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Google Maps, Lasers Reveal Vatican Catacombs
Nerval's Lobster writes "The Vatican, while notoriously secretive about things buried in its vaults and archives, is being as public as the digital age allows it to be about the nearly completed restoration of catacombs early Christians used as secret churches as well as burial sites. Contractors, archaeologists and art experts spent the past five years restoring the Priscilla catacombs under the Vatican using lasers, among other techniques, to restore frescoes painted on the walls of the burial chambers. The Vatican unveiled the work Nov. 19 with a press conference in the Basilica of San Silvestro outside the burial tunnels, accompanied by a virtual tour of the Priscilla catacombs provided by Google Maps. The basilica is divided into an area for religious services and another that acts as a deposit for sculptures and artifacts dug up during excavations of the catacombs and other areas underneath the Vatican."
Tom Hanks needs the cash, Da Vinci Code Part 2, coming up!
I guess you missed Angels and Demons when it came out three years later?
Although, it should be noted that they changed the order of the plots for the film adaptations. The Da Vinci Code is originally the second book in the series after Angels and Demons.
I wandered around via the virtual tour, but all the shelves were empty. .. I wonder what happened to the remains? It was curious to read the graffiti of names and dates, and the ancient signs on the wall but wasn't able to recognize all the writing, It looked like their was more than one language used for the official lettering. I saw dates like 1862, 1920, 1952, etc . Graffiti has been a part of human experience for a long time, and is one way historians can estimate how literate the average population was of an ancient civilization.. Did you know that we have access to the words and thoughts of the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum?
The writing you could not decipher was Greek
True, but it rather ceased to be relevant a few centuries ago. I know Slashdotters like to bear grudges but this is ridiculous. I also think it's cute that you think Slashdot of all places "believes in the Vatican".
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Did it say "I for one welcome our roman overlords?"
You should considered actually going to the Vatican then. Because as somebody who has been there, other than the cost of going to Rome, the entry price to the Vatican was $0. They don't charge to go there unless you want to pay 5 euros to take the elevator to the top of st. peters. You're not required to buy anything from their shops. But at no point on visiting, are you required to pay them anything to look around st. peters, look at the tombs of the popes, look at all the art, etc, etc, etc. So you'd hardly be lining their pockets.
True, but it rather ceased to be relevant a few centuries ago. I know Slashdotters like to bear grudges but this is ridiculous. I also think it's cute that you think Slashdot of all places "believes in the Vatican".
Mouthbreathing Neanderthal scum. If it wasn't for the cataclysmic sacrifice of nearly all of my brave anaerobic ancestors during World War O your caustic remarks wouldn't even be possible.
St. Peter's square is the site of the old "Circus of Nero" chariot racing track. The roman's (emperor Nero) martyred St. Peter along the "spine" of the old chariot racing track in 67 as entertainment for the chariot race attendees and then buried the body in a little cemetery located next to the track (which was handily located to clear out the victim(s) from the night before to prepare for the new day's activity.) St. Peter was held in high esteem by the early Christians of that time and they secretly excavated near his burial site in order to construct a memorial shrine, to have a place for Christian worship, and to allow other Christians of the time to be buried near St. Peter as they were martyred. As the centuries passed, and Christians were no longer persecuted, churches were built over the site of St. Peter's burial, leading to the newest one, the present St. Peter's basilica which was constructed approximately 400 years ago. St. Peter's grave is located directly under what is now the altar.
Reminds me of Ultima Underworld (or Eye of the Beholder, or Dungeon Hack, or whatever).
The Priscllla Catacombs are off Via Salaria, near the big park that has Villa Ada in it. A good half hour walk, at least, from the Vatican. All of the catacombs are "outside the wall" in any case.
Perhaps they mean "under the control and supervision of the Vatican"?
I did go there last december and had to pay an admission fee. I cannot remember what the fee were, but now the full admission ticket is 16 euro. http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Orari.html
"I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
There's nothing particularly Byzantine about that letter that looks like a "C". It's called a lunate sigma and it's been around since the Hellenistic period. And the scripts written in the crypts are not miniscule; they're very decidedly majuscule. One is rather unlikely to find Greek written in miniscule in a 2nd-4th c. Roman catacomb, given that Greek miniscule would not be invented for another five centuries.
Now, if you happen to have a little Greek, you might have come to the conclusion that these scripts must be Byzantine since your Attic Greek textbook uses letters that look quite different. But the fact is that modern printed Greek, whether classical, koine, or Byzantine, uses a post-classical script. With the invention of printing, printers created a miniscule script similar to that found in the Byzantine manuscripts they were using. Unless you're working specifically on paleography, none of your textbooks or printed editions are going to use a classical script.
Or that Catholics do believe the papacy because of the Donation of Constantine. It was a Catholic priest who identified the forgery, and that over five centuries ago. Anyone who thinks this is a challenge to Catholic beliefs doesn't understand Catholicism.
There is even graffiti from the masons who built the Egyptian pyramids, and on many ancient monuments you can see the mark of the individual stone masons on different pieces of construction signing their portion of the work. In two of the cathedrals in Spain, Santiago and another one (Salamanca?), I saw the mark of the same mason (or perhaps family of masons) on multiple columns.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin