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1.  You and Camille wrote a brilliant, wide-ranging book, BELOW ROME: THE STORY OF THE CATACOMBS.  You’ve both been to Italy around 100 times.  Are the Roman catacombs on your top ten list?

Rome has been playing host to the world now for nearly 3,000 years. In antiquity, eager visitors from Syria, Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia, Greece, Libya, Ilyria, the Jewish diaspora and elsewhere in the Mediterranean basin trekked the plethora of roads leading to Rome to see and marvel at the Eternal City’s fabled sights and sites. Today they come from the Americas, from all over Europe, from Scandinavia, from the Baltics, from Asia and Australia and lesser known points of the globe to behold, wide-eyed, the mighty Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the piazzas, the fountains, the wonders of the Vatican, and whatever else there is on their top-ten list.

But beneath all this unexampled splendor of Rome there sprawls the dark, dank, eerie, labyrinthine, city of the dead  –  the catacombs.  These are a story apart, a sui generis, terra sacra, which are not merely on any Roman top-ten list, but which constitute a must-see list solely of their own.

2.  Is a hike on the Via Appia the best way to reach the Catacombs? What will one experience along the way?

The catacombs of the Jews and early Christians of Rome were burial grounds of course and, ipso facto, had to abide by the old Extra Muros law which ordered that all burials and entombments had to take place “outside the walls” of the city.

Thus pagans, Jews, and Christians alike placed their cemeteries or mausolea along the sides of the many highways leading out of Rome, such roads as the Via Cassia, the Via Flaminia, the Via Salaria, the Via Latina, the Via Tiburtina and so on.

Two of the most important Christian subterranean cemeteries  –  the Catacombs of St. Callistus and the Catacomb of St. Sebastian  –  together with two of the Jewish grounds, are to be found along the fourth century B.C.Via Appia.

A hike on the Appian Road is a never to be forgotten experience. Whether drenched in the soft golden sun of morning or suffused with the ethereal pink light of evening, the old road that leads south from Rome offers a peaceful alternative to the urban din and commotion endlessly taking place within the towering Aurelian Walls.

While the pulsating Eternal City with its countless charms never fails to cast its spell on all visitors, there comes a point in every Roman sojourn when one aches for a brief interlude of monastic quiet and stillness, for the sweet music of silence.

Camille and I learned long ago to satisfy that intermittent urge for a spell of tranquility by taking a long leisurely walk out along the side of that legendary road  –  its original paving stones still in place in some stretches  –  that melancholy yet lovely thoroughfare flanked by pagan tombs with their Latin epitaphs, by fragments of statues and columns, by fields of wildflowers, by graceful umbrella pines and stately cypresses, that scenic highway to Capua and beyond.  Can there be any setting quite so beautiful and romantic as the lines of the Campagna Romana with its gentle inclination of its plains stretching out toward the soft contours of the purple Alban Hills?  The scenery delights the eye, the history intrigues the mind, the antiquity stirs the soul, the stillness evokes reverie.

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Appian Way, near Casal Rotondo. Livioandronico2013, (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons

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Twenty-three centuries have walked their way to Rome along these very stones,  The vaunted Roman legions would march through here on the way back from yet another triumph in the East. In June of 1944 American troops trod this storied road on their way to liberate Rome.

3.  What does the word “catacomb” mean?  Can you tell us about the catacombs?

The term “catacomb” derives from the Greek words Kata (down) and kymbas (in the hollows), a very appropriate way of expressing how the Roman Jews and early Christians dug “down” to  “hollow” out the subsoil of the countryside beyond the city walls, to provide extensive burial space for their deceased.

A family crypt (cubiculum).

The Christians of first century Rome buried their dead in public graveyards among the bodies of those few pagans who practiced inhumation, instead of the more common custom of cremation. At some point in the second century, however, the city’s Christians, many of whom were converts from Judaism, adopted the Jewish practice of subterranean tunneling for cemeterial purposes. Among all the monuments of the ancient world, the catacombs of Rome are, along with the southern town of Pompeii, the only ones which have survived the vicissitudes of time.  Pompeii, buried in A.D. 79 by an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius, reveals to us the public and private life of the pagan populace of the Roman Empire. The catacombs tell us a great deal of the life and times and customs of the early Christians. All these sites have retained their fascination and attraction for tourists and pilgrims, for scholars and especially archaeologists.

On many tombs in these underground cemeteries we see carved, etched, or painted some of the Christian primitive prayers and symbols, their love of family and fellow believers, their hope for eternal joy, the doctrines that inspired them. We see evidence of the new, rapidly spreading religion for which they risked—and often willingly sacrificed—their lives.

A typical catacomb gallery or tunnel.

In all, there were some sixty or more burial grounds developed on the outskirts of Rome. These were of varying size and capacity, some containing a few hundred bodies, others thousands, and one with as many as 90,000. Many of the catacombs had several levels to them.

The extent of this colossal network of tunnels by Rome’s early disciples of Christ is enormous and in many ways it rendered possible the existence, survival, and propagation of Christianity.  In the past, some archaeologists thought that if the tunnels—more commonly called galleries —were to be placed end to end in a straight continuous line, they would stretch longer than the boot-shaped peninsula of Italy itself, that is to say about 750 miles. Modern researchers think that the total length of these galleries is more likely about half that.

4.  The Jews have lived a long time in Rome and were the first to construct catacombs there. You mentioned how Julius Caesar recognized Judaism and that in Augustus’ reign eleven synagogues flourished. You mentioned that in Paul’s letter to the Romans, “Paul greets twenty four Jews, eighteen with Greek names, four with names in Latin, two in Hebrew.”  Is it known how and when the Jews first arrived?

The Jewish community in Rome today is known to be the oldest such community in Europe.  Thanks to the historian Josephus, we know that in 161 B.C. Judah Maccabee, the heroic Jewish warrior-statesman, sent a delegation to the Senate there in the hope of negotiating an alliance with Rome. It is thought that some of the diplomats stayed on and from them a small Jewish population took root on the banks of the Tiber. 

An epitaph, in Greek, from a Jewish catacomb.

The following two decades must have seen another influx of Jewish migrants  – probably from Alexandria  –  for by 139 B.C. they were causing quite a stir.  Valerius Maximus, one of the least known classical Roman writers, tells of a general expulsion of the Jews in that year. The praetor Hispanus issued a decree banning them from Rome and from all of Italy, charging them with “aggressive proselytizing,” thereby undermining public worship of the pagan dieties.  Apparently the ban by Hispanus was of short duration, for by the turn of the century Jews constituted ten percent of the city’s teeming population.  By now, there were immigrants from the major Jewish centers of Asia Minor, the Land of Israel, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Greece.

In Jewish catacombs of that period, there are gravestones attesting to this diaspora. One mentions a Jew from Catania in Sicily, which was part of the Hellenization of southern Italy, or Magna Graecia. Another inscription honors a Jew from Numidia. A third mentions one from Rhodes.

Conditions improved greatly for Rome’s Jews when Julius Caesar came to power. He granted official recognition to Judaism as a legal religion, a policy followed by his successor, Caesar Augustus. So close did the Jews hold Caesar in their hearts that when he fell to the knives of Brutus and his co-conspirators they mourned his death in their week-long ancient rite of shivah. 

5.  So the Egyptians, Jews, and Christians wanted the body intact? But the Greeks and Romans cremated the body, right?  I recall, for example, that you explained the word “cemetery,” which has Greek roots.

The Greek word coemeterion—“sleeping place”—implies that such land is designated as a burial gravesite and originally applied to the Roman catacombs. The word “catacomb” came into usage in the early Middle Ages as the generic term for all below ground graveyards. Up until then the Christians and the Jews referred to them as cemeteria subterranea.  One does not need much knowledge of Latin to translate that phrase.

As far as the Christians were concerned, trusting in their religion’s promise of a “resurrection,” the deceased were not finished with life but merely “asleep” and waiting peacefully to be transferred to an eternal destination, one filled with joy.

6.  How do you think the Egyptian afterlife (or others if you wish) differed from the Christian afterlife? The worship of Isis loomed large in Rome as Christianity was growing as well.

In Greek mythology the spirits of the dead would cross over the River Styx into the lower world called Hades. There the departed were doomed to an eternity of gloom and horror and dread, with zero prospect of ever escaping. One could only hope that upon dying, he or she would be deemed worthy of admission into an area of the lower world called the Eylisian Fields, a kind of paradise-like final resting place reserved for the heroic and the pure. The Romans’ prospects for an afterlife final resting place, in many ways corresponded to all this.

The ancient Eyptians’ view of death was that an afterlife most assuredly awaited, a rather pleasant one. Like the Christians, they were convinced of immortality and that death was not the cessation of life but rather a temporary phase. Thus the custom of mummification evolved which would preserve the body so that the soul could be soon re-infused into it upon reaching the other world.

Some of the entombment practices could remind one of the early Christian traditions. The bereaved Egyptian family would place, outside the burial chamber, household equipment and daily necessities of food and drink in the new life.

Inscriptions including traditional prayers and invocations were carved on the exterior in order to comfort, encourage, and assist the departed en route to the hereafter. Here again is additional similarity to Christian entombment rites. In place of the Egyptian provisions of food and drink, the Christian bereaved families would hold immediately after the funeral and entombment, on site in the catacombs, a light meal called a refrigerium to commemorate their loved one’s life.  Today’s custom of a repast derives from that tradition.

Soon after the crypt was sealed, an epitaph would be etched into or painted on it and sometimes a brief prayer or even an invoking of the intercession of the martyrs and saints, especially Peter and Paul.

7.  Do you see some common ground between Christianity and religion in ancient Egypt?

If one chose to, he or she could find some common characteristics between early Christianity and the cult of Isis.

Although in the Pauline view of Christianity, God was a male and Isis was a female, both religions worshiped a redeemer, a savior divinity. Isis was a savior goddess. Jesus was the Christian savior.  Another conspicuous similarity between the two faiths is that both offered a one-on-one relationship with a deity, regardless of the background or status of the devotee. In both cults, penitents sought the cleansing of the guilt of their sins.

Both religious were particularly popular with the lower classes. Both offered magnificently solemn rituals that the believers could participate in. There may have been Isiac influence also on Christian iconography. For example, in art, Isis was frequently portrayed in a maternal pose, wearing a crown and holding lovingly in her arms her divine child, Horus.  The Virgin Mary, haloed, is widely presented in catacomb frescoes holding her divine child Jesus.

