Crypts, rooms of mummification and procedures of conservation of bodies in Sicily

Cripta San Matteo al Cassaro (Palermo)

Cet article est publié en ligne avant son intégration définitive dans les Actes du 3ème Colloque International de Pathographie (Paris, De Boccard, 2010), avec l'autorisation de la Dottoressa Luisa Maria Lo Gerfo (archéo-anthropologue, C.da BonGiovanni, Brucoli 2 n 10, Brucoli 96010 (SR), Italy. 0039 / 347/5916718, mail: luisa.logerfo@hotmail.it).

Summary

Even if the Sicilian mummies are less known than those of the other geographical areas of the planet, nevertheless they are not less meaningful from the archeological, cultural and historical point of view. They furnish in fact, precious information on the physical characters of some groups, on the ways of preserving the bodies from the corruption of the death, on the imaginary collective around the life over the biological death, on the history of the social practices, the custom and the fashion, on the medical aspect and they finally allow us, to understand the most complex aspects of the social life proper of the individuals, connected to precise ideological implications on the theme of the death, to determine ritual practices and funeral contexts.

In the exposure that follows, the more meaningful complexes of mummies will be illustrated, mostly detaining us on those few known, or not at all studied, from the scientific point of view, because they constitute a cultural premise and an essential frame to the understanding, position and development of our theme: the complex trip that the body completed, from the moment in which the individual exhaled the last breath, to the conservative treatment, up to its definitive deposition in the place of burial: the crypt.

The mummies of the Catacombs of the Cappuccini in Palermo.

Palermo entertains under the church of Saint Maria of the Peace, adjoining to the convent of the Cappuccini, (installed in 1534), the greatest complex of Italian mummies, commonly denominated 'catacombs': eight thousand according to the data brought by the greatest part of the sources, in reality no more than three thousand after the various vicissitudes to which the structure has been submitted in the time.

Concerning of natural mummies (those recovered in the most ancient burials), intermediary (the greatest part of the cases) and artificial (in isolated cases): a real cemetery, submitted to the care and the great skill of the monks, that, for over three centuries, they practiced the mummification.

Description of the Catacombs

The structure of the Catacombs, as it is today, is constituted of five long corridors (of the monk’s, of the men, of the women and of the professionals) with a cross vault. Of these, four delimit in plant the perimeter of a rectangle whose short sides are prolonged, while the fifth one, briefer, (of the priests) ransom transversally the rectangle, dividing it in two quadrilateral uneven.

The only corridor boxed in the rock, and therefore completely in the dark, except for a reflex of light coming from a small window in the first ramp of the ancient staircase of access, it is that of the monks, while the other, built in bricks, they receive air and light from some windows set aloft. The today's access is constituted by a second staircase in ampler stone of the preceding one, built in 1944, that it introduces among the two wings of the corridor of the monks in direction of the corridor of the men from the gatehouse.

Of the four altars originally disposed at the four angles of the corridors, to officiate the funeral functions, - respectively devoted to the Our Lady of Sorrows, to the Ecce Homo, to S. Giuseppe, to the SS. Crucifix, - today only the first one stands, adjoining the entry from the sacristy, at the end of the corridor of the monks, (at the right of who enters), in the chapel rededicated to Saint Rosalia. The one devoted to the SS. Crucifix, at the angle between the corridor of the professionals and that of the women, was destroyed by the 1943 bombardment.

As for the disposition of the mummies - omitting those eventually buried under the plan pave of the corridors -, the greatest part, often identified by a tag with name and place of origin , they are situated along the corridors; some result simply suspended with a hook to the walls, while others are atop, lying on wood partitions overlapped, inside niches, or lined up standing in the same; others, instead are deposed inside funeral boxes or reliquaries of various make, laying on the floor, or on the partitions, and, through a peep hole or the coverage in glass, they allow the sight of the dead. The most representative dead persons are situated in rooms that open along the corridors. A chapel preserves the mummies of four young girl virgins, as recited by a verse of the sacred writings and those of some children. Others instead have variedly been put inside the crypt without a precise criterion.

The attire varies second social status, sex and age: the monks are generally hanging on the walls dressed of frock, often with a cord to the neck; the religious dress the sacred dressings of brocade and silk, the luxurious laymen dresses have been consumed for the age, the soldiers the uniforms of frill, while the virgins are dressed of white with a metallic crown on the head and her children, in their festive clothes, they are tidied up with crinoline, bows (mostly blue) and garlands. A lot of mummies are simply wound in a cloth of sack laced in the waist. It seems however that this last attire is recent and realized by the monks, together with the stuffing of underlying straw, to assure its stillness.

