Wives and Mothers in the Underground Cemeteries of Rome: Representation between Paganism and Christianity

The paper discussed the phenomenon of remembrance of Roman women as members of family groups between the 4th and the 5th century. Observations of female funeral representation were based on wall paintings, gold-glasses and epitaphs found in the catacombs of Rome, which fall into three general groups: distinctly pagan or Christian representations and the grey-zone objects whose context does not allow for categorization on the basis of religion. My aim was to discuss the tools of female representation in each of the groups, together with the female qualities on which the focus was put. The desired outcome was to deliberate to what extent depictions of women from different religious circles shared iconographical motifs and messages transmitted by them.