The Egyptian religions erected imposing temples to their gods. The Egyptian cults were banished by Tiberius but publicly welcomed back to the Roman world by Caligula. And the Temple of Isis in Rome which was destroyed by fire in A.D. 80 was rebuilt by order of Domitian with a luxury and splendor still testified to in our day by two obelisks that once flanked the temple entrance and now serve as centerpieces for Roman piazzas, one in the square fronting the Pantheon, the other just a short distance away in Piazza Minerva.

As for the Christians, architecturally speaking, they had to wait for the liberating Edict of Milan by Constantine to erect such imposing temples as St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, and great Romanesque churches.

Of course, after all this, it must be said that there were many extreme dissimilarities between the two religions, as well. For example, the Isian religion, in most un-Christian fashion, was one of Mystery initiation. In the mid-second century A.D. the African barrister Lucivs Apuleius, himself an initiate of the Mysteries of Isis, wrote The Golden Ass, an entertaining allegorical tale of one man’s conversion from materialistic desire symbolized by his metamorphosis into an ass and accompanying bawdy adventures to the state of pure service of the sublime Goddess. The simple sacrament of Baptism admitted an aspirant into the Christian faith.

8.  Can you tell us about Jesus’ burial in the tomb at Golgotha? And how does this connect to the practice of burial in Roman catacombs?

According to all four canonical gospel accounts, Jesus was placed in a tomb by a councilor of the Sanhedrin named Joseph of Arimathea before the eve of the sabbath. Jewish tradition forbade burial within the walls of a city, so the tomb must have been just outside one of the gates of Jerusalem, likely near to the site of the crucifixion, i.e. the hill called Calvary (from the Latin word calva, “baldhead” or “skull,” and also referred to as the dreaded and ugly Golgotha, from the Aramaic word for “skull”).

When Jesus finally expired after three hours of agony on the cross, Joseph, a devoted disciple of Jesus, a fact he kept secret out of fear of the Jewish authorities, went to the office of Pontius Pilate, the governor of the Roman province of Judaea, and sought permission to remove the body. Permission was granted.

With the help of a certain Nicodemus, the body was taken down and placed in a tomb cut in the cave rock. (All we know about Nicodemus on a personal level is from the Gospel of John (3:1) where he is described as a Pharisee.)  Before placing the body on a limestone shelf or burial bed that was hewn from the wall of the tomb, the two volunteers wrapped it in linen cloth. John tells us that they “wrapped the body with spices in strips of linen”.  In accordance with Jewish burial customs, spices were always applied to ward off odors and to pay homage to the deceased.  Matthew says that after this, Joseph “rolled a huge stone in front of the entrance and went away.”

In their burial procedures down in the catacombs the early Christians emulated the entombment of Jesus in several ways. To receive the body they would carve out a niche (in Latin, loculus) in the wall of a gallery and after applying spices to the body they would clothe it with linen and lay it to rest.The aperture of the loculus would then be closed with brick, terra cotta tiles, or–if a family could afford it–a slab of polished marble.Whatever material was used was sealed air-tight by an outline of mortar, much the same way that putty is used to keep a window pane in place. So completely were the loculi sealed that there was never an offensive odor to contend with in the galleries.Small objects such as coins, bits of colored porcelain, or pieces of glass were at times pushed into the fresh mortar to serve as a means of identification.

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A high-end example of loculi: Valleys of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom [Jerusalem]. Loculi in Absalom’s pillar. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

9.  What are some of the high points in the Christian story as to how Christianity spread from Judea?

Some of the early Christians of Rome had been among the soldiers of the cohort, commanded by a certain Cornelius, stationed in Palestine where they had heard the doctrines of the new faith from the lips of the apostles themselves and, excited by what they learned, asked to be baptized. Also, a delegation of Roman Jews had been at the time on a pilgrimage to the Great Temple in Jerusalem around the time of the first Pentecost, when the apostles took to the streets and squares and by-ways to preach the Gospel. Liking what they heard, they too embraced the tenets of Christianity and soon embarked for Rome.

Upon their return to the imperial capital all these recent converts zealously proselytized among friends, neighbors, and kin. We surmise all this from Acts, Chapter 2:

”When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place…Now there were staying in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under Heaven…and there were even visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes”

Even Jews from Rome! The phrase seems to leap from the page with astonishment.

Thus a small but devout community of Christians took root in the Eternal City. At first, the Christians were all regarded by the civil authorities as a harmless sect professing a foreign malignant superstition.

10.  Can you characterize early Christians? You mentioned that even emperor Julian thought it was their kindness and love that helped Christianity spread.

One German historian, F. Uhlhorn claims that “before the coming of Christ the world was devoid of love”.  This statement may be an exaggeration but nevertheless it points out the powerful impact Christianity had on the world and the attraction it held right from the start for people of every walk of life, of every rank and economic status, of both genders, of every national origin. 

What struck the pagans most about the Christians in their midst was how they loved one another. How united they were, the support they extended to one another, how they shared their material goods with one another. The Roman authorities came to realize, too, by the second century that the appeal of Christianity was the conduct of its followers, how they were genuinely concerned for the welfare of not only their fellow believers, but also for complete strangers, for forgiveness, for the poor, the homeless, and the sick, for widows and orphans, for the sad and lonely, for the victims of cruelty and injustice, and especially for the dead. The philosophy of the Christian community seemed to be summed up in two words: Love and Charity.

Pagans, when they observed the customs and behavior of the Christians, were often heard to say, in astonishment: “Look how they love one another!” Christianity brought with it to Rome a new attitude, a new view as to what makes for a meaningful life, and that is: to do good for others. The Apostle James’ words on this subject were often quoted by priests in the early Church:

“My brothers and sisters, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it? Such faith has no power to save one, has it: If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them;‘Good bye and good luck! Keep warm and eat well but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that’. Such faith is thoroughly lifeless.”

James joined religion to action: service to God and to humanity.

Christians considered themselves as members of one family. This was so not only in Rome but throughout the cities, towns, and villages throughout the Empire. The faithful made it a point to get to know one another and call one another by their baptismal names. Every bishop felt obliged to get to know every member of his flock and determine the most needy among it. A fellow Christian passing through was welcome to join in a liturgical assembly.

The Emperor Julian (331-353) attributed the expansion of Christianity to all these kindnesses and especially the Church’s commitment to love and respect for the dead, ensuring a decent burial for all.

Indeed, Christians would go looking for bodies left unburried, especially in cities along the coast where victims of shipwrecks might be found scattered along the sands. The faithful, on such an occasion, would wash the body, dress it in fresh garments, then inter it nearby.

11. During various purges the Romans killed Christians. Roman authorities also made it possible for Christians to go free. There are many examples of saints, popes, and others (such as Apollonius) who chose to die rather than repudiate Christianity.

The historian Tacitus confirms that the first persecution – or purge  –  of the Christians was by the infamous emperor Nero, widely suspected of the fire of A.D. 64:

“In order to stifle the rumor that he had himself set Rome on fire, Nero falsely charged with the guilt and punished with the most fearful tortures the persons commonly called Christians … In their very deaths they were made the subject of sport, for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and hounded to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to.”

Over the next two and a half-centuries the persecutions of the Christians waxed and waned with varying degrees of intensity and savagery. Some emperors took a tolerant view of them and their religious practices, while others, like Decius and Diocletian and Valerian, rounded them up for slaughter.

Trajan (98-117) is a good example of the more benign Roman rulers. We know for certain that by his time the Christian religion had been firmly established in most of the provinces of the Roman Empire, even though Nero’s decree banning the practice of the cult, under penalty of death, was still on the books.

In the year 111 Pliny the Younger, serving as the provincial governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, wrote to his friend and boss, the Emperor Trajan, to express alarm at the vast multitude of Christians in his territory:

“The contagion of the Christian superstition is no longer confined  to the cities. It has even invaded the villages and countryside and has seized upon people of every age, class, rank, and gender. Our temples are almost completely abandoned and the sacred rites honoring our gods utterly neglected.”

Well-bred and highly educated, Pliny was a true gentleman and surely anything but blood thirsty. He was simply concerned about the unrest of the pagan majority that this state of affairs was provoking, and looking for the emperor’s help in coming up with a peaceful and humane solution.

Trajan, a refined and erudite individual himself, wrote back that while he could not abnegate the laws still in effect that forbade the practice of Christianity, he too was most reluctant to crack down on its followers. So he toned down the law to eliminate some of its severity. He stated that anonymous charges against them must be completely disregarded, that if any one of them was caught taking part in Christian rituals he or she must be arrested but given three chances to acquit themselves by venerating the effigies of the pagan divinities and renouncing Christ. In so doing, the accused was to be set free. Above all, the emperor firmly stated, “Christiani non conquirendi sunt!” (There must be no round-ups of Christians!)

Despite the earnest efforts of the two leaders, however, many Christians were arrested and many, if not most, refused to pay homage to the deities of the Roman world and denounce their lord and consequently were put to death. St. Apollonius the Apologist was among those martyred.

So while each Christian arrested faced death, the alternative was so very easy; if he or she would only yield to the invitation and temptation to apostasy extended to them, they would then be released on their own recognizance.

12.  Were the catacombs sacred ground?  Did the Roman authorities respect it?  You mentioned the concept of “violatio sepulchri.”

The Christians looked upon the subterranean burial grounds as truly sacred ground—terra sacra—for a number of reasons; The human body remains sacred always, even in death, they believed. Furthermore, among the great numbers of Christians buried in the catacombs—many of them—in the thousands—were martyrs for the faith who, the belief was, were surely in heaven—that is, they were saints. Their bodies alone hallowed the site. And a great many of the early popes chose to be entombed there.

The Roman authorities respected greatly every burial site be it pagan, Jewish, Christian or other. Even during the most ferocious persecutions on the part of the state, the Christian cemeteries enjoyed the protection of a law called Violatio Sepulchri, which forbade the desecration of any graveyard, tomb, mausoleum, and such.

13.  Was the Cypress a symbol and tree of life in the catacombs?  What other symbols and objects were important. What about graffiti?

In classical antiquity the cypress, particularly among the Etruscans, was a symbol of mourning and in the modern era it remains the principal cemetery tree in both the Muslim world and Europe. In the classical tradition, the cypress was associated with death and the underworld because it failed to regenerate when cut back too severely.

Since it is evergreen, the Christian view it as a symbol of everlasting life. Furthermore, a true Christian, it is said, believes that life begins when he or she dies.

Other symbols in the catacombs include the Fish, for the five letters that make up the Greek word ictus served as the initials for this prayer: Jesus Christ Son of God, Savior.

Also the monogram of Christ composed of two Greek letters  – chi and rho – intertwined.

Two early Christian symbols – Alpha and Omega, and the anchor.

The alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet signifying Christ as the beginning and end of all things.

