Still frame from RTI file of the previously unseen gladiator graffito alongside a modern tracing. Courtesy Louis Autin, Marie-Adeline Le Guennec, and Éloïse Letellier-Taillefer.

Few images capture the Roman world more vividly than the clash of gladiators in the arena. These spectacles drew enormous crowds across the empire and became one of the defining features of Roman popular culture. A small graffito recently discovered in a theater corridor at Pompeii offers a rare glimpse into how ordinary people experienced the spectacle of the games. It also connects to the broader cultural environment that shaped the New Testament, as Paul’s letters and later Christian writings show.

The etching comes from a recent study of graffiti found in a passageway linking two entertainment venues in Pompeii’s theater district. Before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius buried the city in 79 CE, this corridor was a bustling avenue for spectators moving between performances. Over time, visitors left messages on its walls—declarations of love, jokes, insults, sketches, and prayers to the goddess Venus. In total, researchers documented nearly 300 graffiti, including 79 previously unknown examples. The textual inscriptions appear in Latin, Greek, and even Safaitic script—an Ancient North Arabian script normally found in the deserts of Syria and Jordan—revealing just how interconnected the Roman world was.

The faint gladiator etching provides a rare window into how an ordinary person absorbed and reproduced the experience of watching gladiatorial combat. Although one figure is fragmentary, the scene is surprisingly dynamic—a gladiator twists as if responding to an opponent’s strike. Researchers suggest the artist was recalling a live spectacle, attempting to capture the movement of combat from memory rather than copying an existing image.

Recovering these faint marks required advanced digital techniques. The team used Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), a method that captures photographs under multiple lighting angles. When combined digitally, these images reveal surface texture and shallow reliefs that are otherwise difficult to detect. This technology allowed unprecedented precision in documenting the corridor’s walls.

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Gladiatorial culture was not confined to Rome or Italy. It extended deep into the eastern provinces of the empire—including the regions associated with the Bible.

Under Herod the Great, Roman-style entertainment venues appeared across Judea. Archaeological and textual evidence points to theaters, stadiums, and arenas at sites such as Caesarea Maritima, Jerusalem, Sebaste, Jericho, and Herodium. The historian Flavius Josephus reports that Herod even organized large public games honoring the emperor Augustus. He also notes that many Jews viewed these events as foreign customs linked to pagan worship and imperial ideology, and that the violence of the arena clashed with Jewish ethics. Gladiatorial combat was nevertheless part of the Roman environment in which Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity emerged.

This context helps explain why writers like Paul frequently used arena imagery. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the apostles as a “spectacle to the world,” language drawn directly from Roman public entertainment. He even speaks metaphorically of “fighting with beasts” at Ephesus—imagery that would have resonated immediately with audiences familiar with arena spectacles.

In the generations after the New Testament, such imagery sometimes became grim reality for Christians. Early Christian traditions describe believers being executed in public arenas by wild animals. The bishop Ignatius of Antioch, writing in the early second century, expected to face death by beasts in the arena at Rome. A century later, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity records how the Christians Perpetua and Felicity were exposed to animals before being killed in the arena at Carthage in 203 CE.

Although such persecutions were sporadic rather than constant, these accounts show that the arena was a stage not only for entertainment but also for dramatic confrontations with Roman authority. Against this backdrop, the graffito at Pompeii—etched by a spectator remembering the thrill of combat—takes on an additional dimension, reminding us how deeply the culture of spectacle permeated the Roman world in which Christianity took shape.

Lauren K. McCormick is an assistant editor at Biblical Archaeology Review and a specialist in ancient Near Eastern religions, visual culture, and the Bible. She holds degrees in religion from Syracuse University, Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on religion and the public conversation at Princeton University.

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Roman-period column with inscribed base found during renovation of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Homs, Syria. Courtesy Maamoun Saleh Abdulkarim.

Archaeology at Emesa (modern Homs, Syria) does not give a single dramatic moment of religious revolution. Instead, it offers something more historically valuable: layers. Coins, tombs, mosaics, and reused sacred spaces—including recently uncovered inscriptions on column bases—reveal the slow transformation of a powerful pagan city into a Christian and then Muslim one. For Bible readers, the site allows a glimpse into the long arc of Christianity’s development within the Roman world.

