: Roman and Late Roman burials in the capital of the province of Asia

International audienceLike most other ancient cities, Ephesus was surrounded by large-scale necropoleis. Except for a few examples, the typical burial sites were located in extramural burial areas outside the Hellenistic city-walls. Sanitary precautions and fear of defilement readily explain this law. So, no matter from what direction an ancient traveler arrived in Ephesus, he had to pass a cemetery. Although no longer visible today the relationship between tombs and city appeared to be heterogeneous: On the one hand they were packed tightly around inhabited areas, on the other hand they were located on uninhabited slopes. The common denominator is their location in heavily frequented areas or next to major traffic routes; this made them noticeable and permanently present to the citizens of the ancient city. The structure, the architectural design and the furnishings of the tombs so prominently sited served as vehicles for any kind of status display and a definition of social hierarchies.Intramural burials were very rare, and they were granted by cities only as a mark of high distinction and were typically restricted to exceptional cases. In this paper several remarkable funerary and honorific monuments located along the Curetes Street are presented. The important rank of the owners of these monuments in Ephesian society was reflected by the centrality of their monuments within the civic landscape