The Jewish catacombs in Venosa are an important trace of the cult of the death in the Jewish colony of the ancient Roman city between IV and VI century AD. Their discovery dates back to 1853, when the first complex came to light from the left side of the Maddalena hill. Many documents, though, show how they were already known in 1584 and in 1842 D’Aloe visited them and transcribed the inscriptions written in the caves. The inscriptions were studied first by the linguist and glottologist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli in 1880, then by Umberto Cassuto in 1944.
Inside, the path is made up of a series of main corridors that create the typical labyrinth effect. The walls of the side corridors feature niches and burial recesses or lead into larger caves with more sepulchers, surmounted by a plastered andfrescoed arch.
The Jewish people, of Hellenic origins, worked mostly in the commercial and agricultural field, but many of them had important roles in the city administration. They were active in the wheat, wool and textiles trade and were skilled exporters always in touch with the near Apulian cities and harbors. Their commercial activities benefited also the indigenous people, thus, the safeguarding of their own interests allowed them to be widely accepted by the local population. In peace both in life and death: tolerant and fruitful relations alive, contiguity in death.
In 1974, following new research, a new sector was discovered. There, a frescoed arcosolium - an arch-shaped niche – was found showing the Jewish religious symbols such as the menorah - seven-armed chandelier, the shofar- horn, the lulav – palm, the etrog - cedar and an oil vial. Excavations led by Cesare Colafemmina in 1981 brought to light another part of the necropolis. The over 75 funerary inscriptions dating back to the IV – IX century AD, one of which exactly dated 521 AD, give <<the best view on the southern Jewish society between late antiquity and Middle Ages >> and give hints on how Jewish life was at that time in Venosa. The languages of those inscriptions are Greek, Latin and Jewish in the larger catacomb, and the same variety is noticeable reading the names of the death. Many epitaphs are bilingual, but Greek prevails close to the entrance, while going past both Latin and Greek appear, then Latin prevails. One of the most recent epitaphs likely written in the VI century, is in Greek but in Jewish font. The wealth of the city and its strategic position at the crossroads of Via Appia and Via Erculia, have been the city’s fortune from the imperial period to the beginning of Middle Ages.
