The excavation site of Via Appia Antica 39 in Rome: a burial plot from the imperial period to the 7th century CE (original) (raw)

Archaeological funerary contexts provide valuable information on the culture, beliefs, and lifestyle of ancient times. Alongside architectural structures, spatial organisation, frescoes, marble, mosaics, inscriptions, ceramics and terracotta, the depositions of individuals and skeletal remains represent the irreplaceable sign of their existence. The funerary site of Via Appia Antica 39 was discovered in 2022. It is located in the first stretch of the Via Appia at the gates of Rome, in a critical and borderline space between the urban periphery and the countryside. Here a burial plot from the Antonine era has been discovered, whose funerary use is attested for at least four centuries. The imperial columbaria included incineration burials and, at a lower level, inhumations inside large arcosolia. They were decorated by frescos and black and white mosaic floors. At the end of the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, a renovation took place, the ancient burials were respected, and new arcosolia were opened. The area was abandoned around the 6th to 7th century CE, due to upwelling of the water coming from the nearby Almo river: the dense fills of earth mixed with pottery, bricks and rubble offer a new picture of significant cultural and environmental changes. Furthermore, the variety of primary and secondary burials - in sarcophagi, bare earth and amphorae- and the definition of a space probably destined for children and some deviant burials, provide insight into the Late Antiquity transition in Rome.