Necropolis of Porto

The Necropolis of Porto is a Roman burial ground located at Isola Sacra, the strip of land between the ancient harbor cities of Ostia and Portus in Italy. It served as the main cemetery for Portus, the enormous artificial harbor built by emperors Claudius and Trajan. The cemetery was most active in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, when Portus was the Mediterranean's busiest port.

Many tombs at the necropolis feature carved stone relief panels depicting the trades and professions of the deceased, including blacksmiths, grain merchants, shipbuilders, and midwives. These reliefs provide rare visual documentation of working-class commercial life in a major Roman port city. Combined with the Latin inscriptions, they allow archaeologists to reconstruct the social and economic structure of the harbor community.

The site is open to the public as part of the Isola Sacra archaeological area near Fiumicino, Italy, close to Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport. It can be visited separately from or in combination with the nearby ruins of Ostia Antica and the excavations of Portus. The necropolis streets and tomb facades are visible along paved walking paths.

The Latin inscriptions on the tombs record the names, ages, professions, and sometimes personal messages of the deceased, offering detailed insight into the population of Roman Portus. Many tombs were commissioned by freedmen (liberti) — former slaves who had achieved citizenship and commercial success. The inscriptions reveal a cosmopolitan community of people of diverse origins who worked in the harbor economy.