Thread by @CatacombSociety

Peekabo! Examples of epitaphs in situ in the catacombs of #Rome (examples are from Catacomb of Priscilla, open to the public). In 3 cases, hidden behind later retaining piers; last one is painted on wall of a chamber within a tabella ansata. Source: ICS, #DAPICS #EpigraphyTuesday

more frequently, epitaphs & other funerary artifacts in catacomb settings secured in modern displays - first & foremost, so that they stay there. Displays tend to be clustered in accessible areas so that you & I can see them. All catalogued in @EdbUniba. #EpigraphyTuesday

examples I've shared are older, grimier versions of many epitaphs on marble, which have since been cleaned & documented in better lighting than a flashlight beam. Virtually all found in disturbed context, making it necessary to remount them, often thematically #EpigraphyTuesday

it can seem staged to have these clusters of epitaphs & other artifacts in areas like entrances into catacombs, gallery crossings & monumental chambers. The practice in fact was a compromise as 19th-20th c. archaeologists faced total wreckage of crumbling cemetery galleries

despite labored archival research, it has proved impossible to track many epitaphs back to the cemetery of origin, even in general topographical sense. In other cases, a cemetery in question was not preserved. Objects now housed for most part in museum collections - like #Vatican

not only are the epitaphs from the catacombs of #Rome catalogued in open access format in the @EdbUniba (although regrettably without all citations, only available in printed ICUR), b&w photographs of many inscribed materials online: archeologiasacra.net/pcas-web/
#EpigraphyTuesday

(long #EpigraphyTuesday thread on mostly old, faded photographs of catacomb inscriptions that nonetheless provoke much nostalgia & vivid memories of these objects in real life, along with thanks for the work done to preserve them) #EpigraphyTuesday

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