The Necropolis outside St. Barnabas Gate/2
1.
Thin-walled cups and glasses, used for libations both at dining tables and funeral banquets, had walls no thicker than three millimeters. Produced from the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd century CE, they were crafted in numerous workshops across Italy and the provinces. A hallmark of northern Italian production was the cup with straight or slightly inward-curving walls, often decorated with fine incised patterns or applied relief elements. This style, typical from the Augustan period, remained in use until the early 2nd century CE.
2.
Roman tombs often contained ceramic pantry and kitchen vessels, a more affordable alternative to other materials. Larger jars sometimes held the cremated remains of the deceased, while pitchers, jugs, and cooking pots were linked to the funeral banquet ritual. A concave-bottomed casserole dish, similar to African-made examples, dates to between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, suggesting the necropolis remained in use beyond the 3rd century CE.
3.
Burial sets also included personal ornaments, coins, and everyday objects like dice, game pieces, and bone hairpins. Among the coins were “Charon’s obols”, meant as payment for the ferryman of souls in the afterlife, including a readable specimen from the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE). A cross-shaped brooch with onion-shaped terminals, commonly used in military contexts between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE, and a bronze bracelet with dotted, thickened ends and hooked closures likely date to the late imperial period or even later.
4.
Precious scented oils, used in preparing the deceased’s body, were placed in tombs inside glass and terracotta perfume bottles (1st–2nd centuries CE). In contrast, lower-quality oil from the final pressing was used in lamps. Though simple and mass-produced, these lamps carried deep symbolic meaning. Channel lamps, produced between the mid-1st and 3rd centuries CE, often bear the stamped signatures of major workshops, particularly those in northern Italy.
5.
Excavations in the 19th century uncovered black-glazed ceramics from the 2nd–1st century BCE and fragments of red-glazed plates and cups—known as terra sigillata—from the early imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). These were the primary tableware for Roman banquets, their technology adopted from the eastern Mediterranean. In northern Italy, workshops for both black-glazed pottery (3rd century BCE to mid-1st century CE) and terra sigillata (mid-1st century BCE to 2nd century CE) were quickly established by early settlers. The name terra sigillata comes from the small stamped images (sigilla in Latin) found on some pieces, which have been studied since the 16th century for their maker’s marks, identifying individual producers.