This tomb is 20 meters away from the western one and three meters from the eastern one. Incorporated into a modern building which completed the missing parts, it has been reused up to the present day.
The building has a rectangular plan 13 meters long and 5.30 meters wide and ends to the west with a semi-dome apse. The southern wall (fig. 1), oriented in an east-west direction with a barrel roof, and the western one (fig. 2), with an apse, are conserved till today.
Figure 1: Central Tomb, southern wall.
The southern wall consists of a brick curtain with single elements arranged in regular rows glued with thin layers of mortar (fig. 3). On it there are two ancient windows that have undergone remodeling in the modern era. Above the wall there is a barrel-shaped roof made of tuff scrap cement.
The western part of the sepulcher is the apse, made up of a brick curtain similar to that of the southern wall (fig. 4).
Figure 2: Central Tomb, north and south elevations (Grasseau Fralleoni)
During the excavation campaign, conducted between 2007 and 2010, a large layer of materials was removed inside the central building and the collapsed remains of the vault of the tomb were discovered. On some of the exposed fragments, the signs of the wooden ribs and the brick ribs arranged in regular rows are still recognizable.
The space inside the apse has been used up to now as a warehouse at a much higher level than that of the collapses described above. The modern plaster that covers the apse has made it difficult to read the original characteristics of the brickwork which is preserved for 180 cm in height above the modern floor.
Along the perimeter of the apse you can see the traces of the interventions undergone by the structure over the centuries until today.
The archaeological investigations conducted around the central tomb have discovered wall structures in “opus reticulatum” (fig. 4, 5, 6) showing remakes in the wall texture (infills and renovations) made with different and successive building techniques.
These excavations have made it possible to identify several rooms even if at the moment, due to partial investigations, the function of these spaces is still uncertain.
Figure 5: Opus reticulatus
The recovered materials range from the first centuries of the empire to the 4th century AD and include:
– Red plaster fragments from the original wall covering.
– Part of the original mosaic floor in white tiles with borders in black tiles.
– Ceramic finds from the 4th century AD.
– Part of a marble sarcophagus with corner column and acanthus leaf capital.
All the findings suggest continuous use of the entire space, perhaps still preserved at the time of construction of the tomb.
Figure 6: Central Tomb,room 1 and 2 (C. Corsello, GEA S.C.ar.l.).