Roman sarcophagus with portraits
The necropolis is a large cemetery or sacral place. The name is derived from the Greek words νεκρος (necros) = “dead” and πολις (polis) = “city”, translated as “city of the dead”. The word necropolis is most often used for burial places near the cities of ancient civilizations and for ancient sites, but the name has also been used since the 19th century for planned city cemeteries.
Necropolises are important because the preserved ancient tomb (with tombstone inscriptions) provides numerous data on gender, name, origin, occupation, social status and religious affiliation of the deceased. In Singidunum, the largest number of inscriptions are dedicated to military persons or veterans of the legion of IV Flavia or persons from the city administration. They are rarely dedicated to freedmen and slaves. In some cases, stone lions representing the protectors of the grave space were found above the grave of the burnt deceased.
Roman stelae in the Lapidarium
The first archeological excavations of the ancient necropolises of Singidunum dates in the 19th century. There is a list of 270 graves and for some of them there is no reliable data . Before the Second World War, there were no systematic excavations, but mostly reports of accidental findings that followed the construction of Belgrade.
Graves of different dimensions and appearance were found in the necropolises of Singidunum, because the shape and dimensions of the grave are conditioned by the content (whether the remains were burned before burial or not). The most graves are brick constructions, some graves of the deceased laid in an ordinary grave pit, some had stone sarcophagi,while burial in a ceramic urn was recorded in only one case.
The graves were found southwest of the settlements in the area of Dorćol, where the northernmost ancient find was discovered. In the southeast, many graves were discovered from Trg Republike across King Alexander Boulevard.
Written by Ana Brajović
