LITERNUM, ITALY—According to a La Brújula Verde report, Italian archaeologists unearthed an ancient necropolis at Liternum outside of modern-day Naples. Liternum was a Roman colony founded in the second century b.c. and was famously home to the Roman general and statesman Scipio Africanus. Across an area of 180 square yards, the team unearthed two funerary enclosures and a sacred well used for religious and ceremonial rituals. The cemetery, which was in use from the first century b.c. to the third century a.d., contained a variety of different burial styles. Niches lined some of the walls, which would have once contained cinerary urns, but there were also around 20 inhumation burials. These were either of the a cappuccino style, where the body was covered with roof tiles arranged in a gabled shape, or the ad enchytrismos type, where the remains are placed within large ceramic amphoras. Several marble inscriptions were recovered, including one that contains an epitaph for a gladiator. The researchers said that this is a unique testimony to the perception and memory of these combatants in Roman society. Its presence in Liternum suggests that the city was home to gladiators who, after they retired, found their final resting place there. To read about the lives of gladiators in Roman Anatolia, go to "Let the Games Begin."
