Los Columbarios
About
Two Roman families, the Voconii and the Julii, built open-air cremation columbaria in this funerary district southeast of Emerita Augusta. Small above-ground chambers held rows of niches for cinerary urns, several of which survive today alongside a painted family portrait of the Voconii. The site grew up around the same time as a nearby luxury villa, the House of the Mithraeum, built for the colony's upper class in the late 1st or early 2nd century CE. It now forms part of Merida's UNESCO World Heritage listing.
What happened here
The dead are outside the walls because the law requires it, so the approach to every town is lined with them. Tombs face the road in rows, grand ones in front and simpler markers behind, all of them addressed to the passer-by. Burial clubs let ordinary people and slaves pay a monthly subscription for a place in a communal vault and a decent funeral; the alternative is a pit. Families come out on anniversaries and at the February festival, eat at the graveside, and pour wine into a pipe set into the ground. Undertakers, stonecutters and letter-cutters work nearby and compete on price. Ground is bought by the foot, and the frontage on the road costs the most.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →