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The Catacombs of Palermo preserve more than 8,000 skeletons and mummified bodies, buried between 1559 and 1880 under the Cappuchin Church. It has been considered a museum of death, whose history dates back to the 16th century when some Cappuchin Fathers discovered a natural process of mummification, which had taken place during the exhumation of some corpses. Since this discovery, the Catacombs of Palermo have continued to display the corpses.
The catacombs were the exclusive work of a specialized guild of workers called fossores, or gravediggers. They dug gallery after gallery by the faint light of their lamps and used baskets or bags to carry the earth away through sky-lights opened in the vault of a crypt or of a cubicle or along the galleries. The lucemaria(sky-lights) were ample shafts which reached the surface. When the work of excavation was finished, they remained opened for ventilation and lighting.
The catacombs of Palermo resemble those of early Christianity, which were made up of underground tunnels, all frescoed, in the form of a labyrinth. In the walls of this intricate system of galleries were cut out rows of rectangular niches, called loculi, of various dimensions, which could contain only one body, but not infrequently the remains of more than one person. The burials of early Christians were simple. The corpses, in imitation of Christ, were wrapped in a sheet or shroud and placed in the loculi without any coffin. The loculi were closed with a slab of marble or, in most cases, by tiles fixed by mortar. On the tombstone the name of the deceased was sometimes engraved, along with a Christian symbol or a wish that the person might find peace in heaven. Oil lamps and small vases containing perfumes would also be placed beside the tombs.
The tombs were arranged in rows superimposed one upon another at different levels, giving the idea of a vast dormitory, called cemetery, a term coming from Greek and meaning "resting place." In this way the Christians wanted to affirm their faith in the resurrection of the bodies.
Sites: http://www.comune.palermo.it/musei/cappuccini
http://www.ku-eichstaelt.de/SLF/Klassphil/plinius/zimpor.htm
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