A carving of a menorah tells us that the occupants of this section of the catacombs were Jewish. Unlike Romans, Jewish people buried their dead within three days, and never cremated them. When Christianity came around, its practitioners followed Jewish law by interring a body rather than cremating it. The belief was that if the body were cremated, there would be nothing to resurrect during the Second Coming of Christ. I’m not sure how folks accounted for the many millennia of decay that turns a body to dust — or what would happen to the thousands of people who’s bones got all bundled together, mixed up, and sometimes tossed out to make room for new occupants in a tomb.