The anchor, symbolizing the safe arrival of the soul at the harbor of eternity.

The phoenix, symbol of the Resurrection.

And lastly the dove and the olive branch, a symbol of the soul which flies in the peace of God..

As for graffiti, a custom evolved among the pilgrims to the catacombs in the early Middle Ages to etch in messages on the walls of the galleries to document their visit and perhaps a short prayer or invocation of a martyr’s intercession.

14.   Aside from burial, what were the other uses of the catacombs?

Contrary to a widespread notion, the Christian cemeteries were not secret hiding places. The civil authorities knew very well of all these sites. The idea that the Christians took refuge or even lived for long periods of time down in the catacombs is entirely without merit. The cold and dampness of these dark tunnels  –  even in summer  –  could not be tolerated for any extended time.

One additional use besides burial, though, was for family visits to the graves of their loved ones. Another was for liturgical celebrations. Masses were occasionally offered, especially on the memorial days of the martyrs.

When Pope Paul VI was the young monsignor Giovanni Montini in the 1930’s, he was spiritual advisor and chaplain to the Roman branch of FUCI (the Italian Federation of University Students), a group not looked upon kindly by the Mussolini regime and often set upon by Fascist thugs, sometimes necessitating meetings to be held in one or another catacomb site.

15.  Constantine defeated Maxentius  – and it’s total change. Can you explain the Edict of Milan and the changes that took place afterwards?

According to an interview he years later gave to the Church historian Eusebius, Constantine on the eve of battle in 312 with the forces of the Emperor Maxentius, and encamped on the far side of the Milvian Bridge, saw a shining cross in the sky encircled by the words: “In hoc signo vinces,” (In this sign thou shalt conquer). Not knowing what to make of it, he instructed his soldiers to paint crosses on their shields and helmets and to replace the eagle on the army’s standard with a cross. The following day he crushed Maxentius and his legions and afterwards credited the Christians’ God for his triumph.

Soon Constantine began to pave the way for the beleaguered Christianity to become the official state religion. Just when be became a Christian at heart is open to discussion but he must have supported the idea of a Christian state early in his reign, for in 313 he and Licinius, the emperor of the eastern portion of the Empire, met in the northern city of Milan and thence proclaimed the historic Edict of Milan affording the Christians complete freedom of worship.

This action was followed by more and more privileges and even grants of state property.  To Pope Miltiades he gave the Lateran tract of land in the southwest corner of Rome, just inside the Aurelian Walls. This property had belonged in the first century to the nobleman Plautus Lateranus, who was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Nero. The plot was uncovered, the conspirators arrested, and their estates confiscated. On this location, Constantine urged the Bishop of Rome to erect his personal church, i.e. his cathedral. Completed around 326, the cathedral was named for the Savior. Some centuries later it was renamed for the two St. Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist, and ever since has been called the Basilica of St. John Laterano.  To this day it remains the cathedral of Rome.

Constantine also commissioned the building of a basilica over the grave of St. Peter in the Vatican meadows, which was also heretofore state property, and another over the grave of St. Paul, outside the walls on the Via Ostiense.

16. Can you mention the life and death of Saint Peter and Paul, Sebastian, Agnes and others that are of great importance? Where were they interred?

In the year 67 the apostle Peter, the first bishop of Rome, was crucified in the Circus, i.e. race course, of Nero across the Tiber. His remains were claimed by his followers and laid to rest in a cemetery adjacent to the stadium in an area called Ager Vaticanus—the Vatican Meadows. That same fateful day, tradition says, Paul was taken by a small execution squad to a spot along the road to the seaport of Ostia and decapitated. Another group of Christians saw to it that he received a proper burial in a nearby necropolis. The final resting place of both leaders of the Christian community were marked and became sites of daily veneration by the faithful. When Constantine came to power in 312 and issued his Edict of Milan the following year, he ordered a great basilica to be built over each grave.

The two apostles’ connection with the catacombs is due to stories that have been passed on down through the centuries. When word of the apostles’ death and burial reached the Eastern churches, a delegation of their members journeyed to Rome on a mission to exhume the saints’ relics and bring them back to the land where the two holy men had begun their evangelical work.

Hearing of the plan, the Roman Christians secretly transferred the bodies to the cemeterium ad catacumbas which would in later times be called the Catacomb of St. Sebastian.

There the precious bones lay for a year and seven months, causing the brethren to refer to the site as the Memoria Apostolorum. After this stretch of time the bodies were taken back to their original places of sepulture which once again became focal points of pilgrimage.

Sebastian was an officer in the Roman army with the prestigious rank, Tribune of the First Praetorian Cohert. With the persecution of Christians under Valerian raging in the mid third century, Sebastian courageously stood up to the tyrant and did everything he could to save Christians and to ease their sufferings. Daily he would smuggle food and clothing to the imprisoned and find places of refuge for those being sought by the authorities. He then became a convert.

When Valerian learned of all this he flew into a rage and had the humanitarian officer executed.  The martyred Sebastian was laid to rest in the subterranean cemetery ad catacumbas, which would soon be renamed for him.

Agnes was a lovely girl just twelve years old when she gave her life for the faith under the murderous regime of Diocletian in 304. Her martyrdom deeply moved the community of believers, and ecclesiastical writers across the centuries since have portrayed her as the symbol of youthful purity and the patron saint of young girls. She lies in eternal repose in the catacomb subsequently named for her, outside the walls along the Via Nomentana.

Cecilia was a pious teen-aged daughter of an affluent Christian family.  A devout Christian from childhood, the much beloved young woman was sentenced to death by the executioner’s axe. Roman law stipulated that if a condemned person were to survive three blows of the axe, he or she was to be set free. Cecilia, severely wounded, nonetheless came through the ordeal alive.  For several days she lingered, blood oozing from the deep neck wound. As she lay dying she would occasionally come out of her coma. In these few lucid moments she would softly sing hymns to Christ. (For this reason she came to be the patron saint of music.)  Upon her passing, Cecilia was placed in a crypt in the Catacombs of St. Callistus.

These are but five saints of a great number who are associated in some way with the catacombs.

17.  Can you tell us about the most famous catacombs, especially the one with the nine popes?

The most renowned of all the subterranean Christian cemeteries, in my view, would be the Catacombs of Saint Callistus for its cappella dei papi, chapel of the popes. In this small chamber down on the first level of graves were buried nine of the early popes: Pontianus, Anterus, Fabianus, Lucius, Stephen, SixtusII, Dionysius, Felix and Eutichianus.

Other prominently known burial grounds are the Catacomb of St. Sebastian on the ancient Appian Way; the Catacomb of St. Domitilla on the Via delle Sette Chiese; the Catacomb of St. Agnes on the Via Nomentana; and the Catacomb of Priscilla out on the old salt road, the Via Salaria.

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Catacomb(s) of Callixtus, The Crypt of the Popes. Dnalor 01, (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia Commons

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The loculus of Pontianus in the Chapel of the Popes.

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18.  You brought out the personality and spirit of the early popes, such as Damasus who loved poetry and put great effort into safeguarding the catacombs. Can you tell us about some of the early popes?

In the Catholic tradition, St. Peter was the first Bishop of Rome. The word pope came into use some time in the next century. It is the anglicized form of the Greek word papa or father. Early on every bishop throughout the Christian world was addressed by this affectionate term, but it was not long before it was reserved strictly for the Bishop of Rome. It is easy to see that the Greek form gives us our words papal and papacy.

Pope Linus succeeded Peter and began and completed his reign in the same ugly climate that caused the brutal end of his predecessor. He too was martyred.

Cletus succeeded Linus. During his pontificate he divided the city of Rome into twenty-five parishes.

Clement, the third successor of St. Peter and hence the fourth pope, is best known for his letter known as I Clement, the most important first century Christian Document outside the New Testament. It was treated by some in the ancient Church as if it were in fact part of the New Testament canon. Clement, we know too, lived a few blocks down from the newly built Flavian Amphitheater which the world prefers to call “The Colosseum”, and that he allowed his home to be used as a domus ecclesiae, house church. It still exists.

19.  So war, bandits. and disease caused the catacombs to be sealed off. Around when did that happen? Which catacombs remained opened? And which ones had to be rediscovered? Is the situation with the catacombs like Pompeii with more things waiting to be uncovered?

The peacetime of Christians and indeed of all inhabitants of Rome was shattered at the onset of the fifth century. In 408, Alaric and his West Goths laid siege to Rome and in 410 breached the walls and ravaged and plundered the city. This would be the first of many invasions to come.

Sometimes the rampagers even looted, desecrated, and damaged the catacombs across the following centuries.

The year 750 brought the unwelcome Aistulf and his Lombards. After sacking Rome, the invaders fanned out across the campagna seeking accesses to every underground cemetery to gain whatever they thought could be of any value, particularly the remains of martyrs. They carted away countless saintly relics for which there was a busy market across Christian Europe.  It seems that bishops, abbots, and pastors hoping to lend more prestige to their cathedrals, their monasteries, their churches by being able to claim that the moral remains of a martyr were reposing beneath their altars  – were the most eager customers.

These outrages left the catacombs in a state of devastation and now for the most part pilgrimages stopped and the catacombs fell into utter ruin and decay. The one one of these holy sites to remain known and occasionally visited during the long dreary Middle Ages was that of St. Sebastian. And in time this site too, was forsaken and forgotten.

In the autumn of 1578, however, something occurred just outside the ancient brick walls of Rome, along the Via Salaria, that precipitated a wave of excitement that washed over the Eternal City and ultimately paved the way for Christians ever after to examine, close up, their religious roots. It was at that time that workers digging for pozzolana in the fields of the lovely and serene Roman countryside were daily and accidentally coming upon entrances and light shafts  – for long centuries concealed from view  –  that led down to a subterranean cemetery of the earliest Christians. (This was later determined to be the Catacombs of St. Priscilla.)

Like Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Roman catacombs have troves of treasures waiting to be brought to light.

20.  In times past, it might have been easy to get lost down there in the catacombs, right?  It’s like any huge, dark winding space. I was there some years ago. I recall that you mentioned visits by St. Jerome (as a child), Goethe, Charles Dickens and others.

Some catacombs go as far as five levels deep into the subsoil. When all the burial space of the original corridor was used up, another would be excavated at a right angle to it, and when that was filled still another gallery was dug and then another and another and so on, resulting ultimately in a complex and confusing network of intersecting tunnels  –  a virtual labyrinth.

When all the available space on that first level was exhausted, the fossores, i.e. grave diggers, would break through the floor and bore a shaft down further into the soil and start a second level of tunnels beneath the original.  In some catacombs there are as many as five levels, reaching in all a depth of seventy feet or more below the surface.  Thus the farther down one goes, the newer the graves will be.

