Jewish Catacombs

An AP article this afternoon (Jewish Catacomb Predates Christian Ones - Yahoo! News) shared some news about the possibility of Christian catacombs being preceded, particularly the idea itself, by Jewish catacombs in Rome. Using carbon dating (a method I do not hold a lot of awe for due to the amount of variables that can effect the outcome, and people tend to rely so heavily on that single method), researchers found that the catacombs of Jewish people in Rome were around anywhere from the first century BC to the first century AD.

Now, here is a portion of an article written in 1908 on the Roman Catacombs and found in the Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent):

The Romans cremated their dead and deposited the ashes in a family tomb (sepulcrum, memoria), or in a vault or common sepulchre (columbarium); but the Jews living in Rome retained their native method of burial, and imitated the rock-graves of Palestine by laying out cemeteries in the stone-like stratum of tufa around Rome. In this manner Jewish catacombs were laid out and developed before Christianity appeared in Rome. Connected with the two chief Jewish colonies, one in the quarter of the city across the Tiber, and the other by the Porta Capena, were two large Jewish catacombs, one on the Via Portuensis and one on the Via Appia, as well as some smaller ones; all are recognizable by the seven-branched candlestick, which repeatedly appears on gravestones and lamps.

Until after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (A.D. 70) the Christians were regarded as a sect of the Jews; hence those Jews who were converted by the Apostles at Rome were buried in the catacombs of their fellow-countrymen. The question arises as to where those converted from heathenism by the Apostles found their last resting-place. It is a fact to which Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio Cassius, and other pagan historians bear witness, that as early as the days of the Apostles members of the higher and of even of the highest ranks of the nobility had become Christians. These converts of rank from heathenism had their own tombs, and permitted their brethren in the Faith to construct, in connection with these family tombs, places of burial modelled on the Jewish catacombs. This is the origin of the Christian catacombs. The catacombs of the Apostolic Era are: on the Via Ardeatina, the catacomb of Domitilla, niece of the Emperor Domitian and a member of the Flavian family; on the Via Salaria, that of Priscilla, who was probably the wife of the Consul Acilius Glabrio; on the Via Appia, that of Lucina, a member of the Pomponian family; on the Via Ostiensis, that of Commodilla, connected with the grave of St. Paul.

So, is the AP report really anything new? Have the researchers found something we did not already know? Or did we just find evidence giving extra support for what we already understand from history?