The earliest well-attested stratum at Emesa shows the dominance of pagan culture. A mosaic of Hercules reveals the city’s syncretistic religious culture, where local Syrian worship blended with broader Greco-Roman traditions. A richly furnished mausoleum—yielding a gold funerary mask and other elite grave goods—points to a powerful ruling priestly family, one of whose members, Elagabalus, would later become the Roman emperor.

Roman-period coins depict the grand Temple of the Sun housing the sacred black stone embodying the Emesan sun god Elagabal (later linked to Emperor Elagabalus), while column-base inscriptions praise divine cosmic power and royal authority linked to this deity. These Greek inscriptions, uncovered during restoration of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, survived centuries of redevelopment. Professor Maamoun Abdulkarim of the University of Sharjah (UAE), who published the finds, explained in personal correspondence: “In my view, the Temple of the Sun should not be understood as a lost structure, but as a dynamic sacred space that was religiously redefined across successive periods.”

Roman coin minted in Homs depicting a sacred stone inside the Temple of the Sun. Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The strong pagan character of Emesa began changing in the third century CE. Burial practices shifted. Catacombs in the al-Shorfa area contain corridors, niches, lamps, and symbolic decoration associated with early Byzantine Christianity. Grave inscriptions emphasize themes resonant with Christian theology, like resurrection and eternal life. The evidence from Emesa is not explosive or revolutionary, but subtle. Christianity first appeared at the margins—in burial customs, naming patterns, and small communal spaces.

This layered material record mirrors what unfolds in the Acts of the Apostles. Acts describes Christianity beginning as a small, socially vulnerable movement operating within cities dominated by temples and civic cults. Paganism coexists alongside emerging Christian practices, gradually giving way to transformation.

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Geography reinforces this textual connection. Emesa lay a little more than 100 miles from Antioch, the early Christian hub where disciples were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). Situated on trade routes linking Antioch and Damascus, Emesa was well within the communication network of Roman Syria. Antioch served as a launching point for missionary activity. For example, Saul (Paul) departed from there on his first journey. Cities like Emesa would have made natural destinations of early Christian missions.

The archaeological silence of monumental churches at third-century Emesa suggests that Christianity had not yet reshaped public space. This was a time when Christians faced persecution under emperors like Decius, Valerian, and later Diocletian. Public Christian expression was risky and often suppressed. The decisive transformation of Emesa likely came in the fourth or fifth century. After legalization under Constantine the Great and later imperial decrees under Theodosius I, many pagan temples were repurposed for Christian worship in that time.

The Book of Acts ends with Paul preaching in Rome, leaving the future unwritten. In a sense, Emesa shows what that future looked like on the ground. Christianity did not immediately erase paganism; it infiltrated, adapted, endured persecution, and over time took root.

Lauren K. McCormick is an assistant editor at Biblical Archaeology Review and a specialist in ancient Near Eastern religions, visual culture, and the Bible. She holds degrees in religion from Syracuse University, Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on religion and the public conversation at Princeton University.

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Exposed foundations of Vitruvius’s basilica at the site of ancient Fanum Fortunae along Italy’s Adriatic coast. Courtesy Italian Ministry of Culture.

When we read the New Testament, we often focus on the words spoken and the people involved—Jesus, Pilate, Paul, crowds. Yet these texts unfold within a physical world that is rarely described in full. Trials took place in public. Accusations and defenses were voiced before officials, and people gathered to hear and respond to judgments. All of this occurred within Roman built spaces—forums, basilicas, and praetoria (official residences)—that ancient readers knew well.

While parts of the early Roman built world survive in exceptional sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, Roman architecture is unevenly preserved across the empire. Recent excavations at Piazza Andrea Costa in the Italian city of Fano (ancient Fanum Fortunae) provide an opportunity to recover the architecture of a mid-sized Italian city, one not subjected to the constant rebuilding that took place in the capital. Archaeologists believe they have identified the remains of a Roman basilica in Fanum Fortunae built by the late first-century BCE architect Vitruvius.

