A pre-Roman necropolis has been discovered a quarter mile outside the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. The excavation has uncovered 35 burials so far, ranging in date from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C. The style of burials are simple earthen pits, semi-covered or covered with amphorae. The amphorae covering the burials are all arranged to alternate neck and tip. The coverings all consist of seven amphorae which originate from North Africa. Some of them feature makers marks in the Punic language. The burials have few grave goods and the ones that are included are modest — small ointment jars and coins. The human remains were submerged in groundwater, leaving the skeletal remains in an excellent state of preservation. The necropolis was found in a preventative archaeology excavation in advance of construction of an underground parking lot next to the Pompeii railway station in the eastern suburbs of the ancient city. The excavation also discovered extensive ploughed fields from the Roman era, just under the pumice layer of the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the city. The furrows and ridges were arranged north to south close to the former path of Sarno River, which today is much further from the city. The fields were used to cultivate vegetables that supplied daily fresh produce to the homes, shops and markets of Pompeii. Organic remains and pollen are currently undergoing analysis to determine which vegetables were grown, but the root systems and distribution of the remains suggest that perennial artichokes were cultivated there. Other pre-Roman objects were found in a canal containing materials believed to have been rubble from destroyed funerary contexts. The artifacts uncovered in the canal include hundreds of fragments of tiles, amphorae and dolia (giant storage amphorae), about 20 small columns in lava stone, tiles stamped in the local Oscan language, a statue head of a woman made of grey Campanian tufa with traces of surviving red paint in the hair and even some unusually large surviving wooden objects. Archaeologists believe the canal was built right after Sulla’s 89 B.C. siege of Pompeii during the Social War that pitted Rome against formerly allied Italian peoples. Sulla’s conquest of Pompeii resulted in an extensive territorial reorganization and reconstruction of the city and its environs.