The research project at the necropolis of Porta Nola aims to throw new light on the historical, urban, and cultural development of Pompeii, with a particular focus on how people lived and were buried. The necropolis offers an extraordinary opportunity to study the rituals of the death and to interpret the gestures and funeral customs of the privileged classes, as well as of the lower classes, including Pretorian soldiers, poor people and slaves who were also buried at the necropolis.

The first phase of the project begun with a pilot season in order to draw together all the available existing information (bibliographical, archival), as well as compiling a photogrammetric and laser scan data model of the area, and undertaking a detailed geophysical survey in order to better understand the sub-surface. In particular, the GPR survey recorded a series of small, rounded, aligned anomalies located at approximately 1 metre below the current ground level at the centre of the triangular wedge formed by the walls that closed the anonymous schola tomb. These may cautiously be interpreted as funerary urns. Indeed, their shape, alignment and measurements appear to represent a series of ollae, the vases usually used in the Imperial period for the deposition of funerary ashes. The GPR survey also revealed many interesting anomalies in the area of the Tomb of Obellius Firmus. Subsequenty to this survey, surface clearance (including the removal of vegation) in the area and inside the tomb of Obellius led to a surprising discovery. Whilst the tomb was excavated by De Caro in 1979, the methodological cleaning of the interior of Obellius’ tomb revealed a small mound artificially built up in a corner of the tomb, which included many fragments of burned human bone, perhaps attributable to Obellius himself, as well as decorated bone with traces of burning, which belonged to the funeral bed on which was placed the body on the pyre. This cleaning revealed that the tomb still remains to be fully excavated, with the possibility of discovering more about the funerary practice. Excavation permission will be sort in the future following the pilot season.