When the Jews and early Christians descended into one of these cemeteries for a funeral or a visit to the final resting place of a dear one, they needed the services of a guide who had an expert familiarity with the maze. It was indeed easy and most perilous to get lost in the jumble of passage ways. Even in our time, visitors to these depths are exhorted to “stay close to your guide”.

In Goethe’s time in Rome, 1788, of course there was still no electric lighting. Visitors had to trudge along the solemn subterranean passages accompanied by a well-versed guide, all holding burning candles to illuminate their way. The German poet and dramatist had this to say about his experience: “My visit to the catacomb, however, was not much of a success. I had hardly taken a step into that airless and foreboding place before I began to feel uncomfortable and insecure, and I immediately returned to the light of day and the fresh air and waited, in that unknown and remote corner of the city, for the return of the others.”

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A Procession in the Catacomb of Callistus. Painting by Alberto Pisa. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

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Charles Dickens’ reaction was similar: “A giant friar with a wild bright eye, was our only guide down into this profound and dreadful place. The narrow ways and openings, hither and thither, coupled with the dead and heavy air, soon blotted out, in all of us, any recollection of the route by which we had come; and I could not help thinking, ‘Good Heaven, if in a sudden fit of madness, he should dash the torches out, or if he should be seized with a spell, what would become of us!’”

My family and I can readily relate to Dickens’ alarm at the awful possibilities. One evening in the summer of 1970, after public visiting hours, a guide at the Catacombs of St. Calisstus, Joseph Mascarenhas, a religious brother in the Salesian order which manages that cemetery and was by now a dear family friend, took us down deep into the third and fourth levels  –  only the first and second are accessible to the public. I was doing research as a Fulbright Scholar at the American Academy in Rome on the Greek and Latin epitaphs of the catacombs and Brother Joe wished to afford me the rare privilege of copying and translating those on the lower levels. Our only illumination was Brother Joe’s lantern. After our ascent to the surface I learned that my wife Camille and our little sons, Frank, Ronald, and John  – had been having the same thought as Dickens: “If anything happens to Brother Joe what will become of us?!”

21.  Can you tell us about those archeologists of the catacombs. Antonio Bosio and Giovanni Battista De Rossi?

An enormous debt of gratitude for the reemergence of the catacomb sites after their long hiatus in the Middle Ages is due to a young man with a keen intellect and an unquenchable curiosity, Antonio Bosio (1575-1629). Born on the island of Malta, he was early on sent to Rome to live with an uncle who happened to be that island nation’s ambassador to the Holy See. Scholarly by nature, he pursued studies in literature, philosophy, and law at the University of Rome.

His heart and thoughts, however, were elsewhere. He could not get his mind off the wonders of his Christian heritage waiting to be explored deep beneath the earth. At age 18 he gave up his studies to devote himself full-time to systematically probing the galleries of the newly rediscovered cemetery of St. Priscilla and to poring over tomes of early Christian literature and the Acts of the Martyrs in an effort to learn the locations of other catacombs on the outskirts of Rome in every direction.

He would set out for places indicated in these sources and scour the land for hidden entrance shafts. He kept voluminous notes on his findings, made sketches of the galleries, loculi and cubicula (small chambers), translated Latin and Greek epitaphs into Italian. His magnum opus, Roma Sotteranea, was published in 1632, three years after his passing. Bosio came to be called, “The Columbus of the Catacombs”.

Some two centuries later another genius comes along who was destined to be a second Bosio.  Giovanni Battista De Rossi, a twenty three-year-old Roman recently graduated from the university with a major in archaeology, had a particular interest in the subterranean cemeteries of the early Christians.

On a sultry summer afternoon of 1844, he and his kid brother Michele, aged ten, walking through a vineyard that lay between the Via Appia and the Via Ardeatina just outside the city walls, came upon a pile of fragments of polished marble neatly engraved with Latin words.  Giovanni asks the landowner for permission to gather the chunks and take them home.  Thinking the objects worthless, the owner readily concedes.

Back home, after weeks of jigsawing the pieces and their engraved words together, De Rossi excitedly concludes that they are from epitaphs of the catacomb name for St. Callistus, an early pope, the whereabouts of which had still been unknown since the Middle Ages but about which Giovanni had heard and read in his student days.

He devoted the rest of his life to bringing to light and restoring order to what is today considered the major and largest catacomb of them all, St. Callistus.

22.  Do you have any favorite movies that depict Roman catacombs or any Roman ruins?  Do you have a favorite quote from Christianity?

I am not aware of any Hollywood production that covers, in even the slightest way, the Roman catacombs. There may exist some television documentaries on them. Perhaps Channel EWTN, a Catholic outlet would be worth checking.

For a quote on Christianity, I have always favored one by Benjamin Franklin. While the word itself is not mentioned, the allusion is crystal clear:

“As to Jesus of Nazareth, I think the system of morals and his religion as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to ever see.”

Ah Rome.  Eternal Rome.  How Camille and I never cease to wonder at the wonder of it all.

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Note: The fascinating and informative book,  Below Rome: The Story of the Catacombs, by Frank and Camille Korn is available at Amazon.

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About the interviewer

As a child, Richard Marranca was given books on history, myth and religion that ignited his interests. When he was seven, he went with his mom, grandmother and aunt to Italy and Switzerland – a trip that lasted a lifetime. During his doctoral studies at New York University, he spent a semester in Greece with a side project in Egypt. Around the midpoint of his career, he also was awarded a Fulbright to teach at LMU Munich (and for two years was president of NJ Fulbright chapter), as well as six NEH summer seminars, including Andean Worlds in Peru/Bolivia; Concord MA; and High Plains Indians of Nebraska.

For Richard, teaching and writing go together; he teaches a variety of humanities and English courses. His most recent publications include stories in Coneflower Café, The Raven’s Perch and Months to Years Magazine; interviews in Popular Archaeology and Minerva; and poetry in the Paterson Literary Review. His manuscript, Speaking of the Dead, has been accepted for publication by Blydyn Square Books in NJ.

The latest project: His wife Renah, daughter Hera and Richard create videos, the latest being Childe Hera’s World on YouTube; so far it’s mostly travel videos, but this year the highlight was Coronavirus, A Child’s View.

Richard wishes to thank his wife Renah and Bridget Briant for their help with this interview.

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Advertisement

In January 2021, the Penn Museum will reopen its doors once again, welcoming visitors with their new upcoming exhibit, Invisible Beauty: The Art of Archaeological Science. With this, visitors will get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the science of archaeology in the lab, and the beauty hidden within ordinary objects of our past. “One of the reasons for this exhibit is to highlight what we do in the laboratory, what archaeologists and anthropologists do in the laboratory when they’re not excavating,” explains Dr. Marie-Claude Boileau, the Director of the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) at the Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania. “When we do have a few visitors that come and see us in the lab, they look down a microscope and they’re really blown away by what objects look like at higher magnification. There’s a beauty to these images and there’s also a lot of information, particularly showing how a very tiny sample is really packed with information about the past.”

CAAM was founded in 2014 by the Penn Museum and the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Boileau, explains, “This was part of the big push for the museum to bring in students into the museum to do research and take formal classes, which really complements the museum’s Academic Engagement department.” Students of CAAM have the unique opportunity to study archeological science, an interdisciplinary field bridging the gap between the hard sciences and the humanities by researching and studying objects and specimens from the museum. “That’s actually how we captured some of these images,” says Dr. Boileau. Invisible Beauty showcases the various areas of studies students can explore during their academic careers in CAAM, from archaeobotanical remains to landscapes and more.

According to Dr. Sarah Linn, a University of Pennsylvania Alumna herself, “It is exciting that there are students who have now taken CAAM courses throughout their entire career at Penn. Undergraduates begin in these introductory courses and they ultimately come out as amazing archaeobotanists or zooarchaeologists. There is also an enormous amount of support for students doing Ph.D.’s and other intensive research projects. When I started my Ph.D. at Penn in 2009 we had nothing like this. These students have the incredible opportunity to do their coursework and then pursue their dissertations with remarkable support from archaeometallurgists and ceramics specialists. It is a great program that dovetails really nicely with the work we do in Academic Engagement, allowing us to support students in a robust way. This exhibit provides an additional opportunity for students to gain experience showcasing their work to the public.”

Invisible Beauty shows various objects from research being conducted by the Penn Museum and CAAM, imaged to reveal hidden informatio. Dr. Linn, a Mediterranean archaeologist who works closely with graduate students, was discussing a microscopic image with student Olivia Hayden [who has since completed her Ph.D.] when the idea for Invisible Beauty was born. “While talking to [Dr. Hayden] about her research and some of the images she’d been capturing throughout her research in CAAM, I was just struck by an incredibly beautiful image of a bronze needle from Cyprus. It has a great story behind it as well, but it is also just visually appealing. I reached out to Dr. Boileau, who was also excited about showing some of these images to the public, and we realized that we could do an exhibit that captures the visual appeal, but that also leads to some great stories and highlights the work we are doing in the labs, and out in the field as well.”

The exhibit showcases a range of images from around the world, spanning dates from approximately 40,000 BCE to 1967 CE. In addition to the bronze needle that started it all, visitors will also enjoy magnified images of a microscopic diatom, ceramic materials, obsidian used by students in experimental archaeology trials, textiles, and more. “One image shows a copper alloy dagger that was wrapped in a textile when it was buried, but over time the corrosion took over the textile itself, and it actually took the shape of the fibers,” Dr. Boileau explains. “We call these pseudomorphs, and so we actually have the view of what the textile weaving pattern would have looked like [had it been preserved in its original form].” All images are displayed alongside information about the instruments and magnification used to capture the images.

Some images are displayed alongside the actual object that was studied in the lab, as well. “Some of them are almost complete,” Dr. Boileau explains. “So visitors can appreciate those, but we’re also showing objects and specimens you normally would not see in an exhibit; these are fragmentary, like broken pieces of pottery, maybe very small, and they might look like there’s nothing exciting about them, but then you put them under the microscope and it comes to life.”

