Necropolis Isolae Sacrae
About
Port-workers' cemetery strung for roughly 1.5 km along the road linking Ostia and Portus, on the 'sacred island' created by the Fossa Traiana canal. Burials began in the later 1st century CE and the necropolis was in continuous, active use through the 2nd-4th centuries; predominantly freedmen, merchants, sailors, and craftsmen tied to the port economy, with a documented shift from cremation to inhumation over the period. Squarely in active use at 117 CE, though its best-known monumental tomb facades and the bulk of excavated structures date to the 2nd-early 3rd century expansion (Hadrianic-Severan), i.e. after this snapshot -- included here as an active, populated burial ground already established by 117, not for its later, more famous phase.
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 →