Discovered mid 1800s by Gian Pietro Campana (I and II) e Pietro Codini (III)
FIRST COLUMBARIUM
About 35 AD. Four sided room (5 x 7 x 7.5 m - 16 x 23 x 25 feet) with a central pillar supporting the vault
About 500 arched niches for burials are in all the walls and in the pillar, many of them still with the sign painted or inscribed with the name of the deceased. On the pillar there are paintings with scenes regarding Bacchus.
SECOND COLUMBARIUM
Beginning of the first century AD with paintings dating back to a later period. Four sided room (6 x 5 x 7 m - 20 x 16 x 23 feet) with more than 300 burials
It was decorated with paintings and colorful stuccos representing vegetable festoons, masks and horns used for drinking, some of which are still visible on the walls. One of the niches really stands out being framed by some quite refined and colorful stucco. On the floor there is a mosaic with the dedication done by two members of the funerary society
THIRD COLUMBARIUM
Burials from the Tiberian period (14/37 AD) until the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161/180). It is the less well known of the three but it is curiously the richest in decoration. The walls were probably covered by marble slabs and paintings with travertine marble shelves that used to support the balcony to access the niches in the upper part
The plan is U shaped and there used to be an ustrinum, the altar on which the bodies were cremated
The burial niches are bigger than most of the ones in other columbaria and mostly with a rectangular shape as opposite as the usual semicircular shape. There are many aediculae and arcosolii (burial places with a round upper part) as well as marble slabs with names of the deceased
A writing warns the visitors: Ne tangito, o mortalis, revere Mane deos (Don't touch, mortal, respect the Mani gods!)
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