In book 5 of his treatise De Architectura (“On Architecture”), Vitruvius described a basilica in Fanum Fortunae that he designed and oversaw. Although he usually spoke in general principles rather than about specific works, he broke that precedent at Fanum Fortunae. As the sources stand, the basilica there was the only building Vitruvius ever claimed as his own.

Because De Architectura is the only surviving architectural manual from antiquity and was widely influential across the Roman world, identifying one of Vitruvius’s own basilicas illuminates not only this single structure, but also the design principles behind countless others. Speaking about the discovery’s significance, Fano’s mayor Luca Serfilippi called the find “a fragment of historical and cultural identity of universal value.”

When archaeologists found imposing masonry structures and marble floors at Fano in 2022, they anticipated that the area was part of a monumental public complex. Further excavations have revealed a rectangular basilica and perimeter colonnade—eight columns on each long side and four on each short side, just as Vitruvius described in De Architectura. The team has found that the dimensions of the building match Vitruvius’s description of his Fanum Fortunae basilica to “the exact centimeter.”

Vitruvius presents the basilica at Fanum Fortunae as a model of how a basilica of “the greatest dignity and beauty” should be built. A visionary who is often called the “father of architecture,” Vitruvius argued that architecture should be modeled on the human form. For example, just as human bodies have an average height-to-width ratio, so too should a column. A column’s height should be a specific multiple of its diameter—often eight or nine times the diameter—so the column looks balanced rather than squat or slender. For Vitruvius, when architecture mirrored the proportions of the human body, it reflected natural balance. This granted the sense of a properly ordered world and encouraged a harmonious society.

Vitruvius notes other proportional relationships as well, describing what he took to be ideal human measurements: a person’s height corresponds to their arm span, and the body can be measured as roughly eight head-lengths tall. Beguiled by these ideas centuries later, Leonardo da Vinci famously drew his Vitruvian Man.

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1490). Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The basilica in Fano therefore offers a rare bridge between text and place. It allows modern readers to imagine the civic and legal world of the New Testament more vividly, and to recognize that Roman architecture was doubly functional: It provided space for public gathering while reinforcing civic order through its design. The findings show that Vitruvius’s ideal proportions and model basilica were not just theoretical, but were realized in the spaces that shaped the public life of the early Roman Empire.

Lauren K. McCormick is an assistant editor at Biblical Archaeology Review and a specialist in ancient Near Eastern religions, visual culture, and the Bible. She holds various degrees in religion from Syracuse University, Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on religion and the public conversation at Princeton University.

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© Torlonia Foundation. Photo by Lorenzo de Masi

Through January 25, 2026
Kimbell Art Museum
Fort Worth, Texas
kimbellart.org

Highlights of the famed Torlonia Collection of ancient Roman sculpture are currently on display at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. During its first-ever North American tour, this traveling exhibit premiered at the Art Institute of Chicago earlier this year and will move to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in March 2026.

Titled Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, the exhibition features some 60 pieces of marble sculpture, many of which have not been exhibited in almost a century. They come from a collection formed in the 19th century by Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his successors. Comprising 622 works, the Torlonia Collection is the largest private assemblage of marble sculpture in Italy and the most important such collection in the world.

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The current exhibit is arranged around seven thematic sections that spotlight different sculptural types and subjects, from majestic figures of gods and goddesses to carved funerary monuments, to portraits of emperors and other nobility, including a remarkable selection of female portraits. Both intimate and monumental and ranging in date from the fifth century BCE to the second century CE, these marbles offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for museumgoers in the United States and Canada to marvel at some of the most exquisite works of ancient art.

On display is this slightly oversized statue (see image above) likely representing the Greek virgin goddess of the hearth, Hestia (Roman Vesta). It is a unique second-century CE Roman copy of an early classical Greek original in bronze.

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Codex Aretinus 405 contains the only surviving copy of Egeria’s Travels.
Lameiro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Egeria’s Travels is an early Christian pilgrimage account by an educated and well-traveled woman from the Roman province of Galicia (in modern Spain) that tells of her journey to and around the Holy Land. Dating to the late fourth century, this work is a rich source of geographical and historical information.

