The Hidden History of the Catacombs of Rome 

Dr. G! A tale to amuse you... During WWII the Germans bombed the crap out of Malta and when I worked there, my Scottish boss who had married a Maltese, told me that during the Siege of Malta, his wife's father - a kid at the time - helped his family delve a deep bomb shelter down into the friable limestone of the island, as so many did. Then, this kid and his sister, digging away one afternoon, broke into a vast subterranean space. They told no one about it, but explored it with candles and lamps and then, having disguised the entranceway they had created from the adults, would retreat into it during the heaviest bombardments. They even brought in chairs and a table to play chequers on. What they had found was the ancient Neolithic megalithic temple of Tarxien, now a major tourist attraction. I think of it still. Two kids deep underground in a temple built over 5,000 years ago, playing chequers in absolute stillness by candlelight while the Luftwaffe raids roared overhead demolished Renaissance palazzi, medieval fortresses, Roman villas with only a handful of Spitfires to fight them off.

I’m with editor on this one… I wanna know about the lightening strike thing!

I’ve been to the catacombs of Rome and the underground city in Orvieto. They are mind blowing. The day that we visited the Santa Domatilla catacombs there was a group of Slovakian pilgrims who were having a worship service in the catacombs. They sang old Gregorian chants. It was an opportunity to get a tiny idea of what it might have been like for worshippers who were burying their dead.

I’m actually so glad I bought your book. Your writing style is great and the subjects you cover are amazingly interesting.

I was supposed to go with my dad to rome this spring or this autumn.. It would've been my first time visiting the city and i had made a bit of list of places to visit, maimly based on your videos... Although ironic now, we for sure would've toured the catacombs May he rest in peace

In The Netherlands there was this rich dude in the early 1900's who was so fascinated by the roman catacombs that he ordered a replica to be made in the old lime stone quarries of Limburg. Of course it is not the real deal, but it is rather convincing and was nevertheless entertaining to see.

The horrors of just stumbling around in the dark for days in a catacomb

There are tons of catacombs all over Latium; my moms family is from Latina and Cisterna di Latina, and the latter also has catacombs under a palace built in the 1500s. Nearby was a place called “tres tabernae”, which are the remnants of a Roman roadside “diner”.

Amazingly, the sponsor is spot-on matching here and not annoying at all. Well done!

I know it's somewhat common to call the Roman volcanic layers "Tufa." However, Tufa suggests that the beds are layers of a limestone-esque carbonate rock (see examples such as the Trona Pinnacles). What is actually surrounding Rome is Tuff, a consolidated volcanic rock comprised of lithified ash. Not sure exactly where the catacombs are, but I'd guess it's in the Villa Senni Tuff Unit, since it's the thickest of the three tuff layers, and it underlies the anthropogenic (ruins, etc) layers on top. Love all your videos! As a geologist I don't get a chance to weigh-in on history videos, just wanted to make a distinction between the two rock types.

I've always loved that fresco called 'Cubiculum of the Veiled Woman.' the middle image of the woman with the outstretched arms is 🔥 I often wonder if this is a depiction similar to how an early Christian teacher like Marcellina would've been remembered. Great work, Garrett 👏

I also tend to use a bottle of perfume or two to disguise my own decay.

Loving your videos man!

Thank you for doing this fella! Awesome as always.

AHHH! I've been waiting for an ancient funeral practices video from you! This is awesome!

I recommend visting around noon. The temp is cooler in the summer and wherever there is a skylight (a small roof opening), a sun beam hits the ground like a white laser 👌

Excellent background on the underground, really lays bare the scope and scale of Rome as the earliest metropolis. Amazing history, thank you!

My favorite tomb/burial/tombstone/whatever the proper term is would be the dog whose epitaph reads in first person…Err first canine… Like “I’m Fido. My master buried me here and provided this cool tombstone for me cause I was a good boy and performed my dogly duties faithfully for twelve years. Then I became infirm with the fart needles and the gods saw fit for me to cross the Styx.” Like dudes grave is probably long gone and forgotten if he even had one. He was there to bury his dog but possible no one was there to bury an old destitute fellow. I think if only him or his dog could be known for thousands of years he’d choose his pooch.

Fantastic Video, Thank You.

