La scelta di un monumento funerario come memoria di appartenenza sociale. Le pseudo cupae da una necropoli suburbana sulla via Triumphalis

The necropolises located along the most important Roman roads represent, regarding the ‘funerary archaeology’, a precious source of information for the reconstruction of the social profile acquired by the ancient urban and suburban population. In particular the identification of funerary practices and architectures offers the opportunity to investigate some specific aspects of the funerary rituality in this area. An example is the fairly recent excavation, which interested the 9th Km of the via Triumphalis: in addition to the discovery of a well-preserved road, a group of 20 tombs (second century AD) has been brought to light. Among them, four belong to a specific typology: conical monuments, built directly on the deposition. The possible reference to the well-known funerary typology of cupae and the resulting socio-cultural implications are the subject of this paper. Moreover, the analysis of these specific tombs, as well as of the grave goods of the entire necropolis, allows us to reconstruct the social status of the monuments’ owners and to propose some general considerations about the architectural typology.