The eastern necropolis at Novae

The excavations carried out in 2016-2019 (supported by the Polish National Science Centre) to the east of the legionary camp of Novae shed new light on the function of this place before it was surrounded by new fortifications and be-came part of the Late Roman town. This paper combines the newly acquired data with the available information from earlier research in order to analyse the eastern necropolis of Novae, a so far little-known burial ground identified in the studied area. Reconstruction of its location, chronology, burial rites and history is offered, illuminating an obscure aspect of the history of Novae, especially the changes that occurred in the 3rd century.One inhumation and three cremation burials have been unearthed, as well as a structure which is identified as a funeral pyre (ustrinum) or a monumental grave. The single inhumation grave was that of a child. The excavation results combined with anthropological analysis of the cremains suggest that two individuals were cremated within the grave structures (bustum-type burials), while the third burial was an ustri-num type, the body cremated elsewhere, the remains collected and transferred to the grave. The two individuals in the bustum-type burials were men, whose bone features and pathologies may be related to a soldier’s activities and diet. The furnishing of the graves was not expensive, but the deceased were provided with coins and clay vessels used for eating and drinking, some of them placed on the funeral pyre before crema-tion, and some used during a sacrificial feast. Combined with the earlier finds, it is possible to state that the eastern necropolis was biritual and the burials mostly fol-lowed typical Roman burial customs. It is possible that some of the gravestones found reused in various parts of Novae could have originally come from this area. The unearthed part of the necropolis is dated by the small finds (coins and pot-tery) as well as its stratigraphy to the 2nd and the middle of the 3rd century AD. The final period of the eastern necropolis could have taken place in the 260s and 270s, after several Gothic invasions devastated the region. After the cemetery ceased to function, an unusual change of function took place, as it was included in the area protected by the new fortifications of the so-called “annex” and started to be used for habitation and manufacturing, even though it was still recognizable as a former graveyard.