Archaeologists carrying out survey work for the Italian water company Acqua Campania, ahead of construction work associated with a new water supply system, have unearthed a Roman cemetery at Giugliano in Campania on the northern outskirts of Naples, according to a press release issued by the Soprintendenza Archaeologia Belle Arti e Paessagio par l'Area di Napoli on 6 October 2023. The site is thought to date from the late Roman Republic and early Imperial Period, with a necropolis deliminated by an opus incerta wall, within which are a range of burials in different styles.
To date a single monumental tomb has been opened. This had a tiled roof and was sealed slab of tuff (volcanic rock), which when moved revealed a plastered room with a number of spectacularly preserved frescoes, depicting subjects such as Ichthyocentaurs (being with Human heads and torsos, the forelegs of Horses, and the tails of Fish), and the three-headed Dog, Ceberus, believed to have guarded the gates to the underorld, which has earned the tomb the name 'Tomb of Ceberus'. The occupants of the tomb, who has not yet been investigated, were found lying on funerary beds surrounded by rich grave goods, and several libation vessels were placed upon an alter.
The cemetery was located between two Roman roads, the Via Cumis-Capuam and the Via Per Liternum, which would have made it easy to access for funerary ceremonies, which appear to have been carried out there for at least four centuries.
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