Not only is Invisible Beauty an aesthetically pleasing exhibit to explore, but it also showcases the kind of information archaeologists can obtain by conducting these scientific studies on everyday objects. “Scale is a big part of this,” says Dr. Linn. “We have images ranging from the microscopic diatom, which is magnified more than twenty-thousand times, all the way to large-scale landscapes in Turkey.” The magnification of these objects and specimens can also reveal important information about the crafting of everyday objects, as was the case with Dr. Hayden’s bronze needle. “The image is a striking gold-colored swirl,” Dr. Linn explains. “The object itself is not much to look at—it is a corroded bronze needle, so it really doesn’t look like much. But when you get to the actual metal and take a tiny sample of it, it’s beautiful and you can learn so much about it.” Dr. Hayden conducted a great deal of research on two needles discovered together in a tomb at a site called Lapithos on Cyprus, consisting of various forms of analysis, including elemental analysis and microscopy. She suggests the needles were actually made by the same craftsperson. Her goal was to determine how the craft is transmitted, not just the material. “As archaeologists we focus so much on trade and how people are learning to do these crafts, so to have two objects made by the same person is incredible,” she says. “You can see the swirl marks on this image that show how the craftsperson was actually turning the needle as they were hammering it.”

Dr. Boileau and Dr. Linn hope that visitors will come away from this behind-the-scenes look at the lab work done by researchers at the Penn Museum with a better understanding of the kinds of work archaeologists do when they’re not in the field, and with a sense of wonder. They want to ignite a curiosity in their viewers about objects and the information that can be unlocked when looking at things at these scales.

Invisible Beauty can be enjoyed by visitors at the Penn Museum from January 2021 to June 2021.

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About the Penn Museum

The Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) is dedicated to the study and understanding of human history and diversity. Founded in 1887, the Museum has sent more than 300 archaeological and anthropological expeditions to all the inhabited continents of the world. With an active exhibition schedule and educational programming for children and adults, the Museum offers the public an opportunity to share in the ongoing discovery of humankind’s collective heritage.

The museum is located at 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (on Penn’s campus, across from Franklin Field). Public transportation to the Museum is available via SEPTA’s Regional Rail Line at University City Station; the Market-Frankford Subway Line at 34th Street Station; trolley routes 11, 13, 34, and 36; and bus routes 21, 30, 40, and 42. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Museum admission donation is $18 for adults; $16 for senior citizens (65 and above); $13 for children ages 6-17. Admission to the Penn Museum is FREE for U.S. military, reservist personnel, and veterans, teachers, and children ages 5 and under.

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There are few archaeological sites so steep in controversy as Vergina in northern Greece; perhaps with the exception of ‘Troy’ where Heinrich Schliemann spirited away ‘Priam’s treasure’ from Turkish authorities, and Howard Carter’s bureaucracy-hampered digs in the Valley of the Kings. But the politicking at Vergina has been altogether subtler and more enduring.

Forty years ago, on 8 November 1977, Manolis Andronikos was lowered through the vaulted roof of a ‘Macedonian-style’ tomb, after the keystone had been removed in a reenactment of the favored entry technique of tomb robbers of old. Priests, press and politicians amassed at the archaeological site, set in the rolling countryside backdropped by the Pierian Hills. Word had spread that a newly-unearthed tomb appeared to be intact. Andronikos was tasked to lead excavations at the site under the auspices of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Optimism at finding an intact burial chamber was suppressed by the knowledge that fifty of the fifty-one tombs already discovered in the region had been robbed long ago. But what Andronikos witnessed that day was quickly dubbed the ‘archaeological find of the century.’ His momentarily conflicted emotions of the ‘scientist’s elation’ with the ‘desecrator’s guilt’ was quickly cast aside when it became clear he had finally identified the long-lost city Aegae, the first capital of Macedon and the burial ground of its kings.

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The ruins of the palace and theatre at Aegae in the early 1980s. Grant (2019), color plate.

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The roof and facade of the vaulted tomb emerging from the soil, October 1977. Grant (2019), p. 51

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The keystone being removed from the vaulted roof of Tomb II. Grant (2019), p. 51

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The Controversy of the Cluster

The vaulted structure (labeled ‘Tomb II’) resided in a cluster of four; Tomb I was a simpler cist grave which had already been looted in antiquity, but it was adorned with a haunting wall painting depicting the Abduction of Persephone. Immediately adjacent was the foundation of what appeared to be a shrine, suggesting the worship of an occupant. Unlooted Tomb III contained the bones of a male adolescent and was soon referred to as the ‘Tomb of the Prince’. The last structure, Tomb IV, lay in ruins apart from free-standing columns framing the entrance to the largest and deepest chamber of all at the very edge of the tumulus.

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The relative positions of the tombs and shrine under the Great Tumulus. Grant (2019), p. 48

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In the opinion of the excavator, a chronology was being presented by this progression in tomb design, an observation which extended to the transitional architecture in the nearby ‘Tomb of Eurydice’ and even the Philippeion at Olympia.

In the main chamber of Tomb II, a fine gold ossuary chest held the cremated bones of a male, while a similar gold chest in the antechamber contained the cremated skeletal remains of a woman. Analysis indicated they were interred at the same time. This double burial hinted at unique historical circumstances, and the notion of forced or ritual suicide was voiced by commentators to explain their simultaneous interment.

The artifacts in Tombs II and III were visually dated to the mid-to-late fourth century BC, corroborated by pottery, ornate metalworking and the developed stage of the Macedonian vaulted tomb design. This dating spanned the reigns of Philip II (359-336 BC) and his son Alexander III, the ‘Great’ (336-323 BC), and the regal nature of the find was reinforced by the unique ‘Vergina Sun’ or ‘Star’ emblem of the Argead royal clan embossed on the lids of the two gold chests. The grouping of tombs was confidently dubbed ‘the cluster of Philip II’.

The discoveries at Vergina were first published in 1978. When referring to the tombs, Andronikos concluded they ‘belong to a time span which does not exceed that of one generation’. He added that ‘the date of all our finds was between 350 BC and, at the latest, 325 BC’, though he conceded they could stretch down to 310 BC, as that encompassed the murder of Alexander’s youngest son, potentially the ‘prince’ in Tomb III.

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A cross-section of Tomb II. Grant (2019), p. 53.

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The gold larnax from the main chamber of Tomb II in which the bones were laid. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Vergina Excavation Archive. Grant (2019) color plate.

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The dating was both ‘fascinating and frightening’ to Andronikos. “From 359 BC to 336 BC … there was only one king in Macedon, Philip II … Alexander the Great, who succeeded Philip in 336 BC and reigned until 323 BC, was buried in Egypt. Thus, we are almost forced to the startling conclusion: if the deceased had been a king, he was Philip!” he concluded, with the exclamation mark. Andronikos logically went on to suggest, with a little too much haste, that the female in Tomb II was Philip’s last wife, Cleopatra.

When proffering the identifications, the excavator was not blind to his self-perpetuating logic in which the argument and conclusion were mutually justifying loops. “The sequence of thought I have followed, from the chronological framework 350–310 BC for the objects which cannot be challenged … leads us to the inevitable conclusion that Alexander buried his father in the great tomb after his murder in Aegae” in 336 BC. “From this we formulate the very useful conclusion that all the objects in the tomb [II] date to before 336 BC.” Andronikos was unrepentant about his ‘vicious circle of progression’ and added: “I believe that only by such a dialectical approach … can academic thinking move to its ultimate conclusions.”  He did not foresee the backlash it was about to ferment.

The ‘Battle of the Bones’

Despite the labeling of the cluster, in the absence of tombstones, contemporary inscriptions or epitaphs, the excavator’s conclusions remained open to question. There began a thirty-year-long bitter ‘battle of bones’ waged through a series of academic papers designed to refute each other and challenge every assumption: the tomb occupants, their relative dating and ‘royalty’.

At the centre of the debate lay an ‘unfortunate symmetry’. When anthropologists first aged the Tomb II skeletal remains, it was determined that the male was 35-55 at death and the female aged 20-30. This permitted the notion that the occupants were either Philip II and his final far-younger bride Cleopatra who was executed with her baby daughter soon after his death by Alexander’s mother Olympias; or they were the skeletal remains of Philip’s half-witted son Arrhidaeus, who died twenty years later when of similar age and with an equally young bride. They were executed together by Olympias in her bid for survival in the post-Alexander world, which would explain the double burial in Tomb II.

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The entrance to the subterranean Archaeological Museum of Vergina. Grant (2019), color plate.

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Arguments for and against each pair revolved around wounds evident or invisible on the male bones when compared to the wounds Philip II received in battle; those famously listed in Demosthenes’ elegant oration On the Crown, for example. While some anthropologists claimed to see trauma, others argued the cracks and notches came from bone cracking in cremation. The tell-tale signs of a ‘flesh-burned’ cremation was presented as evidence of the immediate burning of the deceased, as opposed to the later ‘dry-boned’ burning of the already-long inhumed.

Besides bones, the hunting scene painted above the entrance to Tomb II, and even condiment pots found on the floor, were next proffered as dating witnesses. But it was always debatable whether the twenty years between the death of Philip II and his half-witted son Arrhidaeus could be discerned by purely visual interrogation of artifacts.

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The facade of Tomb II showing the entrance doors and remains of the hunting scene frieze above. Grant (2019), color plate.

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Recurring questions filled academic papers: Did vaulted roofs exist in Greece in Philip’s reign, or were they developed later following eastern inspiration after Alexander’s campaigns? Was the hunting fresco, with its depiction of a lion in the quarry, inspired by the Persian game parks he and his men hunted in, because lions were surely extinct in Macedon by Philip’s reign?

Counter arguments pointed out that Persian artistic influences had appeared in Macedon since its occupation by Darius I’s advanced expedition forces in the late-6^th century BC, and vaulted structures in Persia had been built by Greek stonemasons centuries before. In Macedon the lion was a symbol of kingship and had been depicted on coins for generations, moreover Herodotus claims lions attacked Xerxes’ camels in Macedon en route to his invasion of Greece.

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Lion-hunt mosaic found at Pella with similar dating to the tombs. Grant (2019), color plate.

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But a more fundamental challenge emerged to threaten the whole debate: the very identification of the ruins at Vergina with the ancient city Aegae was being called into question. Greek archaeologist Photius Petsas had a well-known and long-standing antagonism with Manolis Andronikos dating back to their student days and competing excavations. Petsas had been vocal on the ‘incorrect identification of Vergina’ issue since 1977, when a transcript of his interview on the topic was published in the New York Times.

Potentially more damaging to Andronikos’ reputation was a letter to an Athens newspaper on 13 February 1978 by Dr Zachos of the University of Paris. His correspondence alleged that when Andronikos announced he might have found the remains of Philip II he was following a political agenda: the ‘nationalism’ evoked by the discovery aimed at securing victory for Konstantine Karamanlis’ New Democracy party in the 20 November general election of 1977. What Zachos failed to remind his readers was that Andronikos’ public statement, which ‘armed the quiver of Hellenism’, took place on 24 November, four days after the vote.

Opposing views were supposed to have been embraced in the search for answers, but instead a caustic schism had developed which, in some cases, hark back to decades-old personal rivalries and political divides. ‘Archaeology is not a science, it’s a vendetta,’ was the rather-apt summation of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the British archaeologist who died a year before Andronikos found Tomb II.

