Funeral building found in Rome with an altar dedicated to a young woman

In Rome, ongoing archaeological investigations in Via Luigi Tosti have uncovered a new funerary building with precious fragments of an ornate marble sarcophagus and analtar dedicated to a very young woman, Valeria. The findings were made during excavation work preparatory to the water reclamation of the street, carried out by Acea Ato2, overseen by the Special Superintendence of Rome, directed by Daniela Porro, under the scientific direction of Angelina De Laurenzi, and conducted by Archeo of Fabio Turchetta.

A funerary building that was part of the large necropolis of the ancient Via Latina was found, with cinerary urns walled into the walls, inhumation burials and marble remains of considerable interest. The materials unearthed are still being studied, but from a preliminary assessment it is possible to date the findings to the 2nd century AD. Two meters below the present street level, a perfectly preservedwhite marble funeral altar emerged, on which an epigraph dedicated to a girl reads, “Valeria P F Laeta vixit annis XIII m VII.” The inscription, in Latin capital, from a preliminary study could be dissolved with “Valeria Laeta daughter of P[ublio] lived 13 years and 7 months.”

A few fragments of a lenòs sarcophagus, or basin with rounded corners, made of white marble were also discovered. One of the pieces has an exquisite bas-relief decoration with a hunting scene: a lioness surmounted on the left by the hunter’s horse (of which only the front legs are preserved), is hunted on the right by a mastiff. The small columbarium, probably hypogeum, was built in the natural tufa bench and consisted of mighty 80-centimeter concrete masonry covered with a brick face of excellent workmanship. The walls were covered with yellow and red painted plaster, similar to marble slabs. The building was found collapsed and heavily damaged, so much so that it cannot be ruled out that it may have been mechanically demolished during the urbanization of the neighborhood in the 1930s.

Funeral building found in Rome with an altar dedicated to a young woman

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