- A Columbarium was a large Roman Tomb full of niches designed to hold hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of Funerary Urns holding the cremated ashes of the deceased.
- Light came in through tiny upper windows.
Description
- Columbaria were created to reduce the cost of the Burial.
- A family would have a niche capable of holding 4 Urns.
- Each Urn would be sealed and cemented into the niche. The Urn carried the Name, the day and month the Deceased died, but not the year.
- The higher niches were more expensive, the lower niches the least expensive.
Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas
- In the first century CE, Pomponius Hylas bought the Columbarium for himself and his wife.
- It is located on the Via Appia, Rome, near to the Porta Latina, and can be visited.
Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas