Sarcophagi from the Jewish Catacombs of Ancient Rome

Book excerpt: This comprehensive inventory of all known sarcophagi from the Jewish catacombs of Rome, is the first specialized treatment of this subject in monograph form. It describes and analyses each sarcophagus and provides full reference material which it critically examines. This work thus fills a lacuna in the literature on this field, which has up to now been confined to the treatment of early Christian and pagan sarcophagi of the period. �We have here a complete overview of the Jewish sarcophagi of ancient Rome, all of them illustrated by photographs and provided with extensive bibliographies. This work thus fills a lacuna in the literature on this field.� Journal for the Study of Judaism �Until this book, however, no one has attempted to assemble all of the Jewish sarcophagi separately in one place and to provide relevant information in the form of a well-ordered catalogue. For this reason, Konikoff's book provides a welcome resource for anyone interested in the material evidence of ancient Judaism and forms a good beginning for study of the sarcophagi, especially from a bibliographic point of view.� Gnomon .