Northern Salona Necropolis

Abstract

Northern necropolis developed along the communication route which was vertically separated from via principalis, and was a »detour« from the northern walls of Urbs vetus and ran along east from Port Caesarea connecting again with the main route to Salona. The finds from the tombstones, with the information about the appearance and dimensions of tomb areas, point to the planning of the number and the size of the tomb parts and also to the function of the necropolis from the beginning of the first century A.D.
Individual burials (tombs) existed along the communication route which was just outside the western city gate from the road Salona-Tragurium, and went along in the line of a cardo, then circled the amphitheater and close to Port suburbia I, connected to with the above-mentioned »detour«. By 170. at the latest, after the construction of the walls around the western part, these two parts joined into one continuous necropolis. With the construction of the walls in Marcus Aureliuss time, parts of the necropolis within the walls did not function any more althought there were some sporadic burials within the city even after this date.
By charting the tomb finds, we can follow the communication from Urbs vetus, across Manastirine and the village of Bubić-Topin and Grubišić (Žuro) to the locality Rižinice and Crikvine. The burials along this road are connected to the Delmatian settlement about 1,5 km north-east front the Greek Salona, at Donja Rupotina just to the other settlemens in the ager which lasted into the Roman Limes. There developed the ancient Christian cemeteries within the pagan necropolises but they soon got separated as a result of the organization and the appearance of the the burials around the tombs of the martyrs.