The account is unfortunately incomplete and survives in a single manuscript, now in the municipal library of Arezzo, Italy. Egeria’s work appears on pages 31–74 of Codex Aretinus 405, which was produced in the 11th century in the monastery of Monte Cassino. It is debatable how faithfully this copy transmits the original work. The parchment manuscript lacks the beginning and ending as well as four pages in the middle. Due to this state of preservation, the original title has not survived. The customary title derives from the work’s content and is variously given as Itinerarium Egeriae (Egeria’s Travels), Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta (Pilgrimage to the Holy Sites), or Peregrinatio Aetheriae (Pilgrimage of Etheria).

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The author’s identity is similarly modern conjecture. Addressing her readers repeatedly as dominae (“ladies”), dominae animae meae (“my dear ladies”), and dominae sorores (“sister ladies”), she clearly was a woman—either a nun writing for fellow nuns or a noblewoman writing for her intimate circle of pious friends. The first scholar to publish the manuscript, G.F. Gamurrini, identified her with the fourth-century noblewoman Silvia di Aquitania. She was later identified with Galla Placidia (388–450), a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius I, and with “the religious person” whom the seventh-century hermit Valerius of Bierzo (in Galicia, Spain) praised, in a letter to his fellow monks, for her pilgrimage to the Levant. Since different manuscripts of this letter provide several different spellings of her name, she has been variously known as Aetheria, Etheria, and Egeria, the last of which is currently most widely used.

Although the surviving manuscript of Egeria’s Travels dates from the 11th century, the work was likely composed in the late fourth century. From internal evidence (e.g., historical events and names of local figures), scholars infer that Egeria traveled for three years sometime between 381 and 384. This early date makes her account the first Western report about the Christian communities in the Levant, and possibly the first female author from Spain. The text is written in a peculiar type of Late Latin, which was the original language of the composition. A blend of classical and colloquial constructions reflecting the style of the Latin Bible, Egeria’s style is simple and clear, though with numerous dialectal and regional idiosyncrasies.

Divided into two parts with epistolary features, the work possibly originated as two letters. The first one reports on four trips: (1) to Mt. Sinai and back to Jerusalem, via the land of Goshen (1–9); (2) to Mt. Nebo and the traditional tomb of Moses (10–12); (3) to Carneas in Idumea (13–16); and (4) the return voyage to Constantinople, with stops at Edessa, Charris, Tarsus, Seleucia, and Chalcedon (16–23). The second part concerns the liturgical rites Egeria observed in Jerusalem (24–45), the catechesis prior to and after baptism (45–47), and the anniversary celebrations of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (48–49), after which the text breaks off. It has been suggested that the lost parts of Egeria’s Travels contained descriptions of the holy buildings of Jerusalem, a trip to Egypt, Samaria, and Galilee (with a hike up Mt. Tabor), and details of an excursion into Judea.

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Egeria’s Travels was popular through the Middle Ages, and later works are known to have used Egeria’s account, including the 12th-century Liber de locis sanctis (Book About the Holy Sites) by Peter the Deacon, who apparently had the intact Codex Aretinus at his disposal.

The most recent English translation of Egeria’s Travels, with the facing Latin text, is Paul F. Bradshaw and Anne McGowan’s Egeria, Journey to the Holy Land (Brepols, 2020). The best critical edition of the Latin original appeared in the series Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, vol. 175 (Itineraria et alia geographica, pp. 37–90; Brepols, 1965); a different Latin edition (from Sources Chrétiennes, vol. 296) is available online.

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This article was first published in Bible History Daily on May 1, 2024.

The post Text Treasures: The Pilgrimage of Egeria appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Fresco of Helen and Paris from the newly excavated dining room. Image courtesy of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Ongoing excavations at the Italian site of Pompeii recently revealed a spectacular dining hall with elegant black walls, decorated with beautiful frescoes featuring mythological scenes inspired by the Trojan War. Measuring about 50 feet long and 20 feet wide, the hall also had an exquisite mosaic floor.

One fresco features two of the central characters to the Trojan War saga—Paris and Helen, whose love ultimately resulted in the war itself. Helen is flanked by an attendant while a loyal hound sits at Paris’s feet. Of note is the Greek inscription next to Paris that refers to him by his other name, “Alexandros.” According to legend, Paris received this name (which means “Protector of Men”) for his bravery in his days as a shepherd before being recognized as the lost prince of Troy.

