Canotyn §, SNIVELY INTRAMURAL BURIAL IN THE CITIES OF THE LATE ANTIQUE DIOCESE OF MACEDONIA®* During classical antiquity burial usually took place outside the city lim- its, where a fortification wall frequently marked the official boundary of the city. In late antiquity, however, a few burials began to be located inside the a development that culminated centuries later in the cemetery located in id around the urban church. In the cities of the Late Antique Diocese of edonia, consisting of the provinces of Creta, Achaia, Thessalia, Epirus Vetus, Epirus Nova, and Macedonia (sometimes two), i.e., the southern half of the Prefecture of Eastern Mlyricum, the move toward intramural burial ap- parently began in the 6th century. The factors involved in this major change in burial practices will be considered below, Three examples of burial intra nares will be drawn from the province(s) of Macedonia, the region with which | am most familiar. Exceptions were made in antiquity to the general rule of burial extra muras. The heroa of real or mythical founders have been discovered in Hel- icnistic cities, and other privileged burials are found, A conspicuous Roman example was the deposition of the urn containing the ashes of the emperor Trajan in the base of his column in the imperial Forum of Trajan in the center of Rome. Early cemeteries built over or surrounded by the later buildings of an expanding town ought not to be confused with intramural burials. Likewise, after the abandonment and destruction of many cities in the Diocese of Macedonia at the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century, burials af Slayie or indigenous peoples were often dug into the ruins cen public buildings; such graves are easily distinguished from nranure during stratigraphic excavation. act Since Coe developed in the context of the Roman cane ee man laws on the place of burial are usually cited. From the 9th eentey Laws of the Twelve Tables, through the Charter of the Colonie emt Julia in the Ist century 18.C., to the Edict of the emperors Gratian, * In memary of Sotiris Kissas.INTRAMURAL BURIAL IN THE CTThg, in $3) A.D., the Roman prohibition against intramural burial ned basically unchanged. In the Diocese of Macedonia, the Separate ria ‘ a of extramural burial and concern with issues of pollution was and Theodesit Greek tra of equal antiquity a es : in the Greeo-Romun world the basic reason for the prohibition of intra- mural burial was the belief that death brought pollution. The house in which’ someane died, the family of the deceased, and those who touched a dead sodly were considered to be unclean and had to be purified after the burial had taken place. The living feared that the dead would come back to harm them, but proper burial and appropriate offerings would keep the dead happy from the living. To what extent bodies were understood as a is not clear; practical considerations of smell, noise, and hy= ne may have reinforced the concept of pollution as reasons for cremation and burial outside the city. The eventual establishment of the urban churchyard cemetery as the norm demonstrates a fundamental change from - indeed, a complete reversal of - the belief that the remains of the dead were a source of pollution, to the idea that the dead were valuable. Belief in the literal resurrection of the body led ta the conclusion-disputed by the clergy but accepted by ordinary Christians- that only bodies properly buried and not disturbed would be resurrected, Martyrs anc other saints, whose souls were thought to haye gone directly to heaven, could protect the bodies of Christians from harm on earth as well as intercede for them in heaven. These beliefs may explain the frantic desire for burial ad senctus, i.e, near the sacred remains of martyrs and other holy per sons. Thus the bodies of saints were valuahle-as 4 source of power, and pos- Session oF OF propinguity to them was desired and disputed, while the remains ople needed to be kept inviolate in order to preserve their hope * eee ~Along with the increased value of the dead came a lessening: St ea of them and greater familiarity with the dead and their resting The four main re: ic . deny ‘sons which have been offered to explain the origin of are 1) the cults of mart: i yrs and relies, 2) the burial of clergy, S abn Shurches 85 a-mark of honoz, 4) the barbucian invasions, aid 4) 2s in