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Nature 436, 339 (21 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/436339a; Published online 20 July 2005

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Radiocarbon dating:  Jewish inspiration of Christian catacombs

Leonard V. Rutgers1, Klaas van der Borg2, Arie F. M. de Jong2 & Imogen Poole3

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A Jewish cemetery in ancient Rome harbours a secret that bears on the history of early Christianity.

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The famous catacombs of ancient Rome are huge underground cemeteries, of which two Jewish catacomb complexes of uncertain age and 60 early-Christian catacombs have survived1, 2, 3. Here we use radiocarbon dating to determine the age of wood originating from one of the Jewish catacombs and find that it pre-dates its Christian counterparts by at least 100 years. These results indicate that burial in Roman catacombs may not have begun as a strictly Christian practice, as is commonly believed1, 3, 4, but rather that its origin may lie in Jewish funerary customs.

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