A collection of Roman tombs and a bath house has been discovered during the construction of a new Orthodox Church in Rome.
The discovery was first made in April/July 2015, but has only now been announced by the Superintendence for the Colosseum, the Roman National Museum and the Archaeological Area of Rome.
The site is located in the Casal Bernochhi area, a residential suburb district SW of Rome, halfway on the journey to the former Roman port of Ostia Antica along the Via Ostiense (Roman road).
Archaeologists excavating the site reported that the bathhouse’s heating and plumbing systems were in a relatively good level of preservation.
Archaeologist Renato Sebastiani said “The baths could have been a stop-off point along the road,” “We know of the existence of others.”
Alessandro D’Alessio, the archaeologist leading the excavations said that the site has two distinguishable phases of construction in which the oldest dates from the first and second centuries.
Adjacent to the structure is a necropolis of burials that includes enchytrismos burials and human remains placed in Roman amphora. The anthropological analysis of the burials indicate an average age between 20 and 40 years, with grave goods unearthed including a ring, bracelets and a coin.
The tombs belonged to lower-middle class Romans, and while the earliest individuals were cremated, later ones were interred according to early Christian practices” said Sebastiani.
Superintendence for the Colosseum, the Roman National Museum and the Archaeological Area of Rome.
