Archaeologists working in the western necropolis of Salona, the ancient capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia, have uncovered a burial ground that documents a striking mix of funerary practices, including one grave in which the deceased was placed face down. The excavation, conducted by researchers from the Croatian Conservation Institute and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, has brought to light 16 inhumation burials and 16 cremation burials in the same cemetery, according to Croatia Week.
The face-down burial stands out among the inhumation graves. The individual was interred prone, a position that in Roman contexts is often interpreted as unusual or potentially significant, though the researchers have not offered a specific explanation for the placement. Grave goods recovered from this burial include three glass bottles and a small glass vessel. One of the three unguentaria, or perfume bottles, was crafted in the shape of a date, a detail that points to the personal or ritual items chosen for the deceased.
The cremation burials show their own diversity. Twelve of them held cremated remains placed directly into the earth without a container. In three other graves, ceramic urns were used to hold the cremated remains, while a single burial employed a stone urn. One cremation grave contained a glass unguentarium, a bone needle, and a ceramic oil lamp, offering a glimpse of the objects that accompanied the dead on their final journey.
Salona, located near modern Split, was a major administrative and commercial center of the Roman Empire in the Balkans. As the seat of the provincial governor, it served as the capital of Dalmatia and grew into one of the largest Roman cities in the region. Its extensive necropolises have long been a focus of archaeological research, and the current excavation adds new detail to the picture of how its inhabitants commemorated their dead.
The coexistence of inhumation and cremation in a single necropolis is not unusual for the Roman world, where both practices were used at different times and in different communities. What distinguishes the Salona finds is the variety within each category, from simple earth-cut cremations to urns of ceramic and stone, and from standard inhumations to the rare prone burial. More than 150 graves have been investigated in the necropolis to date, suggesting that the site will continue to yield information about the population and its customs.
The artifacts recovered, particularly the glass vessels, are consistent with the kinds of grave goods found elsewhere in Roman Dalmatia. Unguentaria were commonly used to hold perfumed oils, and their presence in both inhumation and cremation contexts indicates that the ritual of anointing or offering scent accompanied different burial traditions. The bone needle and oil lamp from one cremation grave add to the impression of a community that furnished its graves with everyday and ceremonial objects alike.
Researchers from the Croatian Conservation Institute and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts are continuing to study the remains and the objects. The face-down burial in particular may attract further analysis, as prone interment has been linked in some Roman-era contexts to particular social or religious circumstances, though any interpretation will depend on the full study of the skeleton and its grave assemblage.
For now, the excavation at Salona offers a detailed snapshot of funerary practice in the Roman province of Dalmatia, where the living honored their dead through a range of rites that included both burial and cremation, sometimes within the same cemetery and sometimes with distinctive gestures such as the placement of a body face down in the earth.
