Archaeological discoveries

How were catacombs invented?

The construction of the catacombs cannot be credited to the invention of an individual or a specific event at a certain point in time. Catacombs originated organically when early Jewish, then also Christian, groups in Rome started to reuse or expand abandoned quarries on the edges of the city from the middle of the 2nd century AD.

They are the outcome of several practical, cultural, and social factors that converged in ancient Rome, including burial traditions, the urban layout and geography of the city, as well as legal restrictions and religious beliefs concerning death and afterlife. It was a gradual development driven by the needs of growing burial communities facing certain environmental and cultural contexts in and around ancient Rome.