Unusual are also the coffins and the funeral furnishings: real 'treasures' of local craftsmanship, that would delight a museum and those alone would request for a special study.

History of the 'catacombs'

The history of the 'catacombs' of the Cappuccini, also in relationship to the extension of the structure and the long period of use, it broadly results documented, from historical sources and of archives, also from writings of reporters and illustrious visitors. It is possible therefore to reconstruct in its entire both the evolution and the development and the destination of use of the famous complex.

The most ancient bodies are those of the deceased monks in the convent, originally deposed in a common pit , dug, on the southern side and externally of the church, but accessible from the inside, from where the corpse were lowered, generally without boxes and overlapped the one to the others.

According to the historical sources, soon grows the demand to widen the structure for the increasing demand of burial of external subjects to the convent, starting the construction and amplification, that will continue in the years up to 1784.

At the same time are built the colanders destined to the treatment of the dead bodies, four in all, which are distributed along the perimetric corridors. Since the beginning it results defined therefore the cemetery use of the structure, to contain, besides the monks and to the religious also the not deceased in the convent, at first the benefactors, subsequently the aristocrats and the notable ones of the place and, from 1783, all those that had applied for it.

The practice of the burial is extended up to the beginnings of the last century using different conservative methods.

The treatment of the dead bodies

The treatment for the mummification of the corpse is a rather empirical method, that doesn't have nothing to do with that any Egyptian embalmers.

According to the different historical sources the treatment consisted in a preventive phase of exposure of the dead body, for a varying period from eight to twelve months, inside the colanders, in supine position to favor the discharge of the bodily liquids, which followed the washing with vinegar, the disinfection and the exposure to the air for brief time, up to the complete drying, to the stuffing of the dead body with vegetable fibers, especially in the missing parts and finally the dressing and to the definitive position inside the burial. Only in some cases - perhaps in periods of epidemic - the method adopted was to preventively set the corpse in a bath of arsenic or milk of quick lime.

During the visit I effected near the Catacombs I have had the opportunity of seeing the inside of one of the colanders - the only one partially visible from an external gate - situated along the corridor of the professionals. It is a square room about 3,5 ms2, with squares of calcareous stone at sight and coverage with barrel vault. Along the perimeter, - excluding the portion of the door of access – are the real colanders, constituted 7 tubs in masonry, around 60 cms high, on which are disposed, as a grate, 8 parallel earthen drain for each one of the laying places, of about 10 cms of diameter. An only mummy lies naked, in supine position, on the earthen drain. The rest of the room was occupied various dismissed material (inclusive teeth and pieces of bones probably belonged to other mummies).

The above description coincides, apart the number of the laying places, with that of a 1855 document: «every room-colander around which is built a grate of stones with the position of earthen drain able to receive a number of eight or ten dead bodies» . But in contrasts with one more ancient than 1680, of the Sambenedetti: «around four rooms with their seats, in which religious corpse that of freshly arrive, are introduced to where they are put in a sitting position with an iron chain that sustains them in the chest so they do not fall; and shut the doors to not let out the smell of it» . According to this description the corpse were not situated on the colanders in supine position, but sitting. This disposition, not actually documented in Palermo, it is nevertheless very diffused in Sicily, we find it in fact in the colanders of Savoca, Messina, Augusta, Trapani, Trecastagni. It cannot be excluded that this practice, also in Palermo, can have been adopted, at least for a certain period . That the desiccation of the corpse was done only through the procedure above described it is nevertheless to verify.

The crypt of the church of S. Maria di Gesù in Palermo.

Not far away from the Cemetery of the Cappuccini, is the church of Saint Maria of the Jesus (said also Santa Maruzza or of the "Canceddi"), famous because connected to the sect of the “Beati Paoli”. It keeps an underground crypt, with cross coverages that follows the perimeter of the building above to which its entrance is through a flight of steps set near the entry. Opposite to this last, there is the altar with painted in fresco motives, while, along the two corridors to the sides of the staircase are situated, numerous colanders. These last, are characterized by tubs in masonry with a central hole for drainage. The horizontal loculi, disposed on three parallel files and separated by niches of semicircular bottom with spherical coverage, are boxed in the opposite walls of the colanders and in those to the sides of the altar. They are of the type to shelves and they are furnished with headrest in stone.

The crypt of the Church of San Matteo to the Cassaro in Palermo.

