New discoveries at the archaeological site of Cumae

New finds have emerged in the archaeological area of Cumae (Greek Κύμη) in the Province of Naples, Campania, Italy. The latest research, carried out by archaeologists Prisicilla Munzi, from the Jean Bérard centre (CNRS-EFR), and Jean-Pierre Brun, from the Collège de France, has revealed structures and monuments that represent a phase of redevelopment and rebuilding in the areas immediately outside the walls of the town.

Funerary monument of the Augustan Age [Credit: Centre Jean Bérard/National Geographic Italia]

Researchers have been able to observe how the Cumaeans of the Flavian period, at the end of the first century AD, had obliterated roads and funerary monuments in the northern part of the city for the construction of public areas and places dedicated to worship, physical activity and recreation.

These interventions – it seems – were made with the aim of levelling a large portion of land for the construction of a monument encompassing a large open space that is believed to have served as a gymnasium dedicated to physical activity and military exercises for the city’s elite.

Funerary monument with underground chamber of the late Republican Age with thermopolium
of the Flavian era [Credit: Centre Jean Bérard/National Geographic Italia]

The entire area of this structure appears to extend over at least 2500 square metres and still preserves the perimeter walls in the foundations, as well as part of the portico on the west side.
Structures like this are not unusual in the Roman Empire. Vitruvius himself, for example, recalls in his “De Architectura” that these buildings should have been built “extra urbem”, just like in the case of Cumae. This testimony and the evidence provided by other Roman cities such as Pompeii and Alba Fucens, whose gymnasiums are known, support this initial interpretation by scholars.

Grave goods of glass and ceramic unguentaries [Credit: Centre Jean Bérard/National Geographic Italia]

The excavation, however, also had other interesting surprises to offer archaeologists who had the opportunity to analyze – right on the western edge of the field – various shops and meeting places intended for public use.

One of these, a thermopolium (from Greek θερμοπώλιον, i.e. cook-shop), has been investigated by archaeologists who have identified the foundations built above a tomb of the Augustan Age.

Left: iron strigile found in the funeral monument next to the thermopolium; Right: bone plate
with a representation of Eros [Credit: Centre Jean Bérard/National Geographic Italia]

Inside the latter, a burial chamber was found composed of three couches or beds on which the deceased were placed and a large compartment in which part of the funerary equipment, composed of glass and ceramic unguentaria, was found.
Immediately next to this first tomb – below the thermopolium – a second was found. Also in this case the burial chamber housed three spaces for burials, but the grave goods recovered were much richer.

Archaeologists working at the newly discovered gymnasium site
[Credit: Centre Jean Bérard/National Geographic Italia]

Together with the unguentaria, some of which were also made of alabaster, archaeologists were able to recover some finds in worked bone belonging to a wooden box: a comb in worked bone, iron strigils, and cube-shaped dice made of bone.

These excavations have in fact revealed to archaeologists a “new face” of a city that towards the end of the first century AD began a new phase of development and modernization. Next year’s research will continue in the area of the gymnasium with the aim of investigating the levels below where traces of the archaic, Hellenistic and classical necropolises have been intercepted.

Source: National Geographic Italia [August 31, 2018]

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