Zalai Múzeum 11. Kereszténység Pannóniában az első évezredben (Zalaegerszeg, 2002)

Topál, Judit: Early Christian Graves in the Western Cemetery of the Military Town in Aquincum, Pannonia

68 Topái, Judit stones tried to protect traditional tribal customs for centuries. All these obviously contradict the widespread assumption that relinquishing cremation and adoption of inhumation is but the result of spreading of Christianity. Before considering our graveyard in question, something should be said about the general character of Christian burial customs, first of all the denial of cremation in a social surroundings which practise it. The Christians had every reason for preserving the body because they believe in physical resurrection in very literal terms. Let us think of the Gospel account in which it is told that Christ's corpse was anointed with myrrh oil, bound up in linen before laying into his tomb (John, 19, 39-42), or the frequent depiction of Lazar as a body wrapped in bandages is also proof of a contemporary practice of mummification. Equally important was the orienting Christian burials with head to west and facing to east. This custom may have originated from the belief that at the second ressurrection Christ would appear from the east. (Matthew 24,27). The denial of putting grave-goods near the corpse is not clearly and fully expressed although Christ himself was not provided with any. Nevertheless, from some burials in the Catacombs we can see that grave-goods was permitted in several, mainly female graves, but probably rather as marks of respect than for afterlife use TOYNBEEpp. 190-191. After the Edict of Patience by Emperor Gallienvs (260) the Early Christian communities established legally their separated cemeteries inside the boundaries of the settlements. Limited excavations in the surface cemeteries at Rome show them to consist of earth-graves separated by slabs of stone and roof-tile/brick tombs. Embalming was employed on occasions, more frequently the bodies were bound tightly in a sheet and plastered with lime or gypsum. Except one or two lamps (lux aetema), glass vessels or items of jewellery, no grave-goods were deposited in the graves. TESTINI pp. 85-92. At St. Matthias, outside Trier, where the grave of Maternvs, the bishop of Trier has been indentified, the excavation revealed a large number of inhumations contained in stone coffins aligned east-west and rarely accompanied by grave-goods. CUPPERS pp. 165-174. North from Trier, beside the road, at St. Maximin's, the burials are enclosed in simple stone and wood coffins with plaster packing (lime or gypsum), occasionally accompanied with grave-goods of 4th century date. EIDEN pp. 359-363. In Trier, at St. Medárd, inhumations (and one cremation) were discovered often accompanied by grave-goods, mostly pottery vessels. One of the coffins contained a body covered in plaster, as well as glass and pottery vessels and a casket of jewellery. If this cemetery is correctly identified as a Christian one, it is an effective proof that pagan customs live long and Christian rite was not always strictly applied. WIGHTMAN 247. Nearer the Rhine, at Bonn, Xanten and Cologne similar graves have been recorded beneath churches dedicated to prominent figures, martyrs, confessors or bishops in the early Christian church. GREEN pp. 49-50. In Augsburg at St. Ulrich and Afra most of the burials were facing to east with few or no grave-goods. FASOLD pp. 26-27. The rectangular halls with exedra and mensa in Noricum are collectively regarded as Christian churches NOLL pp. 73- , of the surface cemeteries surrounding them we know but few. On the basis of her epitaph, the young Ursa from Ovilava (Wels) CIL III 13529, NOLL 46-, may have certainly been Christian, while the existence of one or two lamps and altogether three fingerring with Christogram are regarded as much more less convincing argument UBL 150. Pannónia has seven or eight more or less undoubted Early Christian communal urban basilicas: at least two in Aqvincvm (Budapest) NAGY L. 1942, 766 TÓTH 1990, 21, the lately much debated basilica major and minor in Gorsium (Tác- Fövénypuszta) FITZ 1976 pp. 28- FITZ 1993 TÓTH 1989, in Sirmium (Mitrovica) DUVAL pp. 85- and two in Valcvm (Keszthely-Fenékpuszta) MRT 1, p. 84. These sites may, indeed, be the evidence for the inevitable existence of some Christian communities even if their cemeteries have not entirely been uncovered. The nucleus of these cemeteries, around which the burials were grouped might be the grave-chamber of a martyr e. g. that of Anastasia, Demetrios, Ireneus or Synerotas/Syneros in Sirmium (Mitrovica) NAGY T. 1938 pp. 68-MÓCSY p. 752, the basilica martyrvm in Mursa (Eszék-Osijek) or the painted mausolevm, grave-chapels and vaults beneath and round the Cathedral of Pécs-Sopianae, GOSZTONYI pp. Ill- FÜLEP pp. 36, 51, 99, 108 where the cult of the above-mentioned Demetrios was probably cherished. On the basis of contemporary sources (list of bishops, martyr-files etc.) no such an outstanding person has been known from Aqvincvm so far. The presumed Aqvincvm origin of Beatvs Antonivs from civitas Valeriae (Ennodivs, De vita beat. Ant. 7) is a pure surmise. Nevertheless, the features detailed above also recur here in several parts of cemeteries for which documentary or topographical evidence is lacking but which should be considered as burial places for Christian communities. The small apsidal building in the eastern cemetery of the Civil Town (mvnicipivm Aqvincvm, later colonid) is regarded as a basilica coemeterialis NAGY L. 1942 pp. 769-, fig. 39, and the groundplan of an other, double building of nine rooms was also explained in the same way. NAGY L. 1942 pp. 766-, figs. 37-8 MÓCSY p. 756 SZILÁGYI 1968, pp. 120-121. Recent excavations, however, i.e. in the last thirty years, in the Military Town (canabae legionis) yielded more convincing results which testify to the existence of Early Christian community. A characteristic three-foiled funerary chapel (cella trichora) at the