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Excavation

  • Masseria del Gigante
  • Cuma
  • Kyme

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    Credits

    • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

      MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

      ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

      AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

    • AIAC_logo logo

    Summary (English)

    • A trench was excavated in the right hand corner of the stairway leading up to the previously excavated temple podium. Despite the large scale levelling that had taken place the materials documented uninterrupted occupation from the time when the colony was first established. A sector of the necropolis dating to the end of the 9th century B.C. was also uncovered.

      Another trench was put into the south-eastern sector of the forum portico, revealing two rectangular rooms built in opus reticulatum with opus caementicium vaults. Preserved to the height of the upper level of the portico these were tabernae, whose entrances from the portico had been narrowed in the late antique period (4th-5th century A.D.)

      Excavation was completed of the stretch of portico between the south-eastern corner of the forum and the passageway between the square in front of the temple of the Masseria and the forum itself. Here, four grey tufa columns belonging to the portico were uncovered together with the socle of the portico, probably used for displaying statues. The abandonment of the area was marked by a double burial up against the northern side of the great podium.

      Lastly, the sector of the southern forum portico, including the entrance point to the rectangular forum itself, onto which the Masseria complex faced, was also brought to light. The entry to the forum was marked by the presence of a single span monumental arch, in opus caementicium, faced with thick limestone slabs.

      Excavation of the tabernae along the southern side confirmed that the late Republican structures stood directly on the opus quadratum foundations of the forum’s first lay out (beginning of the 3rd century B.C.). The first tabernae to the west of the forum entrance were restructured in the Augustan period to become a vestibulum with a wide stairway.

      To the south the eastern façade of a structure was uncovered. Constituted by a terrace on a podium delimited by a railing, it led into a vast chalcidicum, paved with opus signinum. An inscription found nearby, suggests it was a bath building.

      In the late antique period both the terrace and the entrance ramp were made accessible to carts through the putting down of layers of compacted sand. The forum underwent radical functional reorganisation, the signs of the removal of building materials during this phase were very clear. The remains of honorary statues that filled the porticoes were found in the area, including an headless portrait statue of the ‘Grande Ercolanese’ type, and an statue of a young man, also headless, wearing a toga with bulla (1st century A.D.).

    • Maria Luisa Nava - Soprintendenza dei Beni Archeologici delle province di Napoli e Caserta 

    Director

    • Carlo Gasparri - Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”
    • Stefania Adamo Muscettola - Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"

    Team

    • Giovanna Greco - Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”

    Research Body

    • Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici delle Province di Napoli e Caserta
    • Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”

    Funding Body

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