The first Christian tombs were extremely simple and poor. Following Christ’s example, corpses were wrapped in a sheet with no coffin.
Different types of tombs can be found in the catacomb of San Giovanni.
The tuff walls were dug into for loculi, rectangular niches enclosed by tiles, marble slabs or stone, which are different to the arcosolium, a wider and more refined type of tomb, consisting of an arch carved out of the living rock and enclosed horizontally by a flat slab called the “mensa”.
The forma, finally, was a tomb dug into the tunnel floor, due to lack of space or economic resources.
