P49
The funerary rites
In the necropolis of Alba Pompeia, we notice two different types of funerary rites: the cremation and the inhumation.
The cremation – attested until the II century AC – could be direct, the most frequent, or indirect: the direct one consisted in the deposition of the deceased in the place where he had been buried. The ash was collected and put in a cinerary urn.
From the II century AC, the cremation is gradually substituted by the inhumation: the deceased laid on his back into a wooden coffin or in a sarcophagus in stones or bricks.
Both rituals needed the funerary goods that consisted in ceramics and daily life objects in order to guarantee to the deceased the survival in the afterlife.
1. Clay urn with id from Acqui Terme (Archaeological Museumof Turin)
2. Cappuccina tomb from Alba, Rossini Road. Tiles commonly used in the constructions have been
used to cover an inhumation grave.
In the showcases, you can appreciate different grave goods from the necropolis in Rossini Road and Piave Avenue.
In the showcase 23, we underline the dices and the bronze inker (3.1). In the showcase 24, you have a bronze strigil tool for the cleansing of the body.
In the showcase 22, the grave goods (n.1) consist of bronze beauty-case objects. (1.1 and 1.2)
In the showcase 25, the grave goods are a head of a spear and two iron knives (2.3)