The deceased from Cádiz speak from their tombstones: a resentful man, four magistrates, and a 100-year-old woman.

Cinuras lived and died at some unknown time in the second half of the first century in Roman Cadiz. It is unknown exactly when or how long he lived; given his name, it is possible that he was a former slave, a freedman, who was fortunate enough to be able to afford a proper burial with a tombstone. But he did want to leave a grudge written for eternity: "Neither the most powerful, nor his friends, nor his loved ones, showed him gratitude." His epitaph is one of the 269 epigraphs that have appeared in one fell swoop in the archaeological excavation of a Cadiz necropolis. So Jacobo Vázquez, one of the architects of the discovery, likes to think that, almost two millennia later, Cinuras has "finally achieved the recognition" he lacked in life.

Along with that poor man, hurt to the point of resentment, a long-lived woman said to have lived to be 100, and four powerful magistrates and priests who underline Gades' importance in the empire, up to 89 more Roman Gaditans have emerged—in addition to dozens of incomplete fragments—in the largest known archaeological find of epigraphs from that historical period in the city, a discovery advanced by the local media Diario de Cádiz . Their tombstones were scattered around a building or funerary college that must have had such importance in the local cult that so many personalities wanted to be buried around it. Vázquez, coordinator of the excavation, and Adrián Santos, director of the same, are working on the hypothesis that it could have been a cult space dedicated to Isis, the goddess of Egyptian origin so popular in ports such as Alexandria, Rome, and perhaps now also in Gades. And there are quite a few clues that support their working hypothesis.

This entire array of discoveries appeared by chance in January 2022 during construction work on the site of an old chalet, La Porteña, located in the residential neighborhood of Bahía Blanca, on the outskirts of the city. The vast amount of material found has already led archaeologists to three years of work and five scientific articles—four published and one in progress—in addition to more to come. In the portion of the necropolis they worked on, "the chronologies were the classic ones expected given the surroundings," as Santos explains. In total, they documented 55 burials ranging from pits excavated in dunes from the 2nd century BC to tombs from the 4th century AD, the time at which the necropolis was abandoned. All of them were located around a building that is now the focus of Vázquez and Santos' research efforts.

In the layer of the earliest tombs, archaeologists found dozens of female terracottas for ritual use, over which a building was eventually erected in the first century. This building was so extensive that it extended beneath another site excavated more than 30 years ago and identified at the time as a villa. However, new research now indicates that the building could actually have been a funerary college that included a cult space with an altar, a pit for a ritual fire, and baetyls, a sanctuary dedicated to a female deity such as Isis. The identity of the goddess is hypothesized thanks to the discovery of these earliest terracottas, four fragments of votive plaques depicting feet, and the remains of wall decoration with birds and reeds, motifs related to the Nile River that are very common in Isis cults.

It is within and around this space that the 269 plaques of people who chose to be buried near this funerary college appear. “It's very significant because it can be associated with the fact that they wanted to be buried near the deity they worshipped. It would be like someone who wants to be buried today next to the Macarena. All this despite the fact that it wasn't a luxurious chapel, but it did have enough roots to be a cultic center,” Vázquez reasons. The plaques appeared separate from the 55 burials, stacked together, a likely sign of possible later looting. But they are unique in that they weren't destroyed to be reused as construction material. “They are exceptional because of the quantity and the epigraphic information they provide,” Santos points out.

In total, of the 500 tombstone fragments, archaeologists have identified 269 as containing texts, 95 of which contain the names of the deceased. The researchers highlight the case of four magistrates, city councilors, and priests. They focus specifically on the priest, as his tombstone indicates that he was the 43rd person in charge of the cult of Jupiter, a "very ancient god who refers to Baal," a Phoenician deity, explains Vázquez. This is the first known sign that ancient Gades had a temple to this god and places the city, of Phoenician origin, in a prominent league of Roman cities. "It is a very important cult that only existed in Rome, Carthage, and, now, Cádiz," the researcher adds.

The magnitude of the discovery has led Santos and Vázquez to dedicate a scientific article to it, in addition to another on the votive feet and yet another on the figure of that resentful father whom no one thanked. "Cinuras, the father, beloved among his people, is buried here. May the earth rest lightly on you. This is that Cinuras, to whom, having earned it through his merits, neither the most powerful, nor his friends, nor his loved ones showed gratitude," reads the proposed translation on his tombstone. Epigraphic analysis and stratigraphy have led them to date the tombstone to the second half of the 1st century AD and to determine that the exclusive use of the Greek cognomen Cinuras (common for female names, by the way) places him as a former freed slave who must have prospered during his lifetime to be able to be buried in the same space where prominent members of the local aristocracy were interred.

But, above all, the case of Cinuras is a practical example of how the study of epigraphy serves to capture personal and collective human dramas. Vital fragments like that of that Roman woman who supposedly lived to 100 years of age, a longevity unconfirmed as her tombstone is not associated with one of the 55 burials. "We are giving a voice to these anonymous figures in history, it's very beautiful," Santos proudly notes. "The way she was treated has left us with a legacy. The good thing is that her message has been transmitted," Vázquez notes at his side. Both still have research ahead of them, which, they assure, will yield more surprises that will contextualize the power of Gades in the Roman Empire. "The investigation is not over; it has only just begun, and it will very likely surpass us," Vázquez concludes.