Word: appia
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Cleared Rubble. Working by the light of gas lamps, Vatican laborers have finally cleared the centuries' accumulation of rubble from blocked passages and dusted off the marble commemorative stones. In the course of this work, they have discovered elaborate decorations in the catacomb located on the Via Appia Pignatelli, off the Appian Way south of the city. A burial place for rich Roman Jews, the catacomb has a small mosaic-paved courtyard aboveground, leading downward to a main passageway six feet wide, branching off into narrower tunnels. One leads to a pair of burial vaults covered with frescoes, their...