Painted portraits on wood and cloth were common in the ancient world and prized as authentic and lifelike images. Affordable, portable, and desirable, they were an important form of representation, but rarely survive in the archaeological record outside Egypt. This article approaches the study of painted portraiture in a way that does not necessitate the survival of the images themselves. It analyzes evidence for the use, reuse, and imitation of painted portraits in the catacombs of 4th-c. Rome by examining the remains of settings and attachments for portraits, the shadows left by them on walls, and portraits in other media which imitate panel paintings. The article considers why painted portraits were so effective in funerary contexts and what connection they may have had to domestic portraiture. It also explores the development of panel portrait imitation through the phenomenon of the “square nimbus.”

Although animal cults are a widely recognised feature of religion in ancient Egypt, little is known about the nature of the catacombs and mummies associated with the temples dedicated to animal gods. Here the authors present a biography of the Catacombs of Anubis at North Saqqara in Egypt, from their peak activity in the Late Period to their exploitation in modern times for raw materials. This research highlights the hitherto unappreciated scale of burial practices associated with animal cults, and the industries they supported and were supported by. The evidence suggests that the animal cults played a significant economic role, both in ancient Egypt and in subsequent eras.

Investigations in a catacomb revealed an early mass grave, in which the bodies were bound tightly with plaster and textile in a type of mummification. Over 100 individuals, mostly young adults, including women, were stacked in rows apparently following a communal fatal incident, perhaps an epidemic. The presence of traces of gold, silver and probably amber with many of the bodies, and their burial in an imperial property suggests a group of some status being interred in the early years of the catacomb, at the end of the second century AD or beginning of the third.