logo
  • Quarto, via Campana
  • Quarto
  •  
  • Italy
  • Campania
  • Naples
  • Pozzuoli

Credits

  • failed to get markup 'credits_'
  • AIAC_logo logo

Periods

  • No period data has been added yet

Chronology

  • 1 AD - 200 AD
  • 400 AD - 600 AD
  • 1600 AD - 1800 AD

Season

    • Three funerary buildings were investigated in the vicinity of Quarto. The first was a columbarium, comprising two contiguous chambers one of which contained two rows of niches. The upper order, ran above a continuous cornice of stucco decorated with a lotus flower motif and presented two rectangular niches separated by an _aedicule_ in the form of a temple with a tympanum decorated in relief. The lower order was formed by three niches with round arches on top of a smooth continuous cornice with a rectangular section. An intact funerary urn was housed in the blocked in central niche of the lower order. The second monument, comprising three chambers (first half of the 1st century A.D.), was difficult to interpret as it had been radically altered. The presence of “green glaze” type pottery in one of the chambers dates the alterations made to transform the structure into a cellar to the 17th-18th century. In antiquity a monumental staircase with six steps had been built in the adjoining chamber. South of this structure was an open area used as a cemetery in at least two periods: the first may be datable to the 2nd century A.D., whilst the second falls within the 5th-6th century A.D. Further south the next mausoleum was on two levels: the lower had a cross vault and appeared modified by the construction of arcosolia surmounted by a large shelf and containing burials mostly without grave goods. The space had been used for burials until the late antique period, as attested by the presence of late pottery, including a fragment of Christian lamp found in the fill. The upper level had also been subject to alterations which consisted in the laying of a white limestone mosaic floor on top of an _opus signinum_ surface.
    • A new sizable group of _columbaria_ of early imperial date was uncovered during work for the construction of a new sewer beneath the eastern sidewalk of the modern via Campana. In this stretch, circa 400 m before the Montagna Spaccata road cutting, the modern road follows the line of the ancient one fairly closely. The building history of these monuments seemed analogous to those of other columbaria at _Puteoli_. First, in the late Republican-early Imperial period a funerary enclosure was created, whose area was then occupied by a _columbarium_, which was used filling every possible space, both inside and out the mausoleum until the 3rd century A.D. In some cases use continued, perhaps no longer for funerary purposes, until the 5th century A.D. Worthy of note the chance find, at the top of a number of niches for cinerary urns, of several graffito or painted inscriptions with the names of the deceased: in hypogeum R1-2 at least four inscriptions relating to the family of the _Pollii_ and in _hypogeum_ V a graffito naming one _AVLIA FAVSTA_.
    • Beyond the Montagna Spaccata road-cutting, in the direction of Quarto, other funerary structures were found along the via Campana. A hoard of fifty-three bronze coins of Angevian date was found inside one of these, a 1st century A.D. mausoleum in _opus reticulatum_. This find documents the monument’s later function as a temporary shelter for travellers.

Bibliography

    • S. De Caro 2002, L’attività della Soprintendenza archeologica di Napoli e Caserta nel 2001, in Atti del XLI Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2001), Taranto: 635-675.
    • S. De Caro 2001, L’attività della Soprintendenza archeologica di Napoli e Caserta nel 2000, in Atti del XL Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2000), Taranto: 865-905.
    • S. De Caro 2003, L’attività della Soprintendenza archeologica di Napoli e Caserta nel 2002, in Atti del XLII Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2002), Taranto: 569-621.