Isola Sacra necropolis (excavations 1988-89). Evidence of the Antonine plague?

Between 1988 and 1989, a long season of excavations was carried out in the Necropolis of Isola Sacra, dictated by the need to create a drainage system to counteract the water table’s periodic rise, which threatened the monumental tombs discovered by G. Calza in the 1930s. The excavation interested the western side of the road leading from Ostia to Portus, on the so-called «Campo dei Poveri» (Field of the Poor), and the spaces between the monumental tombs. Despite the constraints imposed by the needs of the building site and various operational difficulties, it was possible to investigate an area of a little less than 2,000 m2, in which 670 depositions were identified, with different burial methods and rites. The number of burials was already surprising and unexpected during the excavation. Moreover, the available space was occupied with burials mostly in a haphazard manner and without any particular organization. Some rested against the monumental tombs, even on the side of their entrance. This evidence suggests a certain careleness in this necropolis area, apparently due to the need for intensive and almost systematic use of the areas outside the monumental tombs. A confirmation of this seems to come from examining the materials associated with the burials. Although there are some difficulties (above all, the impossibility of suggesting a precise date for the individual burials, also due to the approximation of the chronology of the individual classes of materials associated with them), the use of this part of the necropolis belongs to a rather limited period. Following cross-referencing the available data, the burials turned out to be dated to the second half of the second century A.D., which could be narrowed down to between 160 and 180 A.D. These general characteristics (heedlessly, extremely dense occupation of the spaces, and limited chronological range) seem to be sufficient to assume that the formation of this part of the necropolis did not come about under ordinary circumstances. Perhaps it was linked to a calamity, even protracted in time, such as the ‘Antonine Plague.’