Along the Course Vittorio Emanuele rises the imposing church of San Matteo, founded by monk Leonardo Galici in 1633, as a desire of the Brotherhood of the “Miseremini” . Under the plan pave is preserved great underground room in a rectangular form with barrel coverage, which was built in 1701. Along all its perimeter, boxed in the walls, are disposed the loculi, structured on six parallel files for a total number of 180. Furnished with headrest in stone, they are in a rectangular form and introduces the ledge slightly tilted and covered with tiles majolica.

The colanders are not individualized, however the church has undergone through various restructurings during the centuries.

The crypt of the church of San Domenico in Palermo.

Not far from the church of San Matteo rises the church of San Domenico, that constitutes an authentic jewel of the art of the eighteenth century A. D. The sacred building, often remembered for the beauty of the plasters, marbles and paintings, once preserved the graves (as for es. that of the great statesman Francesco Crispi, died the 11 August of 1901), cenotaphs and commemorative headstones: in 1954, during the restorations, good part of the sepulchral rooms and the crypts have been filled with various materials.

The Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli La Gancia in Palermo.

The building of cult, situated in the ancient popular neighborhood of the Scopari , was built by the Franciscan fathers in 1485 with the function of hospice; very little of its original structure is preserved, because during the construction of the realization of the crypt, in 1672, part of it has collapsed.

The crypt, of the particular form of "L", is constituted by two connected rectangular rooms: on the inside walls of the first one (both to the right and to the left), 6 niches are grafted with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage and 6 shelf loculi, while on the one at the end there is a small altar in masonry, placed side by side by two couples of columns, above which (boxed in the wall), there is a fresco, in which a priest is represented; the second room (a little greater than the first one) has 16 niches with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage, separates the one from the other by as many columbary. The structure, that results elegantly decorated with gilded plasters (in particular way the coverages of the niches with motives as shell), it constitutes a "unicum" in comparison to all the other crypts until to viewed.

The human rests, that once lodged in some niches, have been thrown in the ossuary - situated at the center of the room - and replaced with skeletons in chalk.

Near the crypt there is the room of mummification. It is a small place with colanders constituted by stone seats, on which have holes were for the cadaverous sewages.

The crypt of the Church of the Madonna of the Itria in Palermo.

In Laurel street is the church of the Madonna of the Itria, built in 1611 by the Brotherhood of the Coachmen. From the sacred building, through a flight of steps, you enter in the room of mummification - partially buried today - and to the underground crypt. This last, richly decorated with frescos of the "purgative souls" and of the "intercessions of the saints for the salvation of the souls", it has loculi of the shelf type (provided of headrest), that are arranged on more file parallel in loggias separated by pillars.

The crypt and the colanders of the Church of Santa Maria of the Agonizzanti in Palermo.

The Church of Saint Maria of the Agonizzanti was founded by the Brotherhood of the Agonizzanti in 1630 and preserve below the plan pave of the central aisle, a great underground room of rectangular form - recently modified, because of the works of consolidation and restructuring of the flooring - and a small room with colanders, with loopholes for the flow of air. It is provided of two tubs with earthen drain, surmounted by ledges of majolica, furnished with headrest in stone.

The crypt of the church of San Nicolò from Tolentino in Palermo.

Not far away from the market Ballarò, is the church of San Nicolò from Tolentino , founded in the seventeenth century A. D. from the Company of San Nicolò. It has a rectangular underground crypt, with barrel coverage, to which you enter through flight of steps, to whose sides, partially buried, are arranged the colanders, furnished with seats in stone. In the wall at the end, there is the altar, with two niches with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage. On the right side wall there are situated 6 loculi, arranged on three parallel files and separated at the center by an equal niche to those above described; while on the wall left side are six niches. On the floor it is situated the trap door of the ossuary. The room had to appear richly decorated: still today can be seen some fragments of the frescos that evoke the personification of the Death, strict judge, in front of which nobody can escape, and the decorations to plaster of the coverages of the niches to form of shell.

The Church of the Spirito Santo (Messina).

The city of Messina, situated on the northeastern coast of Sicily, preserves, in the church of the Spirito Santo, one room of mummification, in a rectangular form, to which you enter through a flight of steps, set under the floor of the Church. On the inside walls 10 niches are grafted with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage, furnished with seats of stone, of seats of stone, on which the holes are practiced once employed for the out flow of the cadaverous sewages. To the left of the staircase, there is the well, of rectangular form, used for getting the water during the practices of the mummification. During the recognition it has not been possible for me to individualize the crypt, because the church has suffered various restructurings after the earthquake of the 1908 (also the floor has suffered an analogous fate).

