity may share equal footing is investigations
of Imperial period burials. The distinctions and similarities among
Roman, Jewish, and Christian burials can provide evidence of social
networks, family life, and, perhaps, religious sensibilities. Is the Roman
development from columbaria to catacombs the result of evolving
religious identities or simply a matter of a change in burial fashions?
Did Christians practice inhumation in imitation of the Jews or was
this an expression of an early Christian theology of resurrection?
What Greco-Roman funerary images were taken over and “baptized”
as Christian ones? Do the material remains from Jewish burials evi-
dence an adherence to ancient customs, new beliefs about an afterlife,
or adaptation of rituals from surrounding cultures? Investigating the
emergence of a Christian or Jewish material culture that may be dis-
tinct from general Roman practices requires that the material culture
be viewed, whenever possible, in situ, through multiple disciplinary
lenses and in light of ancient texts. Scholars of Roman history and clas-
sics (John Bodel, Richard Saller, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill), archaeo-
logy (Susan Stevens, Amy Hirschfeld), history of Judaism (Deborah
Green), Christian history (Robin M. Jensen) and the New Testament
(David Balch, Laurie Brink, O.P., Margaret Mitchell, Carolyn Osiek,
R.S.C.J.) were invited to participate in what we affectionately called
“The Grateful Dead Project.” The project comprised three stages:
x Two weeks of field research in Rome and Tunisia (June 2004).
x The Shohet Conference on Roman, Jewish, and Christian Burials,
held at The Divinity School of the University of Chicago (May
2005).
x This publication of articles resulting from the project.
Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context is an attempt
to build bridges across the divide of disciplines simply by creating a con-
2 Eric M. Meyers and James F. Strange,Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Chris-
tianity (Nashville: Abingdon, 1981). Also see the interdisciplinary work of Caro-
lyn Osiek and David Balch, Families in the New Testament World: Households
and HouseChurches (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1997) and Daniel
Schowalter and Steven Friesen,Urban Religion in Roman Corinth: Interdisciplin-
ary Approaches (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005).
Preface ix
versation wherein we learn from each other. Though certainly not the
first of such attempts, the project did incorporate several unique fea-
tures. First, the discussion extended beyond the institutional boundaries
of the University of Chicago where we had first met as doctoral students.
It included faculty and doctoral students from the British School at
Rome, Brite Divinity School, Brown University, Catholic Theological
Union, Northwestern University, the University of Maryland, the Uni-
versity of Michigan, the University of Chicago, the University of Or-
egon, Randolph College, and Vanderbilt University.
Second, in addition to creating a community of colleagues, we
wanted to pave the way for future collaborative efforts among the next
generation of scholars. To that end, we asked doctoral students in
complementary fields to respond to the faculty papers at the Shohet
Conference. We are grateful to the respondents: Terri Bednarz,
R.S.M., Brandon Cline, Fanny Dolanksy, Joel Dries, Joan Downs,
Patricia Duncan, Annal Frenz, Annette Huizenga, Lee M. Jefferson,
Meira Kensky, Young-Ho Park, Brad Peper, Matthew Perry, Trevor
Thompson, Janet Spittler, Jennifer Stabler, Karen Stern, James
Weaver, and Ann Marie Yasin. Their comments and insights helped
shape the final version of the articles that appear in this volume.
This project also extended beyond the library, the office, and the
conference hall. We secured and sustained a three-year commitment
from respected scholars because we promised them an opportunity to
do fieldwork – together. As a team, we were able to stand in front of
the impressive funerary monument of Flavius Secundus in Kasserine,
Tunisia, with its one-hundred-and-ten-line inscription and read it–in
situ. Together, we explored the dark, damp tunnels of the Roman cata-
combs, noting the similarities between Roman and Jewish iconography
and pondering the emergence of Christian symbols. We visited tiny
museums in Lamta, Salakta, and El Jem, Tunisia– and castle-size ones
in Rome and Baia. We waited patiently for custodians to secure access
to treasures seldom viewed by the public at large. And, when evening
came, we shared food and drink, in lively discussion, debate, and happy
conversation about the experiences of the day. We did all of this with
scholars who share an interest in the ancient world but who view that
world through different disciplinary and methodological lenses. It has
been our immense pleasure to be a part of this adventure, and we hope
it has been fun and valuable for them as well.
This project received the first grant from the Shohet Scholars Program
to be awarded by the International Catacomb Society (ICS) of Boston.
Description:The distinctions and similarities among Roman, Jewish, and Christian burials can provide evidence of social networks, family life, and, perhaps, religious sensibilities. Is the Roman development from columbaria to catacombs the result of evolving religious identities or simply a matter of a change i
