Trajan's sestertius

Sestertius of Emperor Trajan coined between 101 and 102 of our era. The coin shows the bust of the emperor with a right profile and in a military style laureate. It was found in Tomb 214 in the cemetery of Casetes in Vilajoiosa. A Sestertius would be equivalent to one euro today.

The grave belonged to a woman who had been cremated to free her soul and to be reunited with her ancestors. They had put a coin in his pit to pay the boatman Caronte. According to Roman tradition, Caronte was a skinny and grumpy old man, dressed in darkness, who transported souls to the other side of the Acheron river, where was the world beyond the grave. If you did not have a coin to pay him, he would make you wait years on the shore. 

In the tomb they had deposited ceramics that were no longer imported from Gaul, more or less Roman France, around 100, archaeologists call it "sigillata sudgálica". Therefore, the grave is a few years after that year. From that moment on, people began to bury themselves without burning. A century later, at the of the 2nd century, practically no one was cremated. 

IMP(erator) CAES(ar) NERVA TRAIAN(us) AVG(ustus) GERM(anicus) P(ontifex) M(aximus).

Grave 214 of Les Casetes necropolis, sector Creueta.
Nº inv. Vilamuseu 003789