The excavations undertaken by the University of Bologna’s Department of History, Culture and Civilisation at Suasa investigated part of the southern area of the Eastern Necropolis identified in 2012.
Three “a cappuccina” burials were uncovered in the westernmost part of the excavation area. They were covered with large, complete tiles, arranged along their length, the joins covered by imbrices and tile fragments, the bottom lined with large tiles placed flat. The burials were in stratigraphic succession, one cutting the other. Indeed, in the lower depositions the skeleton was reduced and placed in a corner of the tomb, probably at the moment they were cut by the next burial. A coin of Alexander Severus dated 230 A.D. was recovered.

In the southernmost part of the central strip of the excavation area, two more inhumation burials were uncovered. One was an “a cappuccina” burial on a northwest-southeast alignment, the other in an earth grave without covering or lined floor.
The absence of burials in the rest of the central sector of the excavation area made it possible to open a deep trench reaching about 2.50 m below present ground level, which revealed a 5 m stretch of the cobblestone wall that in this area bordered the gravel road that was uncovered in 2012.
During previous campaigns, numerous burials were uncovered in the easternmost strip of the excavation area, mainly grouped in the area abutting the retaining wall of the gravel road. This season, six cremation burials were excavated, whose grave goods, constituted by a few fragmented finds, date to between the late 1st and the 2nd century A.D. Three had a marker-cinerary urn constituted by the upper part of a flat-based amphora, in a simple earth pit, and two with a more complex structure.

The first used a small dolia as a cinerary urn, on the rim of which were inserted a sequence of two joining tubuli separated by a filter, clearly set up for the libation rituals. The end of the tubuli emerged for about 10 cm above the ground surface of the necropolis. Towards the north there was a quadrangular base (c. 130 × 120 cm), with shallow foundations, which incorporated part of the upper end of the tube structure itself and may represent a simple platform that was used during the funerary ritual.

The second “complex” burial produced the remains of a sandstone structure, which when reconstructed formed a sort of rough-hewn stone ring. Below it was a circular masonry foundation, with a limestone cippus, broken at the top, fixed at its centre. This structure covered part of the earth from the pyre that filled the pit containing the cinerary amphora, fixed vertically and with a hole in the bottom.
Lastly, during this season, three stratigraphic sondages were opened in the already known area of suburban building 9, revealing several sections of wall foundations, and associated robbing trenches and a layer of collapse.