Shattered ancient terracotta amphora or storage jar emerges from excavated soil on the archaeological site of the Greek and Roman Tyrrhenian Sea port of Velia, Marina Ascea, Campania, in the Cilento region of southern Italy.
Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy: a shattered terracotta amphora or storage jar lies part-buried with pottery shards on the site of this ancient Hellenistic and Roman Tyrrhenian Sea port in southern Italy’s Cilento region. The city was founded around 538 to 535 BC by Ionian Greeks displaced by Persians from Phocaea, now in modern Turkey. They called it Hyele, but the name then changed to Ele, Elea, and finally to Velia. It became part of Roman Lucania in 273 BC. In 88 BC, it became a Roman municipality, the city retaining a right to mint coins and its citizens allowed to continue to use the Greek language. While still part of Magna Graecia or Greater Greece, Velia was the hub of the Eleatic school of pre-Socratic philosophy followed by Parmenides, Zeno, Xenophanes, and Melissus of Samos. A medical school also thrived here until at least 62 AD. Velia had two ports, one of them on the Alento river, but after centuries of silting, both are now far from the sea. The city also declined because it was bypassed by new overland trade routes. Velia shrank to little more than a fishing village. In the 800s, many people abandoned it to escape malaria and raids by Saracen pirates, but some continued to live on the acropolis. The town, Castellamare della Bruca, survived until the late-1600s, but the acropolis was then finally deserted and the ancient city below was forgotten as it vanished under soil and vegetation. The ruins were rediscovered in 1833. Although more recent excavations by archeologist Amedeo Maiuri found fortifications, a sea wall, gateways, tombs, frescoed houses and thermal baths, parts of Velia probably remain buried. The acropolis, at the top of a paved Greek road, retains a medieval tower built over an Ionic temple, a medieval chapel and a 2,000-seat Roman theatre. Velia is now protected as an archaeological park