Paintings in the necropolis

A few hundred meters outside the gate lies the so-called Porta Laurentina necropolis. It is just a small part of a huge necropolis covering the plain to the south of Ostia, in Italian Pianabella (the "Beautiful plain"). Contrary to the Porta Romana necropolis, little is known about the corpses and funerary gifts: during the Second World War the excavation diaries disappeared of Guido Calza, who worked in the necropolis in the 1920's and 1930's.

Reconstruction of the necropolis, seen from the south.
Image: Angelo Coccettini.

Interior of one of the tombs.
Photo: ICCD E035637.

What makes the necropolis quite exceptional is the large number of paintings, found by the Viscontis. These include, for example, Orpheus and Eurydice, a funerary meal, and the famous painting of Mercurius standing next to the ship Isis Giminiana (for more paintings, see the entry in the Topographical Dictionary). All these paintings were taken to the Vatican Museums.

Orpheus and Eurydice in the underworld. Tomb 33. Vatican museums.
Photo: Donati 1998, pl. 61.

The paintings of a funerary meal and of Mercurius standing next to the ship Isis Giminiana, as seen in 1866.
Vatican Museums. Images: AnnInstCorrArch 38 (1866), Tavv. S,1 and T.

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