Sepulcrorum Ambitione: Social and religious messages evoked through Roman Tomb Architecture in rural Cilicia Campestris

Tombs are since the origins of appearance relevant and meaningful symbols for living more than for deceased. Every civilization assumed in different places and periods independently the same priorities in relation to the funerary sphere: the memory-transmission of the deceased in observation of rules concerning religion and tradition. The case study of a rural area situated in Cilicia Campestris (Kozan-Adana) shows in part some of these activities even outside the big urbanized cities. The analyzed tombs imitate sometimes the architecture of houses to underline the function of an eternal place for the dead, some templetombs explain trough architectural features the elevation to the sacred sphere, gardens are created around the tombs to receive visitors, inscriptions are placed where passers-by will definitely see them to transmit important qualities of the owner, and often the choice of an absolutely dominant position to erect funerary buildings transforms the structure into a territorial marker.