THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wednesday, January 11, 2017 |A
LIFE & ARTS
RESTORATIONS
A Labyrinth Under Rome
After years of delay, Villa Torlonia’s Jewish catacombs are set for repair
IT’S AN ALARMINGmoment for
any parent: Your 6-year-old daugh-
ter announces that she wants to
wear a miniskirt or crop top to
look “sexy.” Or your 7-year-old
starts dancing like a seductive pop
star in a music video.
The natural reaction is overre-
action. Some parents plunge into a
discourse on the risks of inviting
sexual attention, scaring the child.
Others try to bury the matter by
ordering the child never to talk or
act like that again—inadvertently
teaching her that any topic involv-
ingthewordsexistabooand
should never be discussed with
parents.
One calming truth: Children’s
remarks about sex are seldom
what they seem. “It doesn’t mean
they’re being sexual,” says Victor
Fornari, director of child and ado-
lescent psychiatry at Zucker Hill-
side Hospital, Glen Oaks, N.Y.
They’re usually just imitating
something they’ve seen or heard.
There are plenty of sexualized
images for children to imitate.
More than half the female charac-
ters in children’s Halloween cos-
tumes, dolls, action figures and
Valentine’s Day cards wear provoc-
ative, revealing clothing, according
to a 2016 study by researchers at
Kenyon College. And children are
being exposed earlier: About 1 in 6
children ages 4 to 5 already watch
music videos, follow fashion
trends and want “the latest stuff,”
according to a 2014 survey of 815
mothers in the journal Body Im-
age.
Ask open-ended questions such
loose, long-sleeved tops and jeans,
according to a 2015 study in Child
Development. They also rated the
more adult dressers as less intelli-
gent, athletic or nice.
Those beliefs can affect chil-
dren’s classroom performance, re-
search shows. “The ones who be-
lieve they should be sexualized are
the ones who say, ‘I want to be
sure people don’t think I’m
smart,’ ” says Christia Spears
Brown, a psychology professor at
the University of Kentucky, and
one of the study’s authors.
Avoid sending a message that
looking attractive is bad, but em-
phasize other attributes, says Jo-
anna Faber, co-author of “How to
Talk So Little Kids Will Listen.”
Praise her for what she does:
“ ‘Look at how fast you ran! You
carried that heavy bag. How did
you get all those blocks to bal-
ance? You helped your friend
when she scraped her knee,’ ” Ms.
Faber says.
“Kids are trying on a lot of hats
as they find their identity. We
have to make sure we give them
lots of hats to try on.”
If she wants to have fun like
dancers in music videos, offer
classes in dance or gymnastics, or
find videos of children dancing in
ways you’d like her to emulate,
Ms. Faber says.
“Put on some music and dance
around with her. Let her run and
jump until she collapses in exhaus-
tion.” Child-friendly videos and
other media can be found on the
websites A Mighty Girl and Com-
mon Sense Media.as, “What does it mean to be
sexy?” says Jennifer Berger, execu-
tive director of About-Face, a San
Francisco nonprofit that offers
media-literacy training and re-
sources for women and girls. Does
it mean dressing so others will like
you? Walking in a certain way to
get attention on the playground?
Or having fun, like the hip-hop
dancers in music videos?
Then set clear limits in simplelanguage.
Give some dos along with the
don’ts. “The expectations parents
set are hugely important,” says
Judy Vredenburgh, president of
Girls Inc., a New York nonprofit
education and advocacy group.
Explain to your daughter that
you want friends and relatives to
value her for how smart or ath-
letic she is, or for her ability to
solve problems and do things forherself, rather than how she looks,
Ms. Vredenburgh says.
Without guidance, even young
children may embrace the stereo-
type that girls should be valued
only for their appearance and abil-
ity to please males.
Nearly three-fourths of 208
children ages 6 to 11 rated paper
dolls wearing short, low-cut tops
and miniskirts or short shorts as
more popular than dolls dressed insarcophagi.
Traditionally, the ancient Ro-
mans cremated their dead. But
cremation was abhorrent to
Rome’s Christian and Jewish mi-
norities. Since land was scarce and
costly, it made sense for both com-
munities to bury their dead under-
ground. Most of the 40 catacombs
discovered in other areas beneath
the old imperial city served Chris-
tians, but the two under Villa Tor-
lonia were created for the city’s
sizable community of Jews.
