Before the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls was built in the 4th century, the area was a Roman necropolis located along the ancient Via Ostiense, the road that connected Rome with the port of Ostia—it was in this necropolis that the apostle St. Paul was buried.
But the unexpected occurred when, during construction work for a student residence, a new “city of the dead” was found only a few meters away—in other words, a necropolis that had, until now, been hidden from history:
DILETTA MENGHINELLO
Archaeologist in charge of the excavation
Until the first century A.D, the main funeral rite among the Romans is that of cremation. For this reason, the funeral buildings that are found contain niches made within the walls in multiple rows of tombs to hold the urns intended for the ashes of the cremated.
With the spread of Christianity, the burial rites changed—inhumation, the burial of the whole body underground, became common. This form of burial stemmed from Christian belief in bodily resurrection at the end of time, following Jewish traditions and, ultimately, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
WALTER PATANO
Anthropologist in charge of the excavation
They are pit graves, very simple, which contain either a single individual, therefore they are single burials, or multiple individuals, sometimes even with a fairly consistent number, 12-13 individuals inside them. The simplicity of the grave reflects the social status of individuals. In fact, it is most likely, indeed almost certainly, individuals who belong to a lower-middle class.
The skeletal remains of about 50 people have been found so far, most of them adult men between 20 and 30 years old—roughly the life expectancy at that time.
WALTER PATANO
Anthropologist in charge of the excavation
Yes, in the sense that at the skeletal level men and women are different, especially in two fundamental areas, which are those of the skull but above all of the pelvis. Because the pelvis in women is structured to handle childbirth. So it has a different morphological structure compared to men. In fact, we anthropologists, to determine the sex of individuals, focus on certain morphological traits of the skull, the jaw, and the pelvis. As well as, of course, in general to physical robustness.
But the work has only just begun. In the first phase, researchers study the remains of the individuals; in the second phase, work continues in the laboratory:
WALTER PATANO
Anthropologist in charge of the excavation
A systematic, specialized, also demanding study, very thorough. We can naturally reconstruct a little bit of the face of individuals and give a license, an 'identity card,' for these individuals.
More than two thousand years later, the burial decorations have even survived: paintings and mosaics that once adorned both the interior and exterior of the funerary buildings.
DILETTA MENGHINELLO
Excavation archaeologist
In this concrete case, here the mosaic flooring that has emerged and unfortunately collapsed refers to the large main monumental tomb that was articulated in two structures and probably had two floors. The upper part of the underlying building was crowned, featuring this flooring, clearly a valuable element.
That is Rome for you of course: construction begins and an entirely unknown city suddenly appears—or, in this case, a city of the dead.
The student residence cannot be built on this exact spot now, but a solution will be found. It will be constructed elsewhere and there will be public access to this newly discovered necropolis—something that doesn’t appear every day, except in Rome.