I was in the Catacomb of Santa Domitilla a week ago. This is an interesting video to watch afterwards as it goes over the same topic, and provides more information.

I would assume that inhumation in the Middle East was the only option in a dessert. I think if wood was something abundantly available it would be a preferred option, until talk of resurrection was taken seriously.

Thank you. Interesting and informative.

Glad to see you! I forgot to check your channel for a few weeks. . . A bit odd RU-vid never notifies when you upload

excellent video!

Very entertaining and educational :)

Always the best pairing sponsors fr

Fascinating! Thanks.

Thank you for the video!

What a wonderful video.

Great video; Malta has ancient catacombs as well.

Thank you!

Fab video!! 🏆⭐👍😁

That new logo is really awesome

I have visited years ago the Catacombs of Santa Prescilla that was very interesting especially the almost intact tombs with paintings almost as if it was painted some years ago, not centuries. It is an incredible labyrinth to visit but I can't fathom how it is so dark to walk around with only a torch as it is really creepy there..

Two weeks ago I was at the Catacombs of San Marcellino and San Pietro and it's breathtaking.

Ive been fascinated with catacombs like the ones in paris, but this many mysterious routes makes me want to see it myself!

Thanks!

Thank you

I love your presentation. I live in the Rome of the New World and have worked in a historic cemetery. I have read about the transition of what people once called "Christian Burials" as described in the story of how Adam was buried by Seth. Some tribes used burial mounds for their elders However, it is no longer seen as hugging an ancestor, but instead a "Tree Hugger" is a nature activist. Then the Latin speaking people arrived on the land, raised the symbol of death and hid all their dead men. I'm assuming they documented the location, because they all received new grave markers during the late 1800s Greek reform. These were the ones buried in the ground, but didn't become a tree, but instead their family mourns over stoned masonry. There was an a sect of cursed beliefs that arrived a little after that time, they sole the belief that buried like a King was the new thing of the day and the toured around the body of a dead President to sell the corporate new way. After that sect finally changed the original thought, the President signed legislation that took the original teachings out of education. However, he didn't last long, he was taken by a bullet and the pre-need business was sold by the charm. Now, I am out of the industry and can say for sure that the reformation is upon us again. Some historic cemeteries have sold their lands for "the fathers" of science and modern medicine to be built above. Others are now being abandoned, Catholic Cemeteries are being left to rot and disappearing with the churches that used to serve the community. Sadly, it is history that is lost that can't be regained, but the Natural Burial Commission has arrived as a player in this New World game. It comes and it goes, gets built and demolished, but it's with people like you that we remain knowledgably astonished

Thank you sir

Excellent! Did the popularity of certain names wax and wane during the Empire? What were the most popular names? And new subject-have you thought about hosting any tours of Rome yourself?

I never see any of the Tour Books talk about the beautiful Verano cemetery; great art and lovely grounds...and FREE ...No crowds. People suffer long waits and lines at the Vatican yet can go to Verano free and see actual funerary art in situ! Famous angels by Monteverde too.

An endorsement deal! Nice to see.

yay upload

Sack ray blew! I never knew how extensive the catacombs were. Mind boggling.

BUY THE BOOK!!

" You'll never find my Sarcophagus " 🌿😆🌿

We visited the subterranean world below San Clemente, and the "City of Water" under Harry's Bar and Hotel last summer. Highly recommended!

Pretty badass

Orvieto is a really nice place!

Enjoyed the video! One also wonders in addition to the reasons you mentioned, if the cremation of the emperors who were (usually) declared divine, also influenced early Christian practice to bury instead of cremate?

We have quite some villages which large tunnel systems which are historic. In Oppenheim at the Rhine river people escaped there during all the wars. Nowadays they are attractive for tourists. They're great wine cellars and nice restaurants. Trier has been a roman emperor city. An underground tour is as fine as a wine tasting in the big roman wine cellars....Come and visit!

I’m a Christian and I absolutely love your vids bro!! ❤️

At 1:30 you ask if the coin depicts a funeral pyre or a birthday cake. Could a tall cake actually be it? Did the Romans have birthday cakes? Thanks!

