Catacombs of Ponziano - Comparanda 3

 The Roman catacombs: or, Some account of the burial-places of the early 

By James Spencer Northcote  

-In the Catacomb of Ponziano on Monte Verde, and in that of S. Valentine on the Via Flaminia, the soil foundation is of a fluvial & marine deposit 
-tufa granolare is what almost all Christian catacombs are excavated from
-Roman Christian catacombs usually under sand-pits, the soil, broken and crushed by long subterranean carriage (for many parts of the cemeteries are distant a ¼ or even ½ mile from an exit to the open air) may have been brought out through the common entrances
-Bosio in Winter 1602 found what it generally accepted as the Jewish Catacombs of Rome; it was excavated about ½ way up the ascent of Monte Verde in the tufa granolare, which forms the immediate stratum of that southern extremity of the Janiculum 
-He describes it as exactly resembling in every particular the Christian catacombs, except that there is a total absence of all emblems exclusively Christian, while the tombs are marked with such representations as the Ark of the Covenant, the 7 branched candlestick of the temple, & other Jewish tokens.  The lamps too, and terra cotta vases, were impressed with the same figures; in a fragment of Greek inscription read ‘synagogue.’  He added that the general character denoted more of poverty than did the Christian ones, which is what might be expected from the condition of Jews in Rome....Neither are there any chambers, as in the Christian catacombs, fit for the celebrations of religious worship...the only question which can be raised is concerning its antiquity, as compared with that of the Christian catacombs.     (p38-39)