the organization and concept of the city. It may be useful to re of ordinary pe " For the thes ee yond: see D.C. KURT2 and J. BOARDMAN, Greek Burial Cue and Ancieng fan: ek ig 82, 146, 148-150, 184-190; and |. MORRIS, Ba A907, py: 62-69, Yoav 59 of the Greek City-State, Cambridge University Press ‘York, 1981. pp. nee mr Death (Translation of L’hamme devant la mrt), NEW ———3 (PA secre XU CIAC, Tyr a9 898 imber that the development of intramural cemeteries did not necessarily nat the same time in all regions of the Empire nor for the same reasons Because of the abandonment, destruction, or drastic fall in the standard of living at many citics and towns in the Diocese of Macedonia around the end of the 6th century, only the very beginnings of intramural burial can be ob- served in them. The full development of the new trend can be seen in the relatively few cities that survived as urban entities 1. Mazryrs AND RELICS Forty years ago, in an article entitled “The Origin of the Urban Chureh- yard", Ejnar Dygeve attempted to explain the change from burial outside the city limits to burial within the city, He used Salona as the primary example for his hypothesis that the popularity of the martyr cult and the general cult of the dead in cemeteries outside the city prompted the transfer of the martyr cult to urban churches. and burials then followed the cult into the city* Dygave’s hypothesis has not gone unchallenged even for Salona, and his Salonitan model clearly wall not fit the circumstances further south in the » peninsula. Since his article is almost always cited in discussions of the intramural burial, it may be useful to show how the basic situation differs in the Diocese of Maecdonia. At Salona, according to Dyggve, shrines were built over the numerous, well marked or well remembered graves of martyrs, and the small shrine grew into or was replaced by a large basilica whose altar consisted of the martyr’s tomb. Although there is no evidence to suggest a shortage of Christians or martyrs in the Diocese of Macedonia (in- d, the emperor Galerius” residence in Thessaloniki might lead one to ex pect a lot of martyrs!), the graves of the latter seem not ta have been well marked or remembered. In response to a request of the emperor Maurice (582-602 \.D.} for relies, Eusebius, archbishop of Thessaloniki, was reported to have that the locations of the burials of local martyrs were unknown, except at of Matrona (Miracula: of St. Demetrius, 1, 50). ven if this statement \was a political maneuver, it must haye contained an glement of truth. Cemetery churehes in the Diocese of Macedonia were no! built until the Sth or 6th century in areas where concentrations of tombs, presumably Chris~ taken to construct the churches in and tian, were located. Despite the care - around exis to destroy them, there is no evidence that the existing burials and not to destray ar tombs. The cemetery basilicas or their altars were focused on particul may churches showed the same groundplans and liturgical furnishings as = churches. Although there were exceptions, many cemetery basilicas we E, DYGOVE, “The Origin of the Urban Churchyard,” Classica et Mediroalia 13 (1952) 147-158.INTRAMURAL BURIAL IN THE CITIES ve. ou, Stobi, Dion. They displayed very little of the clu: te ee a af it he expected around martyrs’ graves. The best example of ae a dle aves was abserved in the Hast Cemetery at Thessaloniki, Scare syed around a small detached cruciform chapel a few meters eptember Street basilica’ ; i i unpublished discoveries in Philippi and Thessaloniki muy change the present picture of activities and structures in the cemeteries, in general the urban churches of the 5th and 6th centuries were large and numerous while the cemetery churches were small and few in number, On the other hand, rejection OF Dyugve’s hypothesis does not imply rejection of the more traditional scholarly theory that the placement of the relics of mar- tyrs int the altars of urban churches gradually led to a desire on the part of ‘Christians to be buried near those relics, i.c., in and around intramural churches, That topic, however, is much too large to be dealt with in this paper. where tombs clu south of the Third Although rect 2. Tue Busan or Curray ty INTRAMURAL CHURCHE! In 1977 members of the joint Yugoslay-American Excavation. Project discovered and excavated a tomb in the Episcopal