Pompeii, the tomb of Marcus Venerius Secundio with mummified human remains discovered at Porta Sarno

Mummified human remains, hair and bones of an individual buried in an ancient burial, found in the necropolis of Sarno Gate, east of the ancient urban center of Pompeii.

On the marble slab placed on the pediment of the tomb there is a commemorative inscription of the owner Marcus Venerius Secundius It recalls, extraordinarily, the performance in Pompeii of shows in Greek, never before directly attested.

This is the latest discovery in Pompeii, which occurred during an excavation campaign promoted in the area of ​​the Porta Sarno necropolis, by Pompeii Archaeological Park and the European University of Valencia.
“Pompeii never ceases to amaze and confirms itself as a story of redemption, an international model, a place where research and new archaeological excavations have returned thanks to the many professionals of cultural heritage who, with their work, never cease to give the world extraordinary results that are a source of pride for Italy”– declares the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini.

The burial structure, dating back to the last decades of the city's life, consists of a brick enclosure, on the façade of which traces of painting are preserved: green plants can be seen on a blue background.

The character of Marcus Venerius Secundius – which also appears in the Pompeian banker's wax tablet archive Cecilio Giocondo, owner of the domus of the same name on Via Vesuvio – was a public slave and custodian of the temple of Venus. Once freed, he had then reached a certain social and economic status, as would emerge not only from the rather monumental tomb, but also from the inscription: in addition to becoming Augustal, or member of the college of priests dedicated to the imperial cult, as the epigraph recalls, “he gave Greek and Latin games for four days.”

“Ludi graeci is to be understood as shows in the Greek language – comments the director of the archaeological park of Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel – is the first certain evidence of performances in Pompeii in the Hellenic language, hypothesized in the past on the basis of indirect indicators. Here we have another piece of a large mosaic, that is, the multiethnic Pompeii of the early imperial age, where Greek is attested alongside Latin, at the time the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean.

The fact that performances were also organised in Greek is proof of the lively and open cultural climate that characterised ancient Pompeii, a bit like the extraordinary performance by Isabelle Huppert in the Teatro Grande a few weeks ago, in French, demonstrated that culture has no borders.”

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No less exceptional than the inscription is the burial of Marcus Venerius Secundus. It is one of the best preserved skeletons found in the ancient city. The deceased was buried in a small cell measuring 1,6 x 2,4 metres located behind the main façade, while in the remaining part of the enclosure two cremations in urns were found, one in a beautiful glass container belonging to a woman of name Novia Amabilis.

In the Roman phase of Pompeii, the funeral rite usually included cremation, while only small children were buried.
The burial of Marco Venerio is therefore highly unusual also for the funeral rite adopted, considering that he was an adult man of over 60 years of age, as emerges from a first analysis of the bones found in the burial chamber. The characteristics of the funeral chamber, which consisted of a hermetically sealed environment, created the conditions for the exceptional state of conservation in which the skeleton was found, with hair and an ear still visible. In addition, grave goods were recovered, including two glass ointment jars and numerous fragments of what appears to be fabric.

“It is still necessary to understand whether the partial mummification of the deceased is due to an intentional treatment or not – explains the professor Llorenc Alapont of the University of Valencia – In this, the analysis of the fabric could provide further information. We know from sources that certain fabrics such as asbestos were used for embalming. Even for someone like me who has been involved in funerary archaeology for a long time, the extraordinary wealth of data offered by this tomb, from the inscription to the burials, the osteological finds and the painted façade, is an exceptional fact, which confirms the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach, as the University of Valencia and the Archaeological Park have done in this project.”

The human and organic remains found in the funerary enclosure of Porta Sarno were transported to the Applied Research Laboratory at the Pompeii site where they were subjected to analysis and conservation interventions. At the same time, the Archaeological Park has started a series of safety interventions, aimed at ensuring the maintenance of the Porta Sarno necropolis pending the definition of a larger restoration and use project for the area. The necropolis cannot currently be visited as it is located beyond the Circumvesuviana railway line, but the Park has started a feasibility study to include it in the area open to the public.

The excavation and recovery activities by the University of Valencia were coordinated by Prof. Llorenc Alapont of the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, while the archaeologist intervened as officials responsible for the Archaeological Park Luana Toniolo, the restorer Theresa Silver and the anthropologist Valeria Amoretti.