The necropolis was found on the manmade island of Isola Sacra, which lies between the cities of Portus and Ostia Antica, a region just south of Rome.

Much of the excavated necropolis flanked the Via Severiana, which ran through Isola Sacra and traveled southeast from Ostica to Terracina.

Exquisite sarcophagi exist, including one of a child with revelling putti, or a winged babies, and one of the Archigallus, or head priest, of the island.

Non-sepulchral sculptures found in the tombs could have been family heirlooms that were hidden in the burial grounds during a time of barbarian attack.

Scholars believe this is because Portus and Ostia were cosmopolitan towns where the bourgeois population was full of businessmen of non-Italian birth.