In 1987 the gloves finally came off in the ‘battle of the bones’ when historian Eugene Borza articulated a direct challenge to Andronikos over his identification of an elusive sceptre in his 1978 report. A sceptre, Borza claimed, would have been passed down through the generations of kings, as it was in the Iliad from the gods through Pelops, Atreaus, Aegisthos and on to Agamemnon the king of Mycenae. Similarly, an Argead sceptre would not have been buried with Philip II, but passed on to his son Alexander the Great, and, in turn, on to his successor Arrhidaeus who was made co-king at Babylon. Borza went on to argue that a sceptre could, however, have been interred with Arrhidaeus because he was the last male of Philip’s direct line.

In personal correspondence, Borza asked Andronikos to explain why references to the sceptre had disappeared from his later reports. Andronikos explained that he had been mistaken in the original identification. Borza remained suspicious and inferred that once Andronikos had realized the relic weakened his argument for Philip II, he spirited it away.

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The royal line of Macedon in the 4th Century BC. Grant (2019), p. 76

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‘New Barbarians’ to the North

In 1991, while the ‘battle of the bones’ raged on, Yugoslavia dissolved and out of the fallout emerged a new socialist republic to Greece’s north. Its borders fell between Albania and Bulgaria in what would have occupied ancient Paeonia and western Thrace in the time of Philip II’s predecessors. Arguably a slither of ancient ‘Upper Macedonia’, the northern cantons annexed by Philip in his expanded realm, fell into the new state. Despite the questionable geopolitics, the new Republic of Macedonia immediately adopted a twelve-point Vergina starburst of the Argead kings to adorn its national flag. Blood ran hot in nationalistic veins from Athens to Thessaloniki.

Greece saw the republic’s name and its flag as national identity theft and demanded both be changed. Street protests followed on both sides of the border and airport names were changed in line with each nation’s cause. The new regime was duly recognized by the United Nations in 1993, but only under the title ‘Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (‘FYROM’). Claiming ancient roots in the region under a tide of nationalism, FYROM accused its neighbor of stealing the biggest part of ‘Aegean Macedonia’ and incorporating it into northern Greece. The response from Athens was a blockade of the new Balkan player staking identity claims to the kings buried below Vergina.

The ancient Macedonians were Greeks, claimed domestic political commentators. ‘Our Philip and Alexander remain standard bearers of Greek culture and a Hellenistic Era when Greek culture spread to enlighten the known world’, the state newspapers reminded the world.

The stance remains somewhat ironic. Those born outside the borders of ancient Hellas were referred to wholesale as ‘barbaroi’, principally due to the noise of their harsh, discordant speech. The Peloponnesian War historian, Thucydides, who owned land in the Strymon River basin in the heartland of ancient Macedon, termed the ‘Upper’ Macedones ‘barbarians’ and contemporary Athenian orators like Demosthenes had hissed that the ‘Macedonians did not even make good slaves’. Moreover, the Macedonian army of Philip and his son smashed Greek power at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, thereby ending one-hundred-and-fifty-seven years of ‘democracy’ and Greece’s creative Classical Age.

Despite the enduring tomb uncertainties, by the time the Archaeological Museum of Vergina opened its doors to the public in 1997 under a reconstructed tumulus, the curators had no doubt about the labeling of the group: Tomb II was the resting place of King Philip II of Macedon, in the antechamber was probably his obscure Thracian wife Meda, while Tomb III did probably hold the bones of King Alexander IV, the murdered teenage son of Alexander the Great. The ‘official’ literature that followed was even more unequivocal on names, causing Eugene Borza to comment on one title: “The text is marred not only by the worst sort of nationalistic archaeology, but also by serious lapses in reasoning.” Yet these identifications ensured the museum was a commercial success, and this is how they remain today.

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Ancient Macedon and its occupied territories in 359 BC at the beginning of the reign of Philip II. Grant (2019), p. 16.

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The Tomb II Stalemate

Historian Dr. Miltiades Hatzopoulos is an expert on ancient Macedon. Watching on as various teams of archaeologists and historians drew polarized conclusions, he issued his summation in 2008 of the ‘cottage industry of Verginana’, as he termed it: “It is true that the issue has been obscured by precipitate announcements, the quest for publicity, political agendas and petty rivalries, which have led to an inconclusive series of down-datings and up-datings, finally disqualifying all the ‘scientific’ criteria – including forensic medicine – invoked.”

By 2009, the ‘battle of the bones’ had reached a stalemate when academics ran out of debating ammunition. Recognizing the impasse for what it was, The American Journal of Archaeology even called for a moratorium on ‘Vergina papers’ until new evidence came to light.

New Methodology, New Momentum

The tides of politics always tugged at the Vergina excavations, and the lack of harmony between ministries responsible for antiquities resulted in a chronic lack of funding for tomb forensics. Responsibility for the excavations have always been divided between the University of Aristotle in Thessaloniki, and the Ministry of Culture which oversees sixteen other projects with a total budget of 32 million euros for museums, monuments and archaeological sites in the region of Emathia. Over 7 million euros of development capital for the subterranean Vergina museum had already arrived from EU Community programs. Sadly, none of it had been allocated to studies on the bones.

The tomb debate was finally given forward momentum in 2010 when an anthropological team led by Professor Theo Antikas and material scientists led by Dr. Yannis Maniatis, with a modest 6,000-euro grant from the Aristotle University, commenced a several-month task of cataloguing the Tomb II bones; their ground-breaking study would last five years.

Complicating the anthropological work was the methodology of earlier studies: preserving solutions of silicon-based polymers covered the bones, while resins and adhesives had been used in bone moulds. Alginate residues with plaster featured in a facial reconstruction of the male, all of which left some form of contamination.

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The jaw and facial bones of the Tomb II male. Grant (2019), p. 131.

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To effectively analyze and catalogue the Tomb II remains, the team applied CT scanning and then each bone was catalogued with a unique number, with entries on weight, condition and morphological changes such as color, warping or cracking. Any signs of foreign materials such as rare minerals were noted, along with comments on the conservation condition from previous handling. They next photographed each fragment from every anatomical plane, capturing over 4,000 images.

The anthropologists were able to determine the male suffered from a respiratory problem, a chronic condition that could have been pleurisy or tuberculosis, evidenced by the pathology they found on the inside surface of his ribs. Visible ‘wear and tear’ markers on his spine indicated he had experienced a life on horseback, while further age-related changes to the male skeleton which had not been brought to light before, allowed the Antikas team to narrow down the estimate of the Tomb II male to 45 +/– 4 years at death. They did however find a trauma on his hand which could finally correlate with one of the injuries Philip reportedly received in battle.

Under similar scrutiny, in 2014 they found new incontrovertible age evidence on previously unanalyzed female bones from the antechamber. Her pubic symphysis, a reliable aging marker, put her at 32 +/- 2 years at death, ruling out Philip’s older brides as well as his young final wife Cleopatra, and discounting Arrhidaeus’ teenage wife completely and him by association. Spinal markers made it clear she had also endured a life in the saddle.

The identity debate always had to accommodate an ‘intruder’ weapon: with the female rested a gold-encased Scythian ‘gorytos’ in the style of the hip-slung bow-and-arrow quivers of the formidable Scythian archers. Over 1,000 excavated graves in Ukraine and the Russian Steppes have proven the existence of these female warriors who were often buried with horses, weapons, tools and their typical jewelry: glass beads, earrings and necklaces of pearls, topaz, agate and amber, as well as bronze mirrors and distinctive bracelets.

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Scythian archer, beardless and so possibly female, on an Attic plate dated to 520 – 500 BC, showing the traditional hip-slung ‘gorytos’ and compound bow. Grant (2019), p. 71.

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Andronikos originally mused that the Tomb II woman had ‘Amazonian leanings.’ Others were more skeptical of the ‘weaponized warrioress’ association. In what might be considered a case of archaeological gender bias, the subterranean Archaeological Museum of Vergina displays the statement: ‘Weapons were for men what jewels were for women’, despite the fact that no jewelry was found with the Tomb II female, apart from a sumptuous diadem and an austere Illyrian-type pin. The curators believed the quiver, greaves and spears in her chamber were not hers at all, but belonged to the ‘king’ next door, as their upright position against the dividing door could suggest.

The Antikas team put an end to that theory in another ‘eureka moment’ in 2014. They identified a previously overlooked shinbone fracture which had shortened her left leg. This was finally proof that the armor and weapons in the Tomb II antechamber belonged to her, because one of the gilded-bronze greaves in her chamber was 3.5 cm shorter and also narrower than the other and had obviously been fashioned to fit to her deformity.

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Professor Theodore Antikas with Laura-Wynn Antikas holding the shorter greave in front of the display cabinet in the Archaeological Museum of Vergina. Antikas team archive. Grant (2019), color.

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When compared to the three sets of same-sized greaves found in the male chamber next door, they had always looked rather feminine in proportion; she had indeed been honored as a warrior. If the tomb contents were redolent of the life and career of the chamber occupants, as commentators were inclined to believe, then this further narrowed down the list to females recorded as showing martial or pugnacious persuasions.

At one point, Philip II allied with a Danube-region Scythian king, Atheas, who resorted to adopting the Macedonian king to seal the treaty. So a daughter, given freely or captured after battle when relations broke down, might have become a final wife or captive concubine who was interred in Tomb II, explaining the presence of the quiver. But a Scythian daughter was never mentioned in the sources.

Neither were the Scythians renowned as metal smiths; the exquisite jewelry in their graves is of local Greek workmanship, likely from Panticapaeum in the Kingdom of Bosporus by today’s Crimea. But there was also a thriving metalworking industry in Macedon, where weapons and armor were fashioned for Philip II. The possible domestic manufacture of what could have included ornate goods for export to Scythian warlords in this unique era of diplomacy means the ‘Amazon’ of Vergina could have been born rather closer to home.

Problems with Provenancing Gold

Several more quivers have been found in Scythian regions with almost identical patterns beaten into the gold and they might be traceable to a single Greek workshop and artisan. Unfortunately, it remains troublesome to prove the provenance of gold ore from its ‘signature impurities’ such as platinum group elements. Many artifacts of the period were in fact made from electrum with a high silver and trace copper content. But the analysis of electrum is complicated when craftsmen ‘enhanced’ it by ‘whitening’ with added silver, or ‘reddening’ it with increased copper, after the separation process known as ‘cupellation’ from the base ore.

