What's in a name? The sigma-shaped rock-cut tables in Maltese catacombs

Abstract

In the field of archaeology, Mario Buhagiar's most significant contribution is undoubtedly in the meticulous documentation and study of Maltese catacombs. His major published work on the subject is the catalogue of late Roman and early Christian tombs he compiled for his degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of London, later published with British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, in 1986. It was followed by a series of articles on one or another aspect of these burial places - including a study specifically dedicated to this one of the most distinctive features of Malta's catacombs - now collected together in one volume. The feature alluded to in the title of this paper, to which Buhagiar consistently refers as 'triclinium', has been changing terminology in literature concerned with this subject over the last four centuries. In the following contribution I shall present an overview of all these terms in their historical contexts, followed by a justification of what I believe to be the most appropriate term, against the background of recent philological and archaeological scholarship. With a few exceptions, the feature was seen as an architectural space created inside the catacombs for either ablution rites or some communal ritual repast.