[Mrs. Don-o]

"Wouldn't this find of richly dressed bodies refute the long held notion that the early Christian religion appealed mainly to the poor and slaves in Rome??"

Possibly, but not necessarily. Dressing a corpse was in some ways like vesting a priest: a symbolic and sacramental act. A single wealthy patron could have paid for burial clothing for 1,000 people of much more modest means, just as Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man, supplied the burial place and arrangements for Jesus.

[wildbill]

While I agree with you that the burial clothes COULD have been paid for by a wealthy patron, Occam's Razor suggests that another explanation is much more likely.