Monuments of the early church . there were also chamber tombs hewnin the rock and faced with a Greek porch or other architecturalornament. The most characteristic Syrian type of sepulchrewas the tegurium, a pyramidal roof supported above a sarcopha-gus by four pillars. In North Africa Christian burial wasalways, so far as we know, in the surface soil. Surface ceme-teries were not uncommon in Italy ; the most extensive remains CHBISTIAN MODE OF BURIAL 41 are at Portogruaro (Julia Concordia); curious is the arrange-ment of the great stone sarcophagi in groups of ten and the Northern co
Monuments of the early church . there were also chamber tombs hewnin the rock and faced with a Greek porch or other architecturalornament. The most characteristic Syrian type of sepulchrewas the tegurium, a pyramidal roof supported above a sarcopha-gus by four pillars. In North Africa Christian burial wasalways, so far as we know, in the surface soil. Surface ceme-teries were not uncommon in Italy ; the most extensive remains CHBISTIAN MODE OF BURIAL 41 are at Portogruaro (Julia Concordia); curious is the arrange-ment of the great stone sarcophagi in groups of ten and the Northern countries the open air cemeteries greatly pre-dominated,— in France, in the Khine country, in Dalmatia,and in Istria. It would be going too far afield to describe thevarious forms which the Christian tomb exhibits in differentlands. Such an account would almost constitute a treatiseupon ancient modes of sepulture, for the Christians generallycontinued without scruple the customs of burial to which theywere used as gentiles. r L. J Fig. S. — Sarcophagus in the catacomb of Priscilla. Second century. On the other hand, catacombs are not confined to Kome andItaly; they are found in the Rhine country, at Cologneand in other lands. Subterranean burial was probablyregarded as the most specifically Christian mode of interment. It is particularly in the centres of Graeco-Roman civilization,where cremation prevailed, that the Christian mode of burialseems in sharpest contrast with gentile custom. There is nodoubt that the practice of inhumation was prescribed by thenew faith and obligatory upon all the faithful; with a naiveconception of the doctrine of the Resurrection cremation seemedirreconcilable. There was also a strong repulsion to burialamongst heathen. It was therefore in the nature of the casethat Christians must be buried, and that they must be buriedtogether. As for the matter of burial, it was by no meansunknown even among the Romans. In the Laws of the TwelveTables bu
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