Roman Age Necropolis Discovered in Battipaglia

A Roman necropolis, which archaeologists today define as being of “considerable importance,” has been discovered in the urban center of Battipaglia, in the Salerno area.

In the town at the gates of the Piana del Sele, in via Belvedere, during the redevelopment works of the water network conducted by the Asis consortium, a sector of the necropolis dating back to the Roman era came to light. The funerary space housed within an enclosure or a funerary monument an exceptional sarcophagus in Greek marble with a lid, probably dating back to the third century AD.

The sarcophagus has only one of its long sides, decorated with wavy vertical grooves, the so-called strigilature, arranged symmetrically on the sides of a central tondo with a rectangular field underneath. Generally, as explained by the Superintendency of Salerno, the tondo and the field underneath housed, respectively, the portrait of the deceased and a dedicatory inscription, which are missing here; while there are evident signs of chiselling, perhaps indicating that the sarcophagus had not been finished or had been reused. In a later phase, the deceased were buried in tombs arranged on the sides and above the sarcophagus, made with tiles and, in one case, in an amphora.

From the grave goods, mostly fragments of bronze objects, female jewelry or elements pertaining to objects made of perishable material were recovered. The burials, as well as the entire context, had already been damaged by the indiscriminate installation of previous underground utilities, so only a partial investigation of some tombs was possible. Furthermore, the necropolis, certainly much larger, also extended under the current state road 18 and in the lay-by of a fuel service station, where it was not possible to extend the investigations.

"Surely – notes the superintendent of Salerno, Raffaella Bonaudo – we are in the presence of an important necropolis with enclosures and funerary monuments arranged along an important ancient road axis. And this discovery opens new research perspectives for the knowledge of the ancient organization of the territory of the current city of Battipaglia, raising numerous questions regarding the existence of a structured center, to which the burial ground must have belonged”.