Underground base full of weird niches :)

Uhh some dude was blindly walking through the catacombs for 2 days…. That sounds freaking terrifying

1:01 I can totally see getting lost in there forever haha

Someone should ask the question: "Could people have moved from cremation to burial because of deforestation?" Lack of wood for fuel, especially in the eastern Mediterranean would have made cremation more difficult.

are the carvings of fish and such on the tombstones made at the same time as the tomb was placed or when other carvings were made on the tombstone? or before or after?

I have always wondered if there are still people entombed underground in their original places.

I hate to ask this question, but- When a human decomposes, they basically leak out a bunch of gross fluid. Any chance they were collecting the fluid and using it as some sort of fuel or oil, and that’s why they did it this way?

Were the spots in the catacombs rented out for a number of years, as is current in many French cemeteries?

Could you do a video on cult of mithra?

I'm not trying to do historical one-up-man-ship, but how do they compare to the much more recent (and famous) catacombs of Paris? Both in size, decoration, and care with which the deceased were placed?

Anybody played Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma before? The hidden underground underneath the monastery with all the huge brown undead ghouls crawling out from the burial niches in the walls is definitely 100% inspired by this.

Which catacomb is the least claustrophobic? Or brightest lit?

How could humanity descend so much with the fall of a State? I hope our civilization keeps thriving long enough to never see a period like 450-1000 again.

wow

How do you visit the city catacombs in Rome.

the romans thought that where lightning struck was sacred. they built special little temples on those spots. persons struck by lightning were seen to have been killed directly by the gods and were untouchable things.

are there other companies doing the same mission as the sponsor? What are the ethics and practices used by this type of efforts and companies? How do different ones compare, both the practices/ethics and the companies using them?

I visited some catacombs when I visited Rome in 2003. They were empty. Where were the bodies moved to?

I wonder what they did with the material that was removed? Concrete production?

The Silent Majority

Are you writing a second book?

Finally! An North American RU-vidr who knows how to say 'niche'

cool but where are the draugrs

Maybe there are Eastern Roman catacombs beneath Istanbul too.

2:49 hundreds if not thousands of niches for funerary urns tumblr probably

I was told by a Catholic priest that the reason relics of the Saints were placed in the altar stones was in remembrance of persecuted early Christians celebrating their services in the catacombs, but it is apocryphal. It's actually to remember early services held over the graves of the Saints, though some were certainly in the catacombs. I'm amazed every time I study Ancient Egyptian mythology/religion how often it is aligned with Jewish/Christian teachings. I guess the roughly 500 miles between the peoples is a short journey for mythology!

Perhaps cremation fell out of fashion because fuel became less abundant and more expensive

Well.. if the gods are mad enough at poor Horious to strike him dead with lightning I sure af am not gonna dare stir the gods anger by moving Horious to bury him.

Bro............................the lightning

😎💀

Was a fresco of Dionysus found in the catcombs? Romans called him Bacchus.

When I die, please... just cremate me and spread my ashes at the next Foreigner concert.

I told by a man who taught history at U of M that by the end of Rome's status as the major world power, the names you see engraved on tombs of that ere reflect that those later people weren't "real" Romans, but people from around the empire with Romanized names. He also claimed that was why Rome ceased to be the major power. Does your research reflect that, or was I getting bamboozled?

Think what a treasure trove for DNA archeologists...

why were lightning strike victims buried on the spot?

Christians: "We only want a World in which Christ's justice and love rule all of us" Emperors Nero, Domitian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Thrax, Decius, Gallus, Valerian and Diocletian: "So, anyway, we started burning..."

I'd love to go on one of these tours. But I'm an unvaccinated Australian. Is this still a problem?

Is the word Catachism from the same root word?

I visited the catacombs some time ago. The tour guide said there were some one million people buried down there! I thought for sure he must be exaggerating. Anyone know if that's correct?

Why are you making me look up "inhumation"? "The action or practice of burying the dead; the fact of being buried."

Ah yes. The cataromes.

The early Christians we’re praying God would free them from tyranny of Rome. Rome took their religion over instead.

Wasnt the transition to catacombs fueld by the emergence of christianity itself,

is your voice faster in this or something? It sounds off.

I just want to play with some bones 🦴

It is news to me that Christians allegedly did not hide out in the catacombs during persecutions. I wonder where the story came from, and what evidence was used to refute it. Proving that something like that never happened seems like it would be a difficult task.