page_title: Canosa di Puglia
section_title: Hypogeum and catacombs
hierarchical_section_title: Canosa di Puglia / Main sights / Archaeological sites / Hypogeum and catacombs
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Ipogei Lagrasta (II secolo a.C.)
context_page_description: Canosa di Puglia, generally known simply as Canosa, is a town and comune in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia, southern Italy. It is located between Bari and Foggia, on the northwestern edge of the plateau of the Murgia which dominates the Ofanto valley and the extensive plains of Tavoliere delle Puglie, ranging from Mount Vulture at the Gargano, to the Adriatic coast. Canosa, the Roman Canusium, is considered the principal archaeological center of Apulia, and is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in Italy. A number of vases and other archaeological finds are located in local museums and private collections. It is not far from the position on the Ofanto River where the Romans found refuge after the defeat of the Battle of Cannae and is the burial place of Bohemund I of Antioch.
context_section_description: Canosa has ancient Hypogeum (many probably still hidden).  These were used first by Dauni as pagan catacombs, and, within them, celebrated funerary cults, demonstrating an advanced civilization in the vast era from 6000 BC to 2nd century AD).  The burials in the tombs continued to Roman times. The tombs contained, in addition to the deceased (often found in the fetal position), personal items found in urns or deposited in niches.  Over the years, however, many of these artifacts (including precious jewelry in gold and bronze, pottery, red figures and askos) have been lost (or in private hands) due to grave robbers.  Often these sites have frescoes with an allegorical passage of the deceased to take in the afterlife (for dedutio inferos). The most important are those of the Cerberus, Lagrasta, Boccaforno and the Hoplite. Other exhibits recovered at the local Museum.
  Not far from the town lies in the depths of clay soil, the necropolis of Santa Sofia.  Used around the 4th century AD, for early Christians,  it extended over other tombs dating back to the time of the persecution against the Christians.  It was discovered around 1960 and is undergoing restoration.
  Other hypogeum and catacombs include:
  Ori Tomb (4th century BC)
  Ipogei Monterisi-Rossignoli (4th century BC)
  Varrese Tomb (4th century BC)
  Hypogeum Cerberus (4th century BC)
  Ipogeo Scocchera A (4th century BC)
  Ipogeo Scocchera B (called Ipogeo Boccaforno, 4th century BC)
  Ipogei Casieri (4th century BC)
  Hypogeum Vessel Dario (4th century BC)
  Ipogei Lagrasta (2nd century BC)
  Ipogeo dell'Oplita (2nd century BC)
  Ipogeo Matarrese
  Ipogeo Reimers
  Tomb of Largo Constantinople (3rd century BC)
  Necropolis of Santa Sofia (2nd-4th century AD)
caption: Lagrasta Catacombs.
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