EMBALMATION. - The ancient Christians generally used two types of e.; the first, inexpensive, consisted in placing a layer of quicklime either directly on the bottom of the tomb, or around the corpse, especially between the abdomen and the shroud or linen cloth, in which the corpses were wrapped and of which the weave can often still be discerned.
Thus they were observed several times by A. Boldetti, especially in the Christian cemeteries of the Appian and Nomentan Ways (Osservazioni sopra i cimiteri dei ss. Martiri, Rome 1720, pp. 290-91), later by G. Marchi in tombs of the major cemetery of the Nomentan Way (Monumenti della arti cristiane primitive, ibid. 1844, p. 19), by M. Armellini in the cemetery of St. Agnes (Il cimitero di S. Agnese, ibid. 1880, p. 22); recently in the cemetery of Pamphilus (E. Josi, Il cimitero di Panfilo, in Riv. di arch. crist., 3 [1926]), p. 93). The layer of lime was, normally, thicker in the bed of sarcophagi, as in the two sarcophagi found in 1624 in St. Bibiana (P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Recenti studi intorno a s. Cecilia, in Note agiografiche, IV [*Studi e testi, 24], Rome 1912, p. 18 n. 1), likewise at Carthage (L. Audollent, Carthage romaine, Paris 1901, pp. 430-31) and several times in Algeria (S. Gsell, Monuments antiques de l'Algérie*, II, ibid. 1901, pp. 40, 42, 258, 291, 343, 403).
The second type of e., more careful and usual in antiquity, is that of the use of aromatics which, according to the well-known passage of Tertullian, Christians used for their tombs in a quantity far greater than what was burned for the gods (Apolog., 42: PL 1, 258).
Prudentius confirms that in his time it was customary to wrap the bodies of the dead in white linens impregnated with myrrh, which has the property of preserving the corpse (Cathamrion, X, 49-52: ibid., 69, 888). St. John Chrysostom also speaks of aloe and myrrh mixed together. This system of e. has been found quite often upon the opening of sarcophagi, in which for the most part the corpses are laid with their arms along their sides (Tertullian, De anima, 51: ibid., 2, 782); they are therefore found wrapped in several superimposed layers of linen. P. Styger found as many as seven layers, those closest to the corpse being of wider weave and coarser thread (Il monumento apostolico della Via Appia, in Dissertazioni della Pont. accad. rom. di arch., 2nd series, 13 [1918], p. 21). The corpse wrapped with aromatic preparations between layer and layer, up to 8 cm. in thickness, was then bound with crossed bandages, as the mummy of Lazarus is represented both in the catacomb paintings and on the sarcophagi (Wilpert, Pitture, pls. 137, 2; 181, 2; 192; 222, 2; 228, 4; 248). M. Boldetti found in the tombs the existence of resinous materials (Osservazioni, pp. 290-91) and noticed the odor of aromatics upon opening intact tombs in the cemeteries (Osservazioni, p. 307); thus it was observed in the aromatics found during the excavations "in Catacumbas" in 1915; furthermore in Praetextatus (aromatic directly on the corpse), in Domitilla, in Pamphilus, in the cemetery beneath Viale Regina Margherita. Gregory of Tours noted the existence of layers of laurel leaves in the tomb of Bishop Valerius (De gloria confessorum: PL 71, 892); M. Boldetti noted the existence of laurel leaves (Osservazioni, p. 34). P. Styger found a layer of leaves and twigs about 10 cm. thick which perhaps served as a cushion (Il monumento apostolico, p. 25). In some cases corpses were found with resinous materials; thus M. Boldetti in Rome (Osservazioni, pp. 290-91) and L. Delattre at Carthage (Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des inscr. et belles lettres*, 1902, p. 597).
During the excavations "in Catacumbas" there were found in a sarcophagus, on the chest and at the feet, small heaps of aromatic substances of a light green color which had been introduced there by means of copper tubes, through the holes discovered in the lid (A. Profumo, La memoria Apostolorum in Catacumbas, in Studi romani, 2 [1914], p. 459). St. Paulinus of Nola attests that the faithful scattered precious aromatics on the tombs of the martyrs (Natal. s. Felicis: PL 61, 491).
The mummy was then often covered with fabrics of purple or gold, as has been verified several times. Thus G. Marchi attests for the relics of the martyr St. Hyacinth (Monumenti, etc., pp. 266 and 268). G. B. De Rossi found some in the cemetery of Praetextatus (Roma sotterr., I, Rome 1864, p. 169); several times they have been found in the excavations beneath the basilica "in Catacumbas" (P. Styger, Il monumento apost., p. 25) and in the cemetery beneath Viale della Regina. Maria, daughter of Honorius, was covered with cloths of gold in the Vatican mausoleum (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], p. 53). St. Jerome censured this custom (in Vita Pauli: PL 23, 30).
Enrico Josi