The mummies, the crypt and the colanders of Savoca (Messina).

Savoca is small center of the province in Messina, castled on a ridge to 303 meters altitude, between the homonym stream and the river of Agrò, 5 Kms from the ionic coast. It preserves, the eighteenth-century A. D. crypt of the Convent of the Cappuccini , 33 bodies mummified of high prelates, noble or notable, recognizable from the sacred vestments or from sumptuous suits of frill, contained in niches, reliquaries and funeral boxes variedly disposed on the floor. Their position is the result of an approximate setup through the years Fifties and Sixties of last the century, as an awkward attempt to economically exploit it as to recall tourists.

The rectangular shape Crypt, is situated below the plan pave of the terrace in front the church of the Convent. There are two entries: the first one, the original, is constituted by a trap door in wood on the floor of the church; the second, of recent construction, colleague directly the outside in the same crypt.

On the inside walls some niches are grafted with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage, while in the apse, rises an altar on 3 steps, surmounted by a round arc. Before the apse, under the floor in kilned Sicilian square tiles, is situated an ossuary. The room of the crypt is covered by two barrel vault with fanlights and on the impost of the arcs, along the whole perimeter, is inserted a decorated frame, interrupted in some lines, above which are recognizable a skylight and two windows. Above of the niches are as many columbary, some of which expose human skulls. The practice of the mummification was practiced in a different place of the Convent of the Cappuccini: in the Main Church of Savoca. Here, the room of mummification is constituted by an underground room of semicircular form, ventilated by numerous loopholes in the walls; the entrance is through flight of steps fixed in front of the apse of the Church. Inside, opposite to the staircases, is situated an altar, its sides are disposed some niches (10 in everything, of which 5 to the right, as many to the left). These, of semicircular form, are furnished with seats of stone for the "dripping" of the dead bodies: the practiced holes on the seats carried the humors and the cadaverous sewages in a pipe-line to expurgate underlying, connected to a pit of collection, set under the floor of an adjoining second room next to the room above described, of small dimensions, to rectangular plant, with barrel coverage, and with small openings - now walled- for the flow of air. This second room is furnished with 6 niches.

The crypts and the rooms of straining of the Church of S. Maria of the Lettera of Riposto (Catania)

Riposto is a coast town at 7 m. over the sea level of the sea, along the oriental coast of Sicily that goes from Catania to Messina. Its toponymy, "u ripostu" or the closet, it has roots of a prosperous past, in which small middle class merchant developed a predominant role in the flourishing sea-faring suburb, devoted to stow huge quantities of vinery products and agricultural in special stores. In such context, the religious and funeral practices were grafted, connected with the stories of the building of cult the “Sanctuary of the Madonna of the S. Lettera”.

The sacred building rises on the rests of two preexisting buildings, connected between them by a small access: of the first structure (a seventeenth-century A. D. church entitled to S. Maria of the Letter), remains the floor of Sicilian earthen square tiles, that was used as a platform a rectangular sepulchre with coverage of stone plates ; the second, better preserved, directed toward north, was built by Don. Giovanni Calì in the year 1710, as it is deduced in the deed of foundation .

In 1979, on the occasion of the reconstruction of the plan pave, came to the light a room of straining, constituted by an underground room of rectangular form, with barrel coverage. Its entrance is through few steps set to the south wall. Opposite to the steps, along the north wall, are situated the colanders, once certainly provided of niches, today almost entirely disappeared. These, of semicircular form, they are furnished with seats of stone and mortar, on which were set to sit the dead bodies, until the draining was completed. The holes practiced on the seats carried the humors and the cadaverous sewages in an underlying short pipe line of expurgate, connected to a pit of collection, set under the floor and directly connected with the sea. During the visit by me effected I have been able to perceive, besides, a square well (deep m. 1,80 around), set at the angle between the steps and the west wall, where it is possible to directly observe the sea water.

A second room, whose walls follow the perimeter of the eighteenth-century A. D. building, is furnished with a barrel coverage, provided with two square trap doors in lava stone, which guaranteed the access. On the east walls, south and west of the room, are set some "beds in stone", where great quantities of human skeletons are deposed. Regarding the destination of use of this last room it is possible to formulate some hypotheses: perhaps to receive the corpse once they completed the preventive treatment, or destined to family tomb (kept in consideration the presence of the funeral beds previously mentioned and the posthumous changes during the 1868 restructuring ).