Opposite Helen and Paris is a scene featuring Priam’s daughter Cassandra and the god Apollo. Cassandra is a tragic character who ultimately could not prevent the Trojan War even though she had been blessed with the gift of foresight. According to myth, Cassandra agreed to be Apollo’s bride in exchange for the gift of prophecy. When the time came to give herself to Apollo, she refused and the god cursed her with a gift of true prophecy that would never be believed. Instead, she is treated as a madwoman by her family and people. Following the events of the war, she is taken by Agamemnon to be his prized slave.

Fresco of Apollo and Cassandra from the newly excavated dining room. Image courtesy of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

According to press statements, the team believes the walls of the dining room were painted black to prevent the smoke from oil lamps staining the walls. When used in the dark of the evening, the flickering lights from the lamps would have made the beautiful images on the black background seemingly dance and move, “especially after a few glasses of good Campania wine,” said Pompeii Archaeological Park director Gabriel Zuchtriegel.

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The homes of wealthy Romans were often adorned with mythological figures and legendary scenes. While the paintings were definitely a sign of status, they also served a social function by offering dinner guests with subjects of conversation. “The mythical couples were ideas for conversation about the past and life,and only seemed to be romantic in nature,” Zuchtriegel continued. “In reality, they speak of the relationship between the individual and destiny.”

The townhouse dining room. Image courtesy of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

The exquisite dining hall is located in a domus (wealthy Roman townhouse) in the Regio IX area that the team has been excavating for about a year in connection with the Pompeii Archaeological Park’s extensive renovation efforts. Many exciting discoveries have been made in Regio IX recently, including a fullonica (laundry), pistrinum (bakery), and a construction site, all within the vicinity of the domus. In their official reports, the excavators suggest the laundry and bakery were residences repurposed by the owner of the townhouse. The name Aulus Rustius Verus was written on a millstone that was discovered in the bakery. This same man was running for a political office called aedile, according to political graffiti discovered nearby. The aedile was responsible for various public duties, including maintenance of public buildings, organizing festivals, and maintaining the civic infrastructure. Rustius Verus is known to have been one of the two duumviri (the highest office in a city), alongside Giulio Polibio, and could have possibly been the owner of the richly decorated town house.

This article was originally published in Bible History Daily on April 22, 2024.

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Fresco of the Good Shepherd. By Wilpert, Joseph (1857—1944). Public Domain.

A short walk through Rome confirms the richness of its history. From the Pantheon to the Colosseum, the city boasts magnificent architecture and art. Yet it might surprise that some of the city’s most significant art lies beneath its surface.

Rome has more than 40 catacombs scattered around its ancient perimeter, often along major roads, that date from the second through fifth centuries CE. These underground burial sites consist of halls and chambers with burial niches. They also contain funerary inscriptions and art that provide insight into the city’s ancient pagan, Jewish, and Christian inhabitants.

For the intrepid traveler who wishes to see some of the earliest Christian art—from not only Rome, but also the entire world—a visit to the Catacomb of Priscilla is essential. Sometimes called the Queen Catacomb because of the many martyrs and popes buried there, the Catacomb of Priscilla has miles of subterranean tunnels spread across two main levels. Walking through the catacomb in the dim light gives the feeling of being in a labyrinth. Fortunately, you’re never unescorted, so you won’t get lost!

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Planning Your Visit

The catacomb sits along the Via Salaria in the Trieste neighborhood of Rome, about a 20-minute drive from the city center. Access is by guided tour only, and reservations tend to fill up quickly, especially during the spring and summer. I’d recommend booking your tour at least a week beforehand. If your schedule is not flexible, you would want to book it even earlier, to secure your desired tour time. Just a note that the Catacomb of Priscilla is closed on Mondays, so be sure to plan accordingly.

Tours are available in three languages: English, Italian, and Spanish. Tickets are about $10—or a little more if booked online, as booking fees apply. Children under age 6 can enter for free. You can make a reservation directly through their website or find a third-party tour that will take you through several catacombs. The latter would be a better option for those who wish to see both Jewish and Christian funerary art.