This week, a central-govern-
ment budget went into effect
which, after more than 10 years of
delay, allots €1.4 million (about
$1.5 million) to restoring Villa Tor-lonia’s Jewish catacombs. If things
work out, within a few years—
maybe even next year—the public
will be able to see an “area of ex-
traordinary historic importance,”
as Claudio Procaccia, director of
the Department of Jewish Culture
of the Jewish community of Rome,
calls the site.
Paintings of stars, planets, pea-
cocks and pomegranates decorate
the walls and ceilings, along with a
dolphin arching over a trident.
One of the grander niches has
small columns at each corner and
a frescoed cross vault with a de-
piction of a menorah. There are
images of sacred Jewish symbols,
including an ark with the scrolls ofthe Torah, and several inscriptions
referring to synagogues in the city.
But as Monica Zelinotti, the ar-
chitect charged with managing the
restoration, says, not every visitor
to Rome will be eager to explore
these catacombs. Gouged out of
brownish-gray rock, they are eerie
places: damp, claustrophobic and,
of course, scattered with human
remains. “The humidity can be as
high as 100%,” says Ms. Zelinotti.
The ceilings of the passageways
are low. “In places, the space be-
tween the niches is no more than
the width of your shoulders,” she
adds.
Currently, a main passageway il-
luminated by construction lightingwinds through the catacombs. Off it
run more than a dozen side-pas-
sages that disappear into darkness.
Many of the bones of the dead have
disappeared, though why, where or
when is unknown. “So far, I have
not come across a single complete
skeleton,” says Ms. Zelinotti.
At its peak, ancient Rome’s Jew-
ish community is thought to have
numbered around 30,000 out of a
total population estimated at be-
tween 500,000 and one million. The
earliest Jews came to Rome as trad-
ers in the second century B.C. By 59
B.C., they were sufficiently numer-
ous for Cicero, defending a Roman
official accused of appropriating
funds for Jerusalem’s great Temple,
to complain that large numbers of
Jews had turned up at the trial to
root for the prosecution.
After the Roman Empire sacked
Jerusalem and destroyed the city’s
Temple in A.D. 70, Rome became a
place of refuge for Jews.
But Villa Torlonia has sinister
associations. Benito Mussolini
lived here, signing off on anti-Jew-
ish laws. Later, he sent around
7,000 Italian Jews to die in Nazi
death camps.
The website of the Vatican lists
a half-dozen Christian catacombs
open to the public, and for many
decades tours have made stops at
them. The first Jewish catacomb
was discovered in the 17th century.
Workmen hit upon the warren-like
cemetery under Villa Torlonia
while reinforcing the foundations
of the stables in 1918.
Over the centuries, six Jewish
catacombs have been discovered in
the honeycomb rock beneath
Rome. Some have since caved in;
others are inaccessible under pri-
vately owned land. In 2012, archae-
ologists discovered part of a cata-
comb after a sinkhole opened up
and swallowed a truck. Last year,
one Jewish catacomb on the out-
skirts of Rome opened to the pub-
lic, but for only a couple of weeks.
Ms. Zelinotti says that her big-
gest task will be to stabilize the
Villa Torlonia site. In parts, the
walls between niches have given
way. In one place, the ground
above is sagging. She and her col-
leagues will have to find a way to
protect the wall paintings. The
humidity in the catacombs is so
high that some are permanently
dotted with droplets of water.
“The moment we bring in visi-
tors, more fresh air will circu-
late,” says Ms. Zelinotti. “The wa-
ter will evaporate and may carry
away the pigment.”
For Mr. Procaccia, the benefits
of opening up the catacombs far
outweigh the risks. He hopes for a
new program of scholarly investi-
gation and excavation. “There is a
world to be discovered down
there,”hesays.TUCKED AWAYon the grounds of
Villa Torlonia, a stately mansion in
northern Rome, a staircase over-
hung with creepers leads down to
an underground area measuring al-
most three football fields and har-
boring an archaeological treasure.
Beyond a black door begin two
interconnecting catacombs—webs
of passageways lined with niches
for the burial of the dead. The
niches run parallel to the walls
and are stacked up to five high.
Here and there are grander re-
cesses where the more prosperous
of the deceased were interred in
BY JOHN HOOPERMUNICIPALITY OF ROME (ABOVE); ILLUSTRATION: ELLEN SURREY (BELOW)WORK & FAMILY| Sue Shellenbarger
WHEN YOUR YOUNG DAUGHTER ACTS LIKE A TEEN
AN ARCHED RECESS in the Jewish
catacombs under Villa Torlonia, with
several burial cells and a ceiling
depicting stars and planets.To reprint or license content, please contact our reprints and licensing department at +1 800-843-0008 or http://www.djreprints.com