In March of the 2002, following the town deliberation and of the favorable opinion of the Superintendence for the cultural welfare of Catania, they began the operations of requalification and restoration of the monument. To the of under of the plan the small church of the seventeenth century A. D. (in correspondence of the actual sacristy), another crypt was discovered, in which numerous skeletal rests are deposed.

The direct observation confirms therefore the affirmations of the oral tradition that the room aforesaid served the monks to accomplish the various operations of treatment of the dead bodies.

The skulls and the body of an infant of Randazzo (Catania)

Unique exemplary, for the elevated number of pathologies found, are the so-called skulls of Randazzo, casually recovered for the partial collapse of one of the walls of an underground room, during the resettlement and putting in safety of the Church of S. Maria . We are referring to one hundred thirty five skulls and of the body acephalous of an infant of about 70 cms of length, mummified and provisionally settled near the Town Cemetery.

The sample has revealed, immediately, interesting from the point of view paleopathologic , as it, has shown an ample variety of pathologies: from the indicators of more common stresses (cases of porotic hyperostosis diffused, chronic rhinitis, arthropathies, dent alveolar infections, traumas provoked by blunt weapons), to the most complex pathologies (neoplasy, spina bifida), or of infectious nature as some cases of tuberculosis. Two cases of cranial trepanation have been found: the first one shows a complete bony obliteration of the parietal bone left and the other, a partial osteophyte of the borders.

Regarding the practices of maintenance of the dead bodies, it is reasonable to suppose that for this sample an intermediary mummification has been used, on the basis of the examination of the fragments of cerebral material and the traces of the liquids of putrefaction still visible on the human rests. Also have been observed two cases of craniotomy that shows the signs of the cut with a toothed blade at different heights on the cranial surface, but no incision provoked by a scalpel: they been effected on already dried rests. In other cases a filling of the skull is observed with various material (straw, twines you fragment metallic, wadding etc.), without having effected any cut of the skull.

The crypts and the rooms of straining of Trecastagni (Catania)

The town of Trecastagni rises to the slopes of the volcano Etna, at 586 m. over the sea level and preserves in the Church of Sant'Antonio from Padova and in the Church of the Souls of the Purgatory some crypts and rooms of mummification. As much as the two buildings of cult present similar analogies, each one of them is furnished with structures turned to the conservative trials with its own peculiarities. The Church of Sant'Antonio from Padova, attached to the Convent of the reformed Smaller Fathers , below the plan pave is provided of a crypt of rectangular plant. It has two entries: the first one, constituted by a small staircase in stone it set on the floor of the church and the second, of recent construction, connects directly to the outside in the crypt. On the inside walls 24 niches are grafted with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage and 44 columbary disposed on other parallel files. At the left of the first entry, there is a room of straining with barrel coverage (once ventilated by a loophole), provided with a rectangular well (set at the left angle of the wall at the end) and of tubs with earthen drain: two are situated along the side walls and one in the wall at the end near the well.

A second room, whose entry is always situated inside the crypt, the was intended for process of mummification and currently it only preserve a tub, set at the left wall of the entrance.

The convent and the church have recently been object of restoration and the human rests have definitely been deposed in the ossuary.

The Church of the Souls of the Purgatory is composed of an only aisle. Beyond the portal of lava stone (on which a skull and crossbones are engraved with two hourglasses, the foundation date is 1701 and the epigraph IUDICATI SUNT MORTUI, "the dead are judged"), the entrance is, through a staircase set in front of the apse of the Church, to an underground room of rectangular form, once ventilated by windows drawn by the side walls, richly decorated with floral motives of red color. On the wall at the end is situated an altar, at whose sides are situated 4 niches to semicircular bottom, while, along the other walls there are others 12. These were furnished with seats for the mummification (still visible the imprints in negative left on the masonry) and of a drain to expurgate, that carried the cadaverous sewages in an underlying pit of collection. Finally it is possible to see the well, set at the right of the entrance and a second room of small dimensions, adjoining the one mentioned before, with rises in lava stone set at the angles.

A sepulchral room (perhaps private funeral chapel?) is situated under the central part of the aisle: according to oral sources, it shelters four mummified bodies. Such hypothesis remains to be confirmed through a more deepened study.

The crypt and the chapel of the prince Don Alvaro Paternò (Catania)

Catania, famous for its interesting history and the beauty of the monuments, it rises at the slopes of the volcano Etna and preserve in the Church of Santa Maria del Gesù an underground crypt and the funeral chapel of the prince Don Alvaro Paternò.

