Republican Tombs Unearthed Beneath Rome’s Modern Suburbs

January

/ 2026

Getting your audio player ready...

A stretch of modern Rome’s eastern periphery has just produced an unusually rich glimpse of the city’s Republican past: a pair of rock-cut chamber tombs, a roadside shrine that may relate to Hercules, and two enormous cisterns or pools whose purpose is still being debated. The finds come from preventive excavations at Parco delle Acacie 2, along Via di Pietralata in the Pietralata district - proof that the “ordinary” suburbs can still hold evidence from the centuries when Rome was becoming a Mediterranean power writes Heritage Daily.

Tomb A and Tomb B: Elite Burials and an Unexpected Medical Clue

The centerpiece is a funerary complex cut into a sloping tufa bank, organized around two parallel access corridors (dromoi) leading to two chamber tombs dated broadly between the 4th and early 3rd centuries BC. That timeframe places the burials in Rome’s Republican era, when funerary architecture and grave goods can reveal status, family identity, and cultural taste, reports Finestre sull'Arte.

Tomb A is described as especially monumental: a rock-cut entrance with a portal framed by jambs and lintel, sealed by a large slab. Inside, archaeologists found a peperino stone sarcophagus, three urns, and a set of grave goods including intact vases, a black-painted bowl, a ceramic jug, a mirror, and a small cup—objects that help pin down date and social standing. The History Blog

Tomb with funerary sacophagus and caskets

Tomb A at the site in Parco delle Acacie 2, along Via di Pietralata in the Pietralata. (Special Superintendence of Rome)

Tomb B appears slightly later (still Republican), built with large tufa blocks and benches along the sides for deposition of the dead. The standout detail here is human remains showing evidence of cranial drilling (trepanation), a rare and personal trace of ancient medical practice that can sometimes speak to trauma treatment, or ritualized healing, depending on context.

A Roman road was uncovered at the site. (Special Superintendence of Rome)

A Road Through the Site and a Small Shrine Linked to Hercules

Excavators also identified an ancient road axis crossing the area, with sections in beaten earth and portions cut directly into tufa, including visible wheel ruts. The route remained in use into the Imperial period and was later modified with masonry borders, before gradually falling out of use.

Along this axis sat a small quadrangular cult building, a sacellum, measuring roughly 4.5 by 5.5 meters. Inside were structural elements interpreted as an altar base and a likely statue base. Crucially, it was constructed over an earlier votive deposit containing terracotta body parts and figurines; the material has been used to support an interpretation connected to the cult of Hercules, long associated with routes like the Via Tiburtina.

Aerial view of cistern or basin.

One of the large basins or cisterns discovered. (Italy’s Ministry of Culture)

Two Monumental Basins: Waterworks, Industry, or Ritual Space?

Perhaps the most puzzling discoveries are the two massive basins (sometimes described as cisterns). One measured about 28 by 10 meters and around 2.1 meters deep, and the other about 21 by 9.2 meters and up to 4 meters deep, both attributed to the 2nd century BC on construction grounds. Their plastered interiors, niches, ramps, and (in one case) the presence of a dolium embedded in concrete suggest significant investment, yet their function remains unresolved.

Archaeologist Fabrizio Santi noted that these basins could relate to ritual activity, or possibly productive uses, or water collection, an uncertainty that highlights how many “infrastructure-looking” Roman structures turn out to have hybrid roles when studied in full stratigraphic and environmental context, notes Finestre sull'Arte.

Rome’s Special Superintendent Daniela Porro framed the broader value bluntly: “modern suburbs thus prove to be repositories of deep memories, yet to be explored,” stressing why preventive archaeology matters when development expands into historically underestimated zones.

Top image: Excavated Republican-era tomb entrance in Rome’s Pietralata district. Source: Special Superintendence of Rome

By Gary Manners