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Forword
Tomb raiders and treasure hunters
The Mediterranean in Antiquity – a short review
Life in Classical times
Burial customs simplified
Coffins and sarcophagi in many shapes and sizes
Life after death
Burying the dead
The Roman way of death
Houses for the dead
Remembering the dead
Cultural crossroads – the Roman provinces of Syria and Judaea 
A Roman Province
Decapolis and Palmyra – cosmopolitain cities of the East
The Jews
The first Christians
Martyrs and relics
Forgeries

Selected sources
People, places and events
Mythology
Glossary

A ROMAN PROVINCE

The Romans first began to occupy Syria around 64 BC, and their control over the whole area was consolidated by the end of the 1st century AD. Roman authority did not go unchallenged; a Jewish revolt against the Romans (66-70/73 AD) ended with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. Later, in 132 AD, the Jews launched the Bar Kokhba revolt, which aimed to free Judaea from Roman rule. By 135 AD, the revolt had been crushed, leaving over one thousand towns and villages devastated. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, deported or sold into slavery. The Jewish religion was suppressed and the Jews were banished from Jerusalem.

Around 250 AD, the oasis town of Palmyra grew rapidly and soon became one of the most powerful towns in the area. But when Palmyra’s Queen Zenobia conquered Egypt, and began attacks on Asia Minor, the Emperor Aurelian led a counterattack. Palmyra was defeated and ultimately destroyed in 273. The Sassanids, who reigned in Persia, attacked Syria repeatedly after 240 AD and gained control of the area in the early 7th century. In 636 AD, the Arabs conquered Syria, marking the end of Classical Antiquity.

THE BURIAL OF A SOLDIER´S FAMILY IN ROMAN JERUSALEM

Lead sarcophagi were quite common in the Mediterranean area, as they were probably much cheaper than stone sarcophagi. In Roman Syria and they were used by many groups, including Romans, Jews and Christians.

Photo: Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty © The Museum of Cultural History

We have several indications that the lead sarcophagusbelonged to a Roman legionary family. It was found in Jerusalem in a rock-cut shaft, covered with two layers of stone slabs. The shafts had been dug and used for earlier burials, as skeletal remains were found under our sarcophagus. The sarcophagus had been lowered into the older grave-shaft without removing the former occupant. Our burial contained the skulls of two children about four and ten years old and some pieces of jewellery. A second sarcophagus in a parallel shaft contained the skeletons of two adult males. Pieces of jewellery found outside the coffins had presumably been placed on top them by the mourners.

Lead sarcophagi were made of lead sheets that were cast in clay moulds and soldered together. Decorations were made with wooden stamps pressed into the moulds when soft. The decoration on our sarcophagus depicts Minerva with her owl set in a frame with the shape of a clasp of a Roman breast plate. This motif suggests that the men had military backgrounds. Perhaps these are graves of legionaries and their families stationed in Colonia Aelia Capitolina, (Roman Jerusalem), where the Legion X Fretensis was stationed until the 3rd century AD. This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that some of the grave gifts are of types rarely found in Roman Palestine, but common in other parts of the Empire.

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