The crypt, of a narrow and long form, is of rectangular plant. Along the inside walls they are arranged, one top of the other, the wooden sarcophagi of some individuals, that belonged to important patrician families of the city.

A funeral chapel of quadrangular form (erect in 1519), it opens to the left of the Church entrance and preserve, according to the sources, the body of Prince Don Alvaro Paternò, a real patron of the sixteenth century A. D. A more deepened study is necessary for a confirmation of the data gathered.

The Church of Sant'Agata La Vetere (Catania)

The Church, situated inside the sixteenth-century A. D. surrounding wall, has been many times reconstructed during the centuries (the most ancient plant goes up to the medieval period, when it was the cathedral of Catania).

During the operations of restoration some Hypogea rooms have been discovered, among which a room of mummification, the crypt and a few private funeral chapels.

The room of mummification is of rectangular form (of the XVIII cent. around) you enter through a flight of steps shaped as L, set near the side entry of the Church. On the inside walls 28 niches are grafted in semicircular bottom with spherical coverage. At the end of the room, there is the altar, richly fresco painted with floral motives.

Also have been discovered, some underground sepulchral rooms, situated under the floor of the central aisle, in which today are still visible the loculi in horizontal position with headrest.

The room of straining of the Church of Jesus and Maria of the trumpet of Augusta (Syracuse)

Augusta, whose origins are owed to Federico II of Svevia, it is an important center of the province in Syracuse, endowed with a great port commercial and military. The ancient built-up area and part of the buildings of cult (in all 20) were destroyed by the 1693 earthquake and by the bombardments during the second world war. Despite this catastrophic scenery, the city, according to Elio Salerno , still preserves the rests of rooms of straining and crypts, present to a large extent of the buildings of cult survived. In the impossibility to be able to personally verify the situation of the sites of August, cause the inaccessibility of the same, it seemed to me useful for our study to look for some bibliographical comparisons. To such intention, the description of the discovery is interesting under the main altar in the Church of Jesus and Maria of the trumpet (bombed 13/05/1943), of two rooms, identified as crypts. In reality it deals with a room of straining of rectangular form (according to what is visible from the photo), provided of four seats of stone with arm rests, pelvic shaped, on which the bodies were sat (the human skull and crossbones are seen still) and of a twin second room, connected to the first one, whose function was probably that to mummify the dead bodies.

The crypt and the mummies of the Convent of the Cappuccins of Burgio (Agrigento)

The building of cult was built by the fathers Cappuccins in 1683, in substituting preexisting structure of the 1580. It keeps the mummified bodies of religious, men and women, according to a routine consolidated in the other convents, situated in a great crypt of rectangular plant, with cross vault, to which is entered through a small entry adjoining the church. On the inside walls numerous niches are grafted bottom semicircular with spherical coverage, within which the mummies are lodged, while in the apse, is an altar, surmounted by a fresco with decorations. Above of the niches, are as many shelves,, some of which expose human skull and crossbones.

The mummies of the hermitage of Santa Rosalia La Quisquina (Agrigento)

The sanctuary, erected in honor of Santa Rosalia, is situated in the Greenhouse of Quisquina, at 936 m. of altitude and it was built by the Prince Gaetano Ventimiglia starting by 1683. It preserves the mummified bodies of some of the monks devoted to Santa Rosalia, according to a routine consolidated in the other convents, situated in an room of rectangular plant, adjoining the church.

There are two entrances: the first one, connects through a brief corridor the crypt with the church; the second, of recent construction, the connected directly with the outside. On the inside walls there are 16 niches with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage, of which 7 along the wall A, 7 in the B, 2 in the C, set at the sides of the altar, while in the wall D a colander furnished with a tub with earthen drip edges. At the center, under the original floor of square tiles enameled with floral motives polychrome, an ossuary is situated. The coverage is constituted by a barrel vault with fanlights, on which open two windows.

The Sanctuary of the Annunziata (Trapani)

The town of Trapani, situated on the north-west coast of Sicily, it has a room of mummification, of rectangular form (of the XVII cent. around), to which its entrance is through an L shaped staircase, set near the side entry of the Church. On the inside walls are 28 niches with semicircular bottom with spherical coverage. Opposite to the staircases, there is the altar, in which, according to oral sources, the bodies that were originally situated in the colanders have been walled. A further underground sepulchral room is set under the central part of the Chapel of the sailors or the risen Christ (realized from 1514 to 1552): according to some oral sources, it has never been violated. Such hypothesis remains to be confirmed through a study more deepened.