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Scythian gold-encased bow-and-arrow quiver found at Chertomylk, Ukraine. The overall layout and position of images is remarkably similar to the Vergina Tomb II example. The mounting of a gold ‘gorytos’, Scythian, Russia, 6th-4th century BC. Artist: Werner Forman. Grant (2019), p. 215.

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There also remains an unspoken ‘elephant in the room’: there is no mention in texts of any wife being buried with Philip II at Aegae, and if Andronikos was correct, inconsistencies in the dimensions of the vaults of the two chambers forming Tomb II suggest they were built or completed in different stages. The male and female were not necessarily cremated together or even at the same time; the different color of her unwashed bones reinforces that.

The Tomb I Bombshell

A further discovery had already put an end to one tenacious but erroneous avenue of the identity debate which misdirected scholars for decades. In 2014, forgotten and unanalyzed skeletal remains from Tomb I were found in storage below the Vergina laboratory; they were probably consigned to thirty-five years of obscurity in the aftermath of the ‘great’ Thessalonica earthquake of 20 June 1978 when the preservation of unlooted Tombs II and III was the focus of attention.

These additional Tomb I bones meant that the remains of at least seven individuals were identifiable, not only a male, female and a baby as one anthropologist had previously concluded from the few fragments he briefly saw; that had led to the notion that Philip II, Cleopatra and their executed infant were actually interred there and not in Tomb II, where, logic suggested  Arrhidaeus and wife were interred.

‘Amphipolitics’

Greek nationalism and a renewed interest in Macedon’s archaic past were heightened when archaeologists made their first entry into the massive tomb structure at Amphipolis in the summer of 2014. The Casta Hill tomb lay inside a 155-meter high mound surrounded by a 500-meter perimeter wall which lay outside Amphipolis’ once fortified city walls.

On 12 August 2014, as excavators prepared to go in, the Greek Minister for Culture and Sports enthusiastically exclaimed: “We have been waiting for this tomb for 2,300 years.” The Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, hurried to the site with TV cameras in tow and promised that the dig in the “land of our Macedonia would be completed within a couple of days”. The Bishop of Thessaloniki promptly added: “Whoever may be buried inside the tomb, he is bound to be Greek.” These were deliberate slights to the parliament of the Slavic Macedonia in Skopje. ‘Amphipolitics’ was hitting the news and conveniently diverting the country’s attention from rising unemployment and Greece’s European Union bailout program which was supposed to end that year.

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The entrance of the Casta Hill tomb at Amphipolis guarded by marble sphinxes. Amphipolis, Greece. 25th Aug, 2014. Two battered marble sphinxes are seen under a barrel-vault topping the entrance to a late 4th Century B.C. tomb under excavation at Amphipolis in northern Greece. Archaeologists excavating the large grave mound have partially investigated the interior of the underground tomb which appears to have lacked a door in the doorway under the sphinxes. But it seems most likely that the tomb was plundered in antiquity. © Aristidis Vafeiadakis/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News. Grant (2019), color plate.

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‘Final Solution’ Forensics

But the ongoing Vergina controversy extended beyond the Tomb II bones. Two extremely large fused-together leg bones, which supposedly originated in Tomb I, made their way to the bone collection during a study by a Greek paleoanthropologist published in 2015. Dr Antonis Bartsiokas allegedly found them amongst the Tomb I skeletal fragments, even though they were absent from the original excavator’s report. The awkwardly angled knee bones, he argued, were ‘proof’ of the terrible wound Philip may have suffered in Thrace resulting in his well-documented limp. But on closer inspection they appeared to be ‘intruders’; Professor Xirotiris, who had worked with Andronikos when the tombs first emerged, publicly stated that he doubted the Bartsiokas-presented bones came from Tomb I, with all the implications that carried.

The ground-breaking finds of the Antikas-Maniatis teams were finally published in an academic journal in 2015. Microscopic forensics had identified textile stains on the cremated remains, while melted gold was seen on the cremated upper vertebrae of the male. Within a composite material found clinging to the male bones, the rare white mineral huntite and Tyrian Purple were bound in layers with egg white and clay, suggesting an undocumented Orphic funeral rite involved a striking ceremonial face mask, or posthumous death mask, redolent of the gold example from Mycenae termed the ‘Mask of Agamemnon’.

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The so-called ‘Mask of Agamemnon’ found at Mycenae. National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Grant (2019), color plate.

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The melted gold droplets begged the question of whether the ‘king’ was initially wearing his wreath as flames licked the funeral pyre, because the incomplete gold wreath found inside the ossuary chest showed signs of intense heat and lacked the pieces found in the pyre remains on the tomb roof. An ivory-and-glass-decorated ceremonial shield also showed signs of exposure to fire. It appears the dead king was presented to the onlookers ‘battle ready’ in his finery as the fire began cleansing his corpse, before being whipped away for interment below with his later-collected and washed bones.

Although hampered by underfunding and a lack of support from the Ministry of Culture, the teams continued to push for ‘next-generation’ forensics: DNA testing, radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope analysis of the bones from unlooted Tombs II and III. DNA could reveal any genetic family relationships, C14 dating of the bones would be a cross-check to the age of the tombs, and strontium isotope signatures might reveal where the occupants spent their early years.

The Ministry of Culture denied permission in 2016. Instead, the scientists were allowed to test the scattered bones found in looted Tomb I and a nearby ‘hidden’ grave near the city agora, possibly the secret burial site of Alexander’s murdered teenage son Heracles. But no formal funding was provided. Although the Tomb I bones lay exposed in soil for over two millennia at various levels, meaning it was difficult to establish who the original tomb occupants were, dating evidence and DNA results were successfully extracted, against all expectations, blowing apart yet more of the old identity theories.

The ‘Speaking Papyrus’

More recently, in 2017, Professor Richard Janko, one of the world’s leading papyrologists was able to identify letters on reassembled papyrus fragments from Tombs II and III. On a Tomb II fragment the letter Sigma was written in an older style symbol more consistent with the reign of Philip II, whereas on a fragment from Tomb III the same letter had developed into what is known as a ‘lunate C’; it appeared to be part of a list of chattels and tools for construction of funerary furniture, thus contemporary with the sealing of the tomb. The development of the Sigma argued that the Tomb III papyrus was written some years since the sealing of Tomb II, undermining the notion that Arrhidaeus was buried there.

What had become clear from the work of the material scientists was that an analysis of all contents of the tombs was required to piece together the identity puzzle, besides the skeletal remains and precious artifacts. The remains of wood, leather and potentially more papyrus still sits in storage with a semi-decomposed mass of as-yet unanalyzed material from the floors of the chambers.

With the possible candidates greatly narrowed down by the recent studies, further forensic analysis on the bones of the ‘king’, ‘queen’ and ‘prince’ might solve the identity puzzle once and for all. That is, if the Greek Ministry of Culture is prepared to let science challenge the name plaques at Vergina.

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The palace at Vergina undergoing reconstruction work, 2018. Photo by David Grant.

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Editor’s Supplement: The Treasures of Vergina

A Pictorial

The following represents a sampling of the remarkable finds from the excavations at Vergina, as currently exhibited to the public. 

Tomb entrance. MegAlexandrou, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Tomb II (“Tomb of Philip II”) at Vergina. Back of facade and exterior of barrel vault with remains of funeral pyre. Mark Landon / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

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The Golden Larnax (Chrysi Larnaka) (with the Sun of Vergina on the lid) that contains the remains (bones) from the burial of King Philip II of Macedon and the royal golden wreath. Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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The silver-gilt diadem from the tomb of King Philip II of Macedon at Vergina, Greece. Mmurp105, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

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Queen Meda’s Gold Myrtle Wreath from the antechamber of tomb of Philip II of Macedon Aigai Vergina 336 BC. Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Royal Crown. Rjdeadly, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Royal armor of Philip II. Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Bronze greaves (Leg Guards) from the tomb of Philip II of Macedon 4th century BCE Aigai, Vergina Greece. These pieces of armor were custom made for Philip II as he suffered a broken tibia, leaving one of his legs deformed. Mary Harrsch, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Detail of wall painting in the Royal Tomb at Vergina. Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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The gold gorytos (combination quiver and bow case), shin-guards and neck armor of female in unlooted 4th Century BCE tomb of Philip II Vergina, Greece thought to be Queen Meda of Odessos, Philip II’s sixth wife, a Thracian princess who hurled herself onto Philip’s funeral pyre. David Grant, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

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Hades abducting Persephone, fresco in the small royal tomb at Vergina, Macedonia, Greece. Yann Forget, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

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Gold two-pin fibula with housing and chain tied in a Herakles tomb of Philip II Macedon Aigai Vergina Greece 336 BCE. Mary Harrsch, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Bronze Lychnouchos (lantern) with Pan relief from the tomb of Philip II of Macedon in Aigai 336 BCE. This ornate bronze lantern housing a black-glazed terracotta lamp illustrates the originality and sophistication of the metal workshops of the ancient Macedonian court. The relief masks representing the god Pan and the decoration of the ivy leaf suggest that this lantern was used during royal symposia. Mary Harrsch, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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David Grant, the author of this article, has been collaborating with anthropologists in Greece to identify the ‘mystery Amazon of Macedon’. His new book, Unearthing the Family of Alexander the Great, the Remarkable Discovery of the Royal Tombs of Macedon, is available from Amazon and other online retailers.

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It was fitting that her ashes found their final resting place in this place. Set high on the summit within the jungle-choked ruins of the ancient Maya acropolis of Piedras Negras in Guatemala, a small, simple, rectangular grave stone marks an almost wordless epitaph — only her name and the years that defined her birth and death are inscribed upon the marker. In life, those who knew her well called her simply ‘Tania’. But in death, written history best knows her as Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and it was here, in Piedras Negras, where her legacy really began.

Tatiana was born a world away from Piedras Negras in Tomsk, Russia, to a physician mother, Alia Nekrassova, and chemist and engineer father, Avenir Proskouriakoff. Her family moved to Ohio when she was only five years old. It was 1916, and by then the world had already erupted into war, her father having been tasked to oversee production of munitions for the Russian war effort. Plans were to return to Russia after his assignment. It seemed world events had other plans for this family, however. The Russian Revolution in 1917, which saw the end of Avenir’s Tsarist overseers, sealed the family’s  fate in the United States. They were never to permanently return. Tatiana became an American.

In the early years, her parents must have been clueless about her developing gifts until she demonstrated a remarkable proficiency to read at age 3 and showed an unusual talent for drawing. Her brilliance flourished after moving to Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, after which she graduated valedictorian of her high school class. But it was her drawing talent and education in architecture at the Pennsylvania State College School of Architecture a few years later that set the stage in launching a career of achievements that would revolutionize our understanding of one of the world’s greatest civilizations — the ancient Maya.

