These are the preliminary results of the study of some of the unpublished tomb contexts from the “Fornaci” necropolis of ancient Capua, carried out in collaboration with the Archaeological Superintendency of Naples and Caserta and the excavator.

This was one of the most important towns in Campania in the archaic period and the level of Etruscan influence there is widely discussed. This vast necropolis was excavated in the 1960s and 70s and is largely unpublished. A complete examination of the almost one hundred tombs from the last two phases (V and IV, circa 575-420 B.C.) offers the occasion for a contextual analysis of much material known to date mainly through museum collections, and completes a part of the lacunose archaeological documentation regarding Capua in the archaic and the early Classical period.

The new data obtained will constitute the basis of a more in depth analysis of Capua’s community which will supplement the wider discussion on the formation and development of the diverse cultural identities in pre-Roman Campania.