The mummies and the conservative process

The studies on the treatment of the dead bodies, on the mummies and the formalities of burial in Sicily, to exception of some case, they are scanty and quite recent, while the bibliography is scarce. This has caused more than a few difficulties during the archeo-anthropological recognitions.

The practice of the mummification in Sicily has not been certainly favored neither from the environmental and geographical conditions, nor by the cultural traditions. Sicily doesn't normally have rooms as the deserts and the swamps, properly for the natural mummification of the bodies. As for its geographical position, the conformation of the territory and the numerous of coasts encourage the development of a mild climate, a discreet rain and a consistent rate of humidity for good part of the year, these factors are not suited for the maintenance of the flesh. The traditional practices of preservation of the bodies, finally - from the cremation, very much in use by the Romans, to the burial, more properly of the Christian world, practiced from the Middle Ages to our days - it would seem to exclude the diffused appeal to alternative forms of maintenance of the bodies.

Despite this, the Sicilian mummies, whether you deal with complexes, or isolated groups or of single recoveries, are very numerous in relationship to the limited extension of the territory. It primarily concerns bodies, for the more going back to an arc of ample period, from the Modern age to the nineteenth century A.D., submitted to different conservative procedures and deposed in the mortuary chapels, crypts, rooms attached to the church, for the more undergrounds, but also heightened.

During the archaeological investigation different types of mummification have been seen:

1) intermediary mummification: the body and the head had fixed in such position that the bodily fluids, because of the effect of gravity, they could gather in the bodily hollow and flow out, through the anal orifice or the vagina, to be gathered in a special pit (or cistern) underlying the room of mummification.

2) artificial mummification (characterized by some variants):

a. for the embalming. The body was deposed in the straining room after the evisceration had been practiced: operation that was done with the opening of the chest through a Y incision at the sides of the sternum, that it was rejoined in an only incision in the region epigastric or of the pubic symphysis. For the decerebralizzation instead, a cut was practiced in the horizontal section, to which followed the removal of the brain and the filling with various material (twines, wadding, feathers, bits of metal, fragments of cloth). In many cases the removal of the ocular bulbs have also been observed;

b. for the use of substances ceraceous or liquid wax (methods used by Ruysh et Tranchina);

c. for the immersion of the body in baths of arsenic and milk of mortar, after having practiced injections in the abdomen of alcoholic substances (method used by the Prof.Tranchida);

d. for the use of chemical substances similar to medicines (method used by Dr. Salafia).

For long time, the practices of mummification were destined to the bodies of monks, priests, saints and subsequently also to the persons of the hegemonic classes, with previous payment. Such habit reached the maximum development between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, for then gradually disappear toward the end of the nineteenth century A. D., naturally with uneven temporal margin in the different sites, for the generalization of the legislative prohibition of burial of the dead bodies in the church, due to the introduction in Italy of the known Napoleonic edict of Saint-Cloud, of September 5th 1806.

The place of mummification: the rooms of mummification

The desiccation of the dead bodies occurred in special rooms, called "colanders", in which the process of dehydration and the microclimate interrupted the putrefaction and the consequently ruin of the bodies.

It refers to underground rooms attached to the church, of rectangular form, with a to barrel vault or a cross vault, ventilated by loopholes drawn in the walls, whose entrance is guaranteed through some ramps of staircases set on the floor. Normally they is furnished with wells (of square or rectangular form), that were used for drawing the water during the procedure of mummification, and of an altar in masonry. According to L. Rocca and E. Raia , once, these rooms were furnished with a plate of slate hermetic closing - today disappeared -, that maintained the hygienic conditions of the room, so favoring the access to the places. The direct observation has only confirmed partly these affirmations: the grooves for the lodging of the plate have been observed only on the colanders of some sites, but not in everyone.

During the archaeological investigation the presence of two different types of rooms of mummification has been attested:

1) the colanders with semicircular niche with seats in stone.

It refers to semicircular niches with spherical coverage, furnished with seats of stone, on which the dead bodies were set to sit. The practiced holes on the seats they carried the humors and the cadaverous sewages in a pipe line of expurgate underlying, connected to a pit of collection, post under the floor.

2) the horizontal colanders with earthen drain.

This typology, is characterized by a series of rectangular tubs furnished with parallel earthen drain, on which the bodies were layed. The liquids of putrefaction were gathered up in special underground lines of expurgate.

After the mummification, on the body were practiced the last retouches and it was dressed, before the definitive transfer to the place of burial, the crypt.

