Why were catacombs explored?

Having briefly looked at how the catacombs were explored in early 17th century, let us consider why they were explored, apart from walking to encounter new areas of the monument.
The activities that took place underground tended to be that of registering the monument and extracting finds from it.
Registering the monument involved drawing the plans, an activity for which there were specialised people, of whom we know some names and some products, in particular those published in several books.

Alongside these, however, there were also more private, “homemade” maps, used by explorers for their personal exploration, which were never published but were used for underground visits. Of this maps, obviously, we have very scarce information.

Specialist artists were employed to copy the paintings seen in cemeteries. Copyists accompanied explorers on underground expeditions. The copying phase in catacombs was the most uncomfortable working situation, with insufficient light and space conditions. The subsequent stages of drawing arrangement and colouring took place in the studio.

Another of the occupations of the groups of explorers was the extraction of archaeological objects, especially epigraphs, as well as anthropological remains excavated with the intention of making relics. The majority of archaeological finds ended up in the private collections of the explorers and the main collectors in Rome: sometimes explorers became a sort of merchant of antiquities for the antiquarian market. In particular, sarcophagi and inscriptions from the catacombs ended up since the beginning of the 16th century, as decorations in private houses.

The second group of objects found within the catacombs and removed from them are the anthropological artifacts, extracted from the tombs specifically to create holy relics. But that is another story….