Puticuli
Ancient Roman mass grave for the poor and rubbish
Puticuli were open pits used as mass graves for the poor in ancient Rome.
Etymology
According to Varro, a Roman scholar, the name originates from the Latin word for wells and pits, putei. Varro also describes an alternative etymology proposed by his mentor Aelius Stilo. Aelius believed that since the bodies were thrown into the puticuli to rot, the name originated from the Latin verb, putescebant, meaning "used to rot". Varro also cites another Roman writer named Afranius, who calls the puticuli "pit-lights". Afranius referred to the puticuli with these terms since the bodies that were thrown into the grave looked up at the light from the pit.
Use
According to Varro, puticuli were located outside of towns. Puticuli were also filled with waste, animal carcasses, and rubbish; they are sometimes seen as an example of waste management in ancient Rome.
Another issue for classicists is the importance of these gravesites to Roman society. It has been argued that the ordered arrangement of graves found in this site implies the Roman government was involved in their creation and regulation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q113561082. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Puticuli” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.