There isn’t any historical information about the period of realization of the straining rooms, even if an hypothesis in such sense could be deducted through the comparison of two historical sources : the testimony of Sambenedetti (1680), that concerns a description of 4 colander-rooms with seats, on which the fresh dead bodies of religious were placed, tied up with chains to avoid their fall; that of Farella (1855), that refers to some colander-rooms with grate of stones, furnished with earthen drain. The comparison of the two sources induces to think that the description of the Sambenedetti, constitutes the proof that the niche of semicircular colanders with seats in stone was already employed during 1680. The archaeological study of the structures and the constructive materials of some sites (for es. the typology of some tiles, the form of the seats and the nails to hold still the dead bodies), have confirmed partly, the preceding affirmation. The “terminus post quem” seems so defined, even if it is not impossible, in presence of further studies, to demote it.

The place of burial: the crypts and the funeral chapels

With solemn funerals, the body was transported to the underground necropolis of the church, where it received the definitive position in the place that the individual had bought when was still alive. We will treat with the principal characteristics of the crypts.

It regards of rooms with the barrel or cross coverage, on whose inside walls are situated the loculi, in which lodged the mummified bodies. Usually on the wall at the end is visible an round arc, in front of which rises an altar, while to the center, under the floor of square or rectangular in earthen tiles Sicilian, an ossuary is situated. Along the whole perimeter is a frame decorated grafts, interrupted in some lines, above which some skylights and columbary are situated, some of which, still today they expose human skulls.

During the archaeological investigation three different types of graves have been individualized:

1) loculus in horizontal position or as shelf, with or without headrest.

2) loculus in vertical position with semicircular niche with spherical coverage.

3) private mortuary chapels.

These different forms of burial found in the numerous Sicilian places, are strongly tied to the social function, political or religious and to the economic possibilities of the individuals. At the origin of such phenomenon there is, on one side, the idea that the body of the dead persons must be saved from the corruption (which implicates the idea of life after the death in spiritual or terrestrial sense as persistence of the corpses among the alive) and on the other side, the interpretation of the idea of the abode of the saints (that was spread in the Christian age from the fifth century A.D., especially in the western world). This last one, constitutes the cultural model of reference within which are placed a big part of the Italian mummies and, from my point of view, the Sicilian mummies: in fact, it is strictly tied to the idea to bury the corpses in proximity of the bodies of the martyrs (ad sanctos), in the external or the inside parts of the church (apud ecclesiam) .

Such practice moves from the feudal ideology of the Middle Ages according to which « a saint is a chosen prince, of which the Christian world is considered vassal. He is buried under the altar, with the bishop nearby; followed by the prince and his faithful. According to their rank on earth, are buried in the church or around it». It is not in fact a case that the most part of the Sicilian mummies belong to the notables of the respective communities.

Conclusions

In spite the partiality of the sources and the state of degrade in which stands the greatest part of the structures, this study has allowed to clarify more than a few questions on the funeral, the mortuary practices and the rooms of mummification in Sicily. The identification, for the first time, of different typologies of rooms of mummification is revealed essential in the analysis of the conservative methods and in the confirmation of the bibliographical sources. The conspicuous number of structures in relation to the maintenance of the dead bodies has shown that the mummification was a diffused practice in Sicily, but destined only to some part of the population. Analogous conclusions have been drawn during the identification of the different places of deposition of the bodies (besides confirming the social function of them, it shows that, from this point of view, after the death they are not all equal).

Further scientific studies still in progress will certainly contribute to clarify certain proper aspects of the Sicilian mummies of the Modern age.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Philippe Charlier for his invitation to participate in this conference, his continuous support, his help in the interpretation of certain paleopathologic lesions of the sample of Randazzo; Dr. Huynh-Charlier for her precious collaboration during the study of some samples; the Dr. Del Campo, Mayor of Randazzo and Dr. Gaetano Fisauli, Dir. Demografic of Randazzo for their precious collaboration; Dr. Giovanni Leto Barone, Deputy Manager of the Archaeological and Landscape Park "Valley" of the Temples in Agrigento, who has furnished me the authorization to examine the preserved human rests in the hermitage of S. Rosalia La Quisquina, the president Dr. arch. Giuseppe Adamo and the personnel of the cooperative "La Quercia Grande", for their precious collaboration and hospitality. More sincere thanks to Mr. Giuseppe Carrabino, impassioned of history and popular tradition of Augusta; Dott. Concetto Russo and Rev. Cavallaro for their precious collaboration in the town of Trecastagni.

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