To the right of the ancient road leading from the Arcadian Gate to the ancient triple bridge of Mavrozoumena lies a cluster of funerary monuments.

Burial monument 17 consists of two chambers of equal size, measuring 4.70 × 5.40 m, with a Doric portico in front of them. Inside each chamber, there are three rectangular niches in the middle of each of the three sides, as well as a slightly raised platform (2.70 × 1.45 m) on the axis of the entrance and closer to the rear northern wall for the placement of marble sarcophagi, several fragments of which have been unearthed. The portico, 14.50 m long and 3.80 m wide, originally featured ten Doric columns, four of which survive. It rests on a high podium with more than six steps rising from street level to the height of the column base. Funeral monuments similar in form to Monument 17 at Messene (wide-fronted with a double chamber and a portico on the façade) are not found elsewhere in Greece.

Inside the portico, along the base of the column, four pits were identified containing the remains of cremated infants, accompanied by a large number of fire-tanned vessels: single spherical bowls, cups with indentations around the body, incense burners of various sizes and types, and lamps. The Corinthian-style lamps from well-known workshops (Epitychanus, Lucius, Severus, etc.) from the 2nd century CE bear, for the most part, figurative depictions, such as gladiators, Artemis, and the head of Athena, while one depicts an interesting erotic scene. Some pits also contained charred fruits, such as pine cones, acorns, and figs, all in good condition. The group of pits with their abundant grave goods is of great interest. It attests to an unusual burial custom: the cremation of infants and the deposition of the cremated remains in pits in the gallery, that is, outside the main chambers of the funerary structure, within which only adult family members were buried in niches and marble sarcophagi. The relatively large number of infants could be an indication of a high mortality rate at these ages. Unless their deaths occurred simultaneously due to an epidemic—a possibility strongly supported by the nearly complete typological and chronological correspondence of the grave goods (vessels of similar types and shapes from the same time period, 2nd century AD). In the portico of burial structure 17, a hoard of approximately 1,400 bronze coins was found inside a clay vessel. The chambers of Structure 17, like the adjacent ones, had been used as burial and residential spaces during the early Christian period (5th–6th centuries AD).

The adjacent funerary monument 18, in contrast to 17, is not a wide-fronted structure but takes the form of a small shrine comprising a vestibule with a colonnade, with interior dimensions 2.70 × 5.30 m, and a wide chamber, measuring 5.40 × 6.70 m, with the entrance in the middle of its south side. Three rectangular niches are located in the center of the remaining sides; of these, the northern one is shallower than the others and at a higher level, while the remaining two, the eastern and western ones, are at floor level and were used for burials. A large number of fragments from at least two marble sarcophagi were found in the chamber’s fill. The earliest and best-preserved sarcophagus, likely dating to the time of Antoninus Severus, depicts a dramatic battle between horsemen and infantrymen in heroic nudity, apparently a scene from the Trojan War. On the second sarcophagus, likely dating to the early 3rd century CE, the use of the burin is particularly pronounced, and the style appears more advanced. This one also depicts battle scenes and other subjects. Both are creations of Neopattine workshops, which experienced a remarkable flourishing during the period between 150 and 250 CE, with their products being exported even to the most remote corners of the Roman Empire. The examples from Messene can be compared to the finest of their kind. According to the funerary inscriptions, both buildings 17 and 18 were used for many years by members of the city’s prominent families, among whom T(Itos) Flavius Polybius, namesake of the great historian, who is known (as are his ancestors and descendants) from other inscriptions not only in Messene (IG V1, 1456) but also in Olympia (IvO 449, 450, 486, 487).

A complex of burial enclosures containing box-shaped and tile-roofed tombs from the Imperial period was uncovered west of Building 17. Of particular note is a meticulously constructed box-shaped tomb in the form of a built sarcophagus.

Finally, two equally sized stepped pedestals for funerary monuments were uncovered between the north-east tower of the Arcadian Gate and burial structure 18. They are constructed entirely of spolia (half-columns, triglyphs, metopes) from earlier funerary monuments; they even bear masonry marks related to the reuse of the building material and its reconfiguration in the construction of the stepped pedestals.