The discovery of the Carmona Necropolis occurred at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the initiative of Juan Fernández López and the English archaeologist Jorge Bonsor. The Necropolis dates back to around the 1st century. The most common burial ritual was cremation. The bodies were cremated in pits dug into the rock where the pyre was placed. Occasionally, these pits were also used as burial pits, with the ashes being deposited in the pit, which was covered with ashlars, bricks, or tiles. Once covered, a stele was placed to indicate the location and name of the deceased. The collective mausoleum, consisting of an underground chamber for families, is the most common type of burial site in the Carmona Necropolis. It is accessed through a stepped shaft. The chamber is usually quadrangular, with a bench running along the lower part of the walls, where offerings are placed and above which niches are opened. In some chambers, traces of the doors that closed them remain; others must have been closed with a slab. The external part of the burials must have been covered with cippus, stelae, or barrows and other structures of which no evidence has survived. To hide the roughness of the rock, the tombs were decorated. The Necropolis is one of the most important sites in the Peninsula due to its good preservation. It is believed that the tiers and vestibules were covered with sheets of precious material, with niches for the usual statues of emperors and illustrious Carmona residents. The "ima" and "media cavea" are below the level of the road, dug into the hillock, while the "suma cavea" was the only built-up part. On its eastern façade, there is an entrance ramp, similar to those that must have been at each of the corners, which provided access to the exits or vomitoria. This is a sanctuary dedicated to the worship of the deities Cybele and Attis. The veneration of these Eastern gods attained enormous importance in Rome. Attis, a god who died and was resurrected each year, took root among the people of Carmona, as evidenced by other finds in the Necropolis, and represented the recovery of a form of religiosity unique to Carmona, prevalent in Eastern and Mediterranean cultures, with which Carmona had long maintained undeniable ties. Along with this god, the mother goddess, the divine incarnation of nature, mistress of life and death, represented by the aniconic form of a baetyl (an ovoid stone). However, the figure of the elephant exerted such fascination from its discovery that it became the most prominent symbol of eternity in this building. The tomb of Servilia, the most monumental of the traditional structures represented in the Necropolis. It follows Hellenistic models and reproduces a luxurious mansion, with a large porticoed courtyard that opens onto various rooms. One of these spaces is the covered gallery, in the central section of which is a chamber that appears to have originally housed the sculpture of Servilia. At the front of the porticoed courtyard is the burial chamber, which has a large, trapezoidal vestibule covered by a pointed vault; this gives it a unique character unprecedented in the site. In short, everything suggests that the tomb, dating from the time of Augustus, must have belonged to a family of powerful Roman rulers and officials.
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