Medieval Jewish cemetery uncovered in Rome

Italian archaeologists discover part of the so-called Campus Iudeorum, the long-lost cemetery used by Rome’s medieval Jewish community.

Along with the discovery of 38 graves, with skeletal remains intact, a stone with part of a Hebrew inscription also was found.

The site, whose graves date from the 14th century to the early 17th century, was uncovered during excavations carried out during the restructuring of the Palazzo Leonori as the new headquarters of an insurance company.

Located in Rome’s Trastevere district, the site of the cemetery was already known through maps and archival sources but had disappeared physically centuries ago. It was taken over by the papal rulers at the end of the 16th century and finally razed in the mid-17thcentury when new city walls were built. At that time Jews, already confined to a ghetto, moved their cemetery to a location next to the Circus Maximus, which in turn was destroyed by the fascist regime in the 1930s. The city rose garden now occupies that spot, with a small plaque commemorating it as the site of a Jewish cemetery.

— JTA