Sepulcrum Serviliae
About
The grandest tomb in the Carmona necropolis was built to resemble a complete Roman villa, with a colonnaded courtyard surrounded by family burial rooms. It takes its name from a statue pedestal found inside inscribed to Servilia, daughter of Lucius, marking it as the mausoleum of an aristocratic family in the 1st century CE. Excavators recovered several statues from its porticos, now displayed in Carmona's own archaeological museum. Its Hellenistic design set it apart from every other tomb on the site.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
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