Late Roman burials in urban contexts: old questions and new methods

From the 3rd century important changes took place in the funerary topography of Roman cities. Firstly, suburban areas previously used for residential or industrial activities outside city walls were used for funerary purposes. Later, beginning in the 4th century, but most commonly in subsequent centuries, dispersed burials start to appear in the intramural space of cities. Both of these two phenomena, widely detected in the Western provinces, are connected to the more general subject of urban transformations in Late Antiquity and therefore have been widely debated since the 1980s. However, no single explanation has been formulated, and the topic is further complicated by the quite vigorous debate on questions such as the 3rd century crisis, the extent of Christianisation and the effects of destructions caused by barbarians and of their settlement in Roman cities. The aim of this paper is to look again at both processes of change, taking into account both old and new archaeological evidence, and new methodologies and interpretations, in order to illuminate their possible causes and interpretations.