The Extra Muros Basilica in Histria: a New Analysis of the Archaeological Record

The extra muros basilica in Histria is located outside the town’s last defensive wall, erected in the second half of the 3rd century. The close relationship with a necropolis area is not actually unique: the same area was already occupied during the Imperial age by the settlement and, later, a suburban quarter of the early Byzantine town developed on previous buildings of the late Roman era. In this article we reconstruct the history of the place of worship, particularly interesting among the basilicas in Histria for its specific topographical location, by analyzing the various archaeological evidence starting from a reinterpretation of the numerous studies related to them. Thus, the funerary significance of this early Christian church emerges, at least in a welldefined period in Histria’s history, during the final phase of the town’s urban life. It is therefore at the moment one of the few known cemeterial basilicas in the territory of the provincia Scythia, along with those of Tropaeum Traiani, Axiopolis and Beroe: whereas the new early Christian basilica recently brought to light outside the walls in the necropolis area in Ibida (modern-day Slava Rusa ) still awaits a precise interpretation.