Revelations along the Usumacinta

Graduation from college came just in time for the devastation of the Great Depression, forcing Tatiana, like so many others in those times, to place her dreams on hold. A career in architecture had to wait. But, as the adage goes, where doors close, new windows open, and she took an opportunity to volunteer for the Classics Department of the University of Pennsylvania as a volunteer, producing archaeological illustrations. Her artistic excellence and architectural rendering caught the eye of Linton Satterthwaite, then the Assistant Curator of the American Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (henceforth in this writing — the Museum, popularly known today as the Penn Museum). He knew she was fascinated with the archaeological exhibits at the Museum. Why not have her join the University’s ongoing excavations at Piedras Negras, a project also under Satterthwaite’s direction, to do architectural drawings of the monumental remains? Satterthwaite likely anticipated what Tatiana’s response to the offering would be — 1936, and it was off to the jungles of Guatemala.

Tatiana Proskouriakoff, the expedition architect for Piedras Negras in 1936. Penn Museum image #37401.

Piedras Negras hugs the eastern banks of the Usumacinta River, which forms a natural border between Mexico and Guatemala. Anciently, the river served as the vital lifeblood for Maya centers built near or along its route, not only as a source of water but also as an important trade route of goods between centers. Among the settlements were Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras, two of the most powerful cities of the Maya Classic Period. Situated high on the north bank of the river in northeastern Guatemala, Piedras Negras (anciently called Yo’k’ib’ or ‘great gateway’), was occupied since the 7th century BCE with a Late Preclassic period peak in about 200 BCE and another great florescence during the Late Classic period. It became the focus of extensive excavations by the Museum beginning in 1931.

Tatianna arrived at the site just three years before the Museum excavations closed, and by then the site had already revealed its distinctive character as a massive center featuring numerous beautifully sculpted stelae and hieroglyphic inscriptions. She soon demonstrated her remarkable gift for rendering the ancient architecture at the site, particularly her unique ability to visualize, based on analysis of the remains, how the structures would have appeared in their complete, reconstructed state.

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Tatiana Proskouriakoff worked extensively at Piedras Negras. Courtesy University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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“The acropolis at Piedras Negras. Restored view.” Watercolor by Tatiana Proskouriakoff, 1939. UPM neg. T4-206″. Courtesy University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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Notwithstanding her significant contributions to the visualization of Maya monumental architecture, it was actually years later when she made the discovery that arguably defined her greatest contribution to Maya research and archaeology. During the late 1950’s she returned to the Piedras Negras monumental record again to study the Maya glyphs that adorned the many stelae discovered at the site. Her previous work at other sites, especially Copán and its famous Hieroglyphic Stairway, led her to formulate a compelling new question:  Do the glyphs that so copiously illustrate Maya monuments actually represent Maya history and its rulers, and not religious or priestly matters, as the prevailing thought among scholars at the time suggested? The numerous beautifully carved stelae with their prolific range of glyphs at Piedras Negras provided a perfect test case for research. Tatiana went to work. Focusing on the inscriptions, she observed certain glyph repetitions or patterns common to all monuments. She eventually determined that some glyphs must have stood for birth and others for death, and yet others represented the names of rulers, lineage, capture of enemies, and other events and characteristics of Maya rulers. In other words, her earlier hypothesis gleaned from her study of the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copán was confirmed — the inscriptions on the monuments represented the actual history, in this case, of Piedras Negras.

Tatiana’s finding was a game-changer for understanding the Maya. “In Tatiana’s day, people believed Maya cities weren’t really cities,” says Simon Martin, currently Associate Curator and Keeper of Collections in the American Section of the Penn Museum. “They were [considered to be] ceremonial centers ruled by priests. It was thought that the population didn’t live in the centers. They were scattered around in the forest, and they might have just gathered together [in the centers] for ceremonies and rituals.” Martin points to a key monument designated as “Stela 14”, now housed and on display in the Museum’s newly opened Mexico and Central America Gallery. It once resided with 39 other stelae at Piedras Negras. “The figures on Stela 14 were originally thought to be a god and then [depicted] down below a priest, who is making offerings toward her [see image right]” But at Piedras Negras, says Martin, “Tatiana started working on chronology and the relationship between particular dates and particular images on the monuments”. Referring to Stela 14, Martin says that Tatiana was able to recognize or identify a glyph inscribed with a series or column of glyphs on the side of the stela as an “event glyph”, which signified the occurrence of a very significant event in the Maya chronology of the site. “She hypothesized that this event glyph referred to someone becoming a king, which turned out to be completely correct. Thanks to Tatiana’s work, we realize that the seated figure is a king, and the one standing below is a queen.” Many Maya hieroglyphs, it turned out, were actually a record of the kings and queens and the associated events of their times. And more than that, Tatiana’s work was ultimately a key to deciphering the Maya script, something that had eluded scientists and scholars for years. Stela 14, and the other stelae discovered and studied at Piedras Negras, acted like a ‘Rosetta Stone’ for translating ancient Maya history and culture.

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Stela 14 at Piedras Negras. Courtesy University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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Glyph column along the left side edge of Stela 14, shown in foreground of exhibit space at the Penn Museum.

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Detail of the glyph column. The glyph at the bottom right is the ‘event glyph’ identified by Tatiana Proskouriakoff.

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Bringing the Ancient Maya to Our Back Yard

As was common among university museum-led archaeological expeditions of the time, a number of monuments excavated at Piedras Negras were borrowed and transported to the Penn Museum for exhibition and further study. Most of those monuments were returned to Guatemala in 1947, but today two objects, the aforementioned famous Stela 14 and a leg support for Altar 4, remain at the Museum and are now on display in the new Mexico and Central America Gallery.

The Penn Museum boasts “the largest collection of Maya stelae than anywhere outside of Mexico or central America,” says Martin. Those stelae now grace the exhibit space of the new gallery, including Stela 14. While the gallery is the largest exhibit of Maya stone monuments in the United States, it also makes clear that there was much more to ancient Central America than the Maya, and it displays this in a well-appointed array of select artifacts and other objects, organized by the various ancient cultures that defined this region of the world for centuries, such as the Olmec, Teotihuacán, the Aztec, and others. Martin’s hand is reflected in the displays. As an epigrapher, he has been actively engaged in research related to the continuing efforts to unlock the meaning of the Maya script and what they say about the story and culture of the ancient Maya. “Scholars today are moving on from Tatiana’s insights,” he says. Although much if not most of the script can now be deciphered, “we’re [still] trying to understand how the language was structured. We’re trying to decipher some of the unknown signs, and, more importantly, we’re trying to put it all together to understand ancient Maya society.” But time has unfortunately also taken its toll on recovered remains, frustrating scholarly efforts. “Stela 14 once had a longer text, but that is now eroded away,” laments Martin. “It would be useful to know a bit more about this ruler, but Stela 14 itself can be no further help.” In addition to understanding this ancient culture, Martin is also hoping the ongoing decipherment of the Maya glyphs may shed some light on when and, especially, why, the Classic period monumental civilization that characterized the southern lowlands of the Maya so precipitously declined and ‘collapsed’ between the 8th and 9th centuries. Some of the artifacts therefor reflect the end of this Classic period. “My challenge at the moment is to understand the ninth century texts and see what they can tell us about the collapse,” wrote Martin to Popular Archaeology. Martin’s study of Caracol Altar 13, for example, now a part of the new gallery exhibit, has been part of his efforts (see below).

For anyone interested in the ancient civilizations of this region, the new gallery is a must-see. But it is also worth noting that it represents only a tiny percentage of the artifacts and monuments discovered and still undiscovered related to this region—a visible reminder of how much we know about these monumental cultures, and how much we still don’t.

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The view as one enters the new Mexico and Central America gallery at the Penn Museum.

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Simon Martin with Stela 14 at the new Penn Museum Mexico and Central America gallery.

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Caracol Altar 13, now exhibited at the Penn Museum’s Mexico and Central America Gallery. Martin is studying monumental remains like this with the hope of shedding new light on the political dynamics of 9th century Maya civilization. This altar depicts interaction between two figures, both presumably kings or royal figures, but from different cities. “The two characters,” explains Martin, “are twice linked in the text by the term ‘yichonal’, which means “before” or better “in his sight”. Everywhere we see that between two people it denotes that the first person is “overseen” by the second. The left-hand figure, Papmalil, is ascribed the ‘ochk’in kaloomte’ title, which denotes an especially high rank over that of a standard king. Papmalil is mentioned three times on the monument—an unprecedented emphasis for a visitor—while the local king is named only twice.” Martin is not certain where the scene is taking place. It may not be at Caracol but at Ucanal (the left-hand figure’s city) instead, meaning that K’inich Toobil Yopaat (the king of Caracol) may actually be the visitor.

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One of four support stones for Piedras Negras Altar 4 (see below), as exhibited at the new Penn Museum gallery. Dated to 790 CE. For ancient Maya people, stone was not lifeless rock but a living thing. They believed that sculptures were infused by an animating spirit or force.

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As exhibited in the Penn Museum gallery, a replica of the ‘Margarita Panel’, part of the 450 CE temple facade in Copan, Honduras. It was discovered by Penn Museum archaeologists in 1992. The temple shrine was found by deep tunneling through the city’s main acropolis.

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Fragment of a stela, exhibited at the new Penn Museum gallery. Stone, 600 – 800 CE. The inscription includes a very large number counting up to 43 million years from a date in the mythological past to another date in the Classic Period.

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Statue of Water Goddess of the Teotihuacan culture, exhibited at the new Penn Museum gallery. Stone, 100 – 550 CE, Teotihuacan. The Water Goddess was a deity of fertility and abundance.

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Readers can read more about the Mexico and Central America Gallery here.

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About the Penn Museum

The Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) is dedicated to the study and understanding of human history and diversity. Founded in 1887, the Museum has sent more than 300 archaeological and anthropological expeditions to all the inhabited continents of the world. With an active exhibition schedule and educational programming for children and adults, the Museum offers the public an opportunity to share in the ongoing discovery of humankind’s collective heritage.

The Penn Museum is located at 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (on Penn’s campus, across from Franklin Field). Public transportation to the Museum is available via SEPTA’s Regional Rail Line at University City Station; the Market-Frankford Subway Line at 34th Street Station; trolley routes 11, 13, 34, and 36; and bus routes 21, 30, 40, and 42. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and first Wednesdays of each month until 8:00 pm. Open select holiday Mondays. Museum admission donation is $15 for adults; $13 for senior citizens (65 and above); free for U.S. Military; $10 for children and full-time students with ID; free to Penn Museum Members, PennCard holders, and children 5 and younger.

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