Basilica at Stobi. The church stood in a commanding position, well within the Late Antique fortification walls, The vaulted tomb was found in the east end of the south aisle of the sasilica, It was an extremely solid structure and well sealed; the entrance shaft had been entirely filled with very tightly packed, mortared rubble, and the space between the brick vault and a stone slab at its bottom had also been filled with eubble so that breaking through the vault would not have provided inniediate access to the tomb chamber. Inside the tomb was found the skel cton of «male in late middle age, wearing a robe and leather shoes, fragments: of which were still preserved, There were na grave goods whatsoever, The occupant of the tomb could not be identified with any certainty, The working Typothesis has been that he was the Bishop Philip mentioned as the butlder of the chureh in an inscription from the lintel over the entrance from e =e tothe nave, The tomb was dug into the basilica on the terrace, 1€ fea a alee ag already during World War 1 and again in the pete io ee oe oe Phase of the basilica on. the terrace, Silanes cis ly of the ceramic material by Virginia Anderson- Seems to fall into the second half, probably the last quarter Of or : i ‘ PRT ANGE KOU, “The cruciform martyrion and the Christian graves of i (1980) ang eee Thessaloniki.” (in modem Greek) Archatologle 4s walls Of Thesele ge AROPOULOU, “The Early Christian church outside the ©) WISEMAN, cenuloniks,” (in modern Greek) Mukedontka, 23 (1983) 25-46. ee a in Yugoslavian Macedonia: Archaeological Excavations and Retesrch, 1977-76." fournat of field Archaeology § (1978) 421-424.iF) ACTAXUICIAG, 11, p:491-ase the Sth century.* The construction of the second phase, to which the vaulted tomb belongs, took place sometime in the first half of the 6th century Ifthe occupant of the vaulted tomb in the south aisle was indeed the Bishoy philip who constructed the Episcopal Basilica, burial in » prominent place in hi church no doubt seemed fitting. This tomb, whether itis that of Bishop Philip or not, apparently belongs to the category of the occasional burial of members of the clergy in urban churches as an indication of respect or even affection. Numerous examples of such tombs have been found, e,2., the tomb in the aisle of a basilica at Larissa in Thessaly, two tombs in the enormous basilica atArapaj near Dyrrachion in Albania, one in the narthex of the basilica at Radoliste near Lake Ohrid, and the tomb of Pegasivs - identified by an inscription - in the south pastophorion of Hasilica B at Chersonisos on Crete. While such tombs were located in all parts of the church, in the apse, nave, aisles, narthex, annexes, and atrium, certain locations were favored; toward the east end of the side aisles near the presbyterium, in the west comers of the nave, and in the narthex, The uncertain date of many of the churches involved makes it difficult to say when such tombs first appeared in urban churches, the practice was cer tainly occurring in the 6th century, but may have begun already in the 5th century. Likewase, it is not clear in some Cases whether the tombs were built together with the church or were inserted into the floor at a later time, The few surviving inseriptions suggest that burial in urban churches was a pre- rogative of the clergy, Although these tambs are obvious examples of mtra- mural burial, it is not clear whether or to what extent the aceasional burial of a respected elergyman in an urban church contributed to the breakdown of the general prohibition of intramural burial. 3. BARBARIAN INVASIONS In Thessaloniki in 1972, during temoval of earth from the inside of the northern part of the east fortification wall of the city, a tamb chapel and a group of vaulted tombs were: discovered a short distance south of the Chain Tower. The chapel occupied a tower of the fortification; 4 narrow apse had been carved out of the east wall. Of two layers of painted plaster covering the apse and north wall, the earlier was Early Christian. Inaddition to tombs in the floor of the chapel and immediately to the west, a complex of ten a tombs, clearly built atone time im two rows, Was found immediately to c southwest of the chapel, against the fortification wall. According 10 Efterpe Marki, the tombs have been dated to the end of the Oth century’. " V. ANDERSON-STOJANOVIC, Stebi The Hellenistic and Roma Pringoton, 1992, 182. lates 4a9a, 440; E. Archaiologikon Belicen 28 (1973) Chrenika, pp: 478: 479, BAS the MARKI, “The end of antiquity and the introduesir of the dest iio ae in Pottery.