Memoria

This monumental tomb, known as a memoria, was located in the chancel of a single-aisled early Christian church built around the 5th century CE. The tomb is lavishly decorated with marble chancel slabs with originally polychrome scale decoration. Inside were two sarcophagi which in turn housed two lead coffins. Around the memoria, ostensibly placed in elevation next to the altar, were accumulated about fifty sarcophagi. This funerary practice is reminiscent of the medieval tradition of burial ad sanctos, i.e., near the saints who were supposed to grant the deceased protection after death. The local saints (not identified) are probably the two men buried in the memoria. Placed near an important communication route, this funerary church must have attracted pilgrims from all over early medieval Provence.