Coemeterium (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "cemetery", from the Ancient Greek, κοιμητήριον, ''koimeterion'' = "bedroom, resting place") was originally a free-standing, multi-roomed Early Christian gravesite. Bodies were buried in wall niches and under the floor. In later times ''coemeterium'' became synonymous with ''cemetery'', which, like the French ''cimetière'', was derived from the Latin word.

Literature

* Hugo Brandenburg: ''Coemeterium. Der Wandel des Bestattungswesens als Zeichen des Kulturumbruchs der Spätantike.'' In: ''Laverna'', No. 5, Scripta Mercaturae, St. Katharinen, 1994, pp. 206–233, . * Steffen Diefenbach: ''Römische Erinnerungsräume: Heiligenmemoria und kollektive Identitaten im Rom des 3. bis 5. Jahrhunderts n. Chr''. De Gruyter, 2007, (= ''Millennium Studien,'' Vol. 11; ''Zu Kultur und Geschichte des ersten Jahrtausend'', a dissertation at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

, 2004). Cemeteries {{Christianity-stub