(TRAMURAL BURIALINTHE Crips —— ) invasions into the Balkan peninsula and, jn. 1m ein smpire provide a third reason! for the change to intranura) ‘ Ficlets ‘on or the threat of desecration to extramural bur a C we invaders would have given a sirong impetus to the initiation of ve alin arens within and protected by the fortification wall. The location of the chapel and associated tombs immediately inside the wall seems particularly appropriate. The graves are inside the city but no further inside than absolutely necessary. The end of the 6th century date: corresponds to the time when Thessaloniki was besieged by the Slavs and burial would have taken ploce inside the walls because the inhabitants did not dare to go out®, Both Dyggve and Morris dismiss the barbarian hypothesis for intramu- ral bunal, on the urounds that war and sieges were nothing new and did not have significant effects on scttement patterns?. But one might argue that a combination of circumstances in which a) a state of siege required intramural burial, b) extramural tombs were being dug up before the eyes of the city’s defenders, and c} the belief in the actual resurrection of the body made the undisturbed bones of a deceased Christian more precious to his family and to the community than the bones of the dead had been in earlier centuries, was.a combination most likely to weaken the laws against intramural burial. f barbaria! decd, all ua] desecta 4. CHANGES IN THE ORGANIZATION ann Conceer or “Cry” The city of Veria or Beroia, in western Greek Macedonia, is perhaps Sest known from the Book of Acts in the New Testament as the third city ‘visited by the Apostle Paul, during his first journey to Macedonia in the mid Ist century, The line of the fortification wall, built or rebuilt im the 3rd eem- fury, can be traced around three sides of the city. se, 1972 8 small church was discovered on Karatasou street during the: Sieging of foundations for an apartment building, Part of the apse, the nave, and the narthex were investigated. A wall rather than a eolonnade separated the nave from what would usually be called the north aisle but must here be a A Darts vompariment. Tombs were located around the church, After docu= fhe et and temoval of the vpus sectife and mosaic decoration of the build Ne digging for the apartment building continued, but stopped again briefly ease of ak coe essaloniki,” (in modem Greek) Perilepseis tom Symposiow tes Byzantines wines ae frehaiclogius kai Technes 10.(1990) 41-42, S Commeritaire, Paris, Tae etm "eeueils dex miracles de Saint Démnéirins Ty | OSRORNE cit? 30-09: for the siege of Thessaoniki in the: late 6th Rome,” Echos dy ge got HORE at Rome in “Death and Burial in Sixth-Century * E pyGave, p41 sone Classique 26 (1984) 201-299. Aniquity, Canora ORRIS. Drath-Ritual and Social Sentcture in Classical University Press, 1992. p, 172TAXITECTAC. U1, 9 491-498. when two vaulted chambers were discovered under the north side of the church. Although found empty, they Were also interpreted as funerary in na- ture, as the antechamber and main chamber of a tomh. The excavator con- cluded that the vaulted chambers were earlier than the church and had been incorporated into it, The vault of the anteroom had been damaged and then rebuilt when the church was eunstructed above it! The date of the church, on the basis of the opus sectile pavement, is probably 6th century, The mosaic from the narthex, recently cleaned and pub- lished by Andoni Petkos of the Byzantine Ephoreia in Veria, appears not to contradict that date!', Little can be said about the vaulted tonib except that it jas a terminus ante quer of the 6th century, The reasons why first one large tomb and then other tombs and a church should have been located in this position, well inside the fortification walls, are not clear. Indeed, it would be passible to construct fairly persuasive arguments for several hypotheses explaining their location. The hypothesis 1 shall present here. however, is based on the historical topography of the city of Veria. The fortification walls of the 3rd century were built along the edge of the plateau on which the city stands and follow the line of the natural defenses provided by that plateau. Early travelers 10 YVeria, such as Delacoulonche and Colonel Leake, noted that they passed the remains of ancient fortifications at the north end of the city before reaching the entrance to the existing settle- ment. There are also references to 4 tower, apparently of Byzantine date and similar to the towers flanking the gate at the south end of the city, it was located near the monastery of St. John Pradromos in the vicinity of the cem- tery church on Karamasou street", As the plan shows, no churebes of the Byzantine and Turkish period were located ta the north of this site, with the exception of one known as the Panaghia Eaxg, presumably to be interpreted us the Panaghia Outside the City. Likewise, if the location of the hance finds and salvage excavations reported annually in Archaiologiken Deltion are -arked ona plan of the eity, almost nothing is reported from the northern end of the city until graves appear outside the line of the north fortification wall. One might therefore argue that the northern past of the city, although it was incorporated into the natural defensive line of the Roman walls, was mot 2 i 758, plate $509; |. \rchaistogikon Deltion 29 (1978-74) Chronika. pp, 7870-20" t DERIZIONI “Early Christian building 19 oer ‘Veria,” (in modem Greek) Archeiologiha Anatehta ex Athenon 7 (1974) 17% “ ‘1 WA PETKOS, “Moaie floors of Veris oe ees a Greek) Dutikomakedoniha Gremmata 4 (1998) 30-102, erpee Bhs 0 Por the tower, ace G, C., CHIONIDES, Histary af Vert 11 Gn modem: Gresl), Thessaloniki, 1970. p.b4?.INTRAMURAL BURIAL IN THE Crips 108 = ——_ densely inhabited or built up. Perhaps it was used for agriculture or grazing of cattle At what date in the Byzantine period an actual fortification wall with towers, including the one near the monastery of St, John Prodromas, was fuilt, 1s not certain, but ulready in the Late Antique period the area. of the later Karatasou street lay at the edge of the inhabited area. There in the 4th or 5th century some enterprising citizen of Veria built a tomb, and other tombs and a small church followed. This explanation of an intramural church and cemetery at Veria falls into the category of changes in the perception of the city, i.e., in this stance the defensive wall of the city no longer coincided with the boundary of the settle- ment. Recent investigations of late antique cities, c.g , Cariéin Grad (Justiniana Prima), suggest that by the bth century fundamental changes were occurring in the concept and organization of urban entities. At Carthage, intramural burials of the Sth century and later were found in a variety of contexts within the city at the same time as basilicas and their associated cemeteries were flourishing on the outskirts of the city. Wecause the Theodosian fortification wall, built ca, 425, probably did not reflect a time honored boundary of the city, Susan Stevens concluded that parts of what the inhabitants treated as city jay inside the wall while other parts were located outside!, The publications of two recent discoveries may provide new evidence for changes in the city itself and in the attitude toward the dead. A large sal- Vage excavation at Stobi in 1992 uncovered a large suburb of the 4th-6th Centuries. located outside the city wall above a part of the West Cemetery of the city. The straightening of the railroad line ‘aorth of Katerini in Greek Macedonia led to the discovery in 1993 of a site, tentatively identified as Anumon, with remams dating from the Iron Age to the 6th century A.D. A number of tombs were apparently located inside the town! In conclusion, it seems likely that some or all of the four factors dit Sussed above, together with the changing attitudes toward the remains of the ae m oa antiquity, caused intramural burial gradually to become: accept i sharp contrast to the practices and laws of classical antiquity. Corton ene: “Cemeteries and City Limite in-Fidth: to) Beveatte COMMER ELLIS and JM. HUMP, Comerence Abstracts 19 (1903) 54. See al80 s.P The Circus and a Bee ee "intorptetation and Analysis oP the Cemetery.” in 1 B88. pp. 325-335, antine Gometery at Carthage. |. Humphrey, ed., Ann Af6oh "OF & Very br a % thacélopical weyers #88 C. SNIVELY, “Salvage Excavasions ot Suabl Are wT, es 18 (1993) (1994) 24.97, 4 Nea (Athens) 17 July 1993; Archatovag } aiologia 48 (Athens, Sept. 1083) 95.