Your Journey Through the Catacomb of Priscilla

Your tour of the Catacomb of Priscilla begins at the ticket office and gift shop, located in a cloister of the convent of the Benedictine Sisters of Priscilla. After meeting your guide and the rest of your group, you descend together into the catacomb via a staircase. It is significantly colder in the catacomb than outside. I’d suggest bringing a long-sleeved layer, such as a light jacket or sweater.

They advise arriving 15 minutes before the time of your reservation, which is wise considering the irregularities of traffic in Rome. The tour will not wait for latecomers, and it’s not always possible to slip into a later time slot, as they are often full. However, if you are late, not all is lost. Someone at the ticket office may escort you to join up with the rest of the group.

Tours last 30 minutes and take visitors on a partial route of the vast catacomb. Highlights include third-century frescoes of the magi with Mary and Jesus as an infant (Matthew 2:11) … and of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11; see image above). The scene of the magi is the earliest extant depiction of the magi, or three wise men. It also competes as being the earliest depiction of Mary—and maybe even Jesus.^a The catacomb contains numerous scenes and figures from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as well, including Noah, Jonah, and Daniel.

On your tour, you will likely be shown two more frescoes that supposedly depict Mary: a scene of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38) and of the Madonna and Child next to a prophet pointing at a star (Numbers 24:17; Matthew 2:9), but these may not be biblical. Prior to modern restorations, they resembled traditional Roman funerary scenes.

Photography is not permitted in the catacomb, as exposure to light damages the delicate frescoes. However, for those who wish to remember their visit, postcards and books are available in the gift shop.

After exploring the most famous portions of the catacomb, the guide leads you back through the winding passageways to the gift shop, where the tour ends. Before continuing on your exploration of Rome, you may wish to use the lavatories at the rear of the gift shop or rest in the connecting shaded courtyard.

Rome is a special city, as its past is intertwined with its present. This is especially apparent with the catacomb, whose tunnels sprawl beneath the Villa Ada Park, which sits across the street from cafés, restaurants, and shops. The catacomb entrance itself is connected to a functioning convent. And both the convent and the catacomb bear the name “Priscilla,” probably the patroness who donated the land for the burials nearly 2,000 years ago. She and those buried in the catacomb certainly left their mark on a city that has served as a political, commercial, and religious capital for millennia.

Notes:

a. For more on the earliest Christian art, including frescoes from Dura-Europos in eastern Syria, see Mary Joan Winn Leith, “Earliest Depictions of the Virgin Mary“, BAR, March/April 2017.

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The Colosseum or Rome, constructed out of Roman Concrete. Courtesy Megan Sauter.

From the Pantheon of Rome to the port of Caesarea Maritima, Roman buildings have stood the test of time, thanks to one specific material: Roman concrete. Yet despite decades of research, the secret of Roman concrete has remained tantalizingly allusive. But not anymore, suggests a study published in the journal Science Advances. According to its authors – led by researchers from MIT, – one key component of this ancient material gave it a special property, self-healing.

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Self-Healing Concrete

Thanks to ancient descriptions of the material by Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius, as well as modern research, we know that Roman concrete was made with volcanic rock and other aggregates bound by a mortar of volcanic ash, lime, and water. While this formula is not remarkably different from the one we use today, the longevity of the material might have to do with the precise technique used in its preparation and known as “hot mixing.” The team was turned onto this possibility by the ubiquity of lime clasts throughout Roman concrete. These chunks of unincorporated lime have often been interpreted as the result of sloppy mixing or low-quality materials.

“The idea that the presence of these lime clasts was simply attributed to low quality control always bothered me,” said Admir Masic, the lead author of the study, in a press release. “If the Romans put so much effort into making an outstanding construction material, following all of the detailed recipes that had been optimized over the course of many centuries, why would they put so little effort into ensuring the production of a well-mixed final product? There has to be more to this story.”

The Pantheon of Rome is an unreinforced dome constructed out of Roman concrete. Courtesy Photo Companion to the Bible.

Indeed, the Romans have long been thought of as master builders and engineers, whose constructions have stood the test of time as few others have done. The Pantheon of Rome, for example, remains the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome, despite being nearly 2,000 years old. In contrast, modern concrete begins to degrade after only a few decades. So, what is the secret of Roman concrete?

While studying a concrete sample from the wall of the ancient Roman city of Privernum, the team noticed that the lime clasts within the concrete showed signs of having formed in high temperature and low humidity conditions. This could not be explained by the traditional process of lime slaking, where the lime is hydrated in water to create a paste before being added to the other mortar materials. Instead, the presence of these lime clasts can only be explained by the process of hot mixing, where the lime is added directly to the mortar mixture and only then water is incorporated. This would lead to an exothermic reaction, creating a high heat and low humidity environment within the mortar.

“The benefits of hot mixing are twofold,” said Masic. “First, when the overall concrete is heated to high temperatures, it allows chemistries that are not possible if you only used slaked lime, producing high-temperature-associated compounds that would not otherwise form. Second, this increased temperature significantly reduces curing and setting times since all the reactions are accelerated, allowing for much faster construction.”

Overlooking the artificial harbor of Caesarea Maritima which was constructed largely out of Roman concrete. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer.

Although often considered an unwanted byproduct, the unfused lime can work as a lasting source of calcium within the concrete, long after it has already been set. When incorporated with water, through a crack or other defect in the concrete, the lime clast reacts to create a calcium-rich solution that can operate as glue to fill in holes and cracks. As such, the concrete can self-heal small cracks within itself even centuries or millennia after it was created. Although this process had previously been noticed within Roman concrete, its causes remained unknown.

To double-check their results, the team prepared several samples of concrete using their theorized method for Roman concrete. Then they deliberately cracked the material and began to run water through the cracks. After two weeks, the team’s new Roman concrete was completely sealed.

Despite knowing of the incredible power of their concrete, it is unlikely that the Romans ever understood the chemical science behind it or its longevity. “They knew that was a great material, but they probably didn’t know that it would last thousands of years,” Masic told The Guardian.

The Secret of Roman Concrete and Eco-Friendly Construction

With the final secret of Roman concrete potentially in hand, the team is now working to commercialize their new cement recipe. While it has the potential to provide higher-quality and longer-lasting concrete, it can also significantly mitigate the environmental toll of the production of concrete. Currently, cement production accounts for about eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. By drastically lowering the frequency at which concrete needs to be replaced, as well as requiring only a fraction of the energy to make, this new concrete would sharply reduce the quantity of yearly emissions by the concrete industry. Perhaps the most instantly noticeable benefit of such material, though, would simply be in the reduced number of potholes on roads across the globe.

Read more in Bible History Daily:

Roman Concrete

OnSite: Caesarea Maritima

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Roman Latrines

Recovering Roman Jerusalem—The Entryway Beneath Damascus Gate

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Intricate murals painted on a tomb in Blaundus.
Photo: Blaundus Archaeological Excavation Project Archive

New excavations at the site of Blaundus in western Turkey are shedding light on the burial practices of ancient Asia Minor. Blaundus was a major city during the Roman and Byzantine periods and the seat of numerous bishops during the early years of Christianity. As reported in Smithsonian Magazine, recent excavations have exposed as many as 400 rock-cut tombs dating to around 1,800 years ago. Several of the tombs contain intricate painted murals depicting vines, animals, and even Roman gods.

The earliest tombs, which date to the second century C.E., were simple chambers cut into the side of a prominent cliff face at the site. As the original chambers became overcrowded with generations of burials, additional rooms were dug further back into the cliff, creating intricate multiroom systems, with their openings covered by massive marble doors. Many of the tombs also contain large amounts of grave goods, such as jewelry, mirrors, coins, and oil lamps which were intended to help the departed on their journey in the afterlife. Evidence suggests that many of the tombs were in use until the fourth century.

“Anatolia’s Stonehenge,” one of Blaundus’s many ancient monumental structures.
Photo: Klaus-Peter Simon via Wikimedia Commons.

Originally founded by one of Alexander the Great’s commanders, Blaundus was an important Hellenistic and Roman city. Today, it contains a wealth of archaeological wonders  that have only begun to be explored. In addition to the massive necropolis that sheds light on the burial practices of ancient Asia Minor, Blaundus contains many other impressive structures, including temples, a theater, a public bath, aqueducts, a stadium, and even a monumental building that has earned the nickname “Anatolia’s Stonehenge” because of its uncanny resemblance to the British monument.

Read more in Bible History Daily:

In Turkey, Underground City Thought to be World’s Largest Has Been Found

Jews in Roman Turkey

Apostle Philip’s Tomb Found in Turkey

Jordanian Oasis Reveals Ancient Burial Customs

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Why Bone Boxes?: Splendor of Herodian Jerusalem reflected in burial practices by Steven Fine

Ancient Burial Customs Preserved in Jericho Hills: Illegal bedouin digging leads to discovery of enormous cemetery in Judean wilderness by Rachel Hachlili

Excarnation: Food For Vultures: Unlocking the mysteries of Chalcolithic ossuaries by Rami Arav

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THE JEWISH RELIGIOUS ICONOGRAPHY depicted in this burial chapel in the Villa Torlonia Catacombs in Rome prominently features the Ark of the Covenant, flanked by two seven-branched menorahs, the pomegranate, and the etrog fruit.

Like anywhere in the diaspora, the Jews of ancient Rome lived their unique lives according to their religion and specific customs, which were different from their Christian or pagan neighbors. Seemingly, in death the Jewish community adopted the same way of burying their dead as their Christian neighbors—in catacombs. Yes, catacombs are not a purely Christian phenomenon, since in the first few centuries of our era, the large Jewish population of Rome created at least five such subterranean systems of burial chambers that scholars now recognize as Jewish catacombs.

“More than 600 ancient Jewish inscriptions have been identified from the city of Rome, the vast majority coming from funerary contexts. Epitaphs, or tombstone inscriptions, offer glimpses of people whose names would otherwise be lost to time,” writes Megan Nutzman in her column “Jewish Epitaphs from Ancient Rome,” published in the Winter 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. An Assistant Professor of history at Old Dominion University, Nutzman examines Jewish epitaphs from the catacombs of ancient Rome to look for patterns in these inscriptions and see what they can tell us about the Jews living in the city.

Taking her father’s military headstone as the painful point of departure, Nutzman looks at symbols and phrases, imagery and sentiments that appear on the Jewish funerary inscriptions from Roman catacombs, to analyze the commemorative choices and their possible implications. “Only limited insights about an individual can be gleaned from reading his or her funeral inscription in isolation,” admits Nutzman. She, however, goes on to explain the basic methodology behind her study: “The limited insights to be gleaned from any one inscription are no different among the Jewish catacombs than they are at Fort Snelling, but, by aggregating data from a large number of inscriptions, we can begin to identify patterns.”

To this end, Nutzman examines in what languages the epitaphs are written, whether the age at death or any epithet or ethical qualities or a synagogue title are included with the name of the loved one, whether the name and relationship of the dedicator appear, what burial formulae were selected, etc. She also provides a quantitative comparison with pagan and Christian inscriptions from Rome.

THE JEWISH SYMBOLS on this tombstone from the Monteverde Catacombs include the menorah, lulav, etrog, and an amphora. The Greek inscription reads, “Here rest Primitiva and her grandson Euphrenōn. (May) their sleep (be) in peace.”

To learn more about the funerary inscriptions from Rome and what they tell us about the social and religious world of ancient Jews, read Megan Nutzman’s column “Jewish Epitaphs from Ancient Rome,” published in the Winter 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full column “Jewish Epitaphs from Ancient Rome,” by Megan Nutzman, published in the Winter 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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A Rare Look at the Jewish Catacombs of Rome by Letizia Pitigliani

No one seems to know why it is so difficult to see the Jewish catacombs of Rome. But it is. The 1929 Concordat between the Italian Fascist government and the Vatican gave the Vatican control over all the catacombs of Italy—Christian, Jewish, and pagan.

The Oldest Hebrew Script and Language by Charles A. Kennedy

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Marble Faun, a novel about young artists struggling to learn their craft in 19th century Rome, a group of painters visits the catacomb of Callistus on the old Appian Way. As they wander through the tunnels, their way lit by flickering candles, one of the young women becomes separated from the rest. She was lured away by the Ghost of the Catacombs!

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