Nuovi dati sul cubicolo dell'Adorazione dei Magi nel cimitero comunitario di Villagrazia di Carini

Abstract

The cubicle X10 is a privileged burial space in the south-eastern area of the Early Christian catacomb of Villagrazia di Carini. The archaeological investigations carried out from 2004 to 2007 have completely brought to the light the burial chamber, which hosts thirty-eight burials, some of which, reserved for children, are richly frescoed. In addition to the s.c. “habitat paradisiaco” (the rapresentation of the Heaven like a garden) and to the portraits of the deads, in this cubicle recurs twice the Adoration of the Magi, whose theological implications in the controversy against the Arian heresy have been analyzed by Rosa Maria Bonacasa Carra. The structural analysis carried out in recent years have made it possible to clarify that the rather irregular conformation of the chamber is the result of two main expansion phases and of different sub-phases, which have altered its original appearance because of the continuous search for new spaces for burials by the community of the ancient diocese of Karines, mentioned in the Epistolary of Pope Gregory the Great. The continuation of the research has also highlighted the use of the Roman foot of 29.7 cm applied, at first, to the originary project of the cubicle and, later, to each burial added in the subsequent construction phases. Regarding the cemetery of Villagrazia di Carini, the metrological study is an entirely innovative research address, whose effectiveness is increasingly confirmed by the other private funerary chambers brought to the light into the catacomb until today.