APCOM

Amphoras, urns, coins, jewels, lamps, terra-cotta fragments and some glass bottles, one of which incredibly intact: these are the objects that used to accompany dead people in their travel to netherworld, the funerary dowry of ancient Mediolanum's inhabitants. The graves have been found in a big courtyard of Milano's Policlinico Hospital, behind the ER and under the windows of CPR department, during the excavations for the building's redecoration.

From the archaeological point of view, the surroundings of the Policlinico are very rich: all the area between Porta Romana avenue and Francesco Sforza street were the city outskirts in the Roman period, a large space used for burials. Here Pompeo Castelfranco, the most important archaeologist in Lombardia between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, had carried out his studies. Other excavations were made in the 1950s. The necropolis dates back to an age included between the 1st and the 2nd century A.D. The graves, which are placed at 11-13 feet under-earth, look like a batch of small craters with a diameter of 15-19 inches. The most surprising find is a foot-shaped lamp which is finely decorated and perfectly preserved.

"The deceased's pyre was probably set up somewhere else, - explains Anna Ceresa Mori, inspector of Superintendence for archaeological Assets - then ashes were gathered in an amphora or in an urn and they were buried with some objects. These look quite polished, so we can think that the deceased belonged to the upper class". Through the layering experts assume that for many centuries during the Middle Age this area, once occupied by the necropolis, was converted into cultivated lands. In the 7th century the monastery of Santa Caterina alla Ruota was built. A hundreds years later, it became a shelter for poor people and orphans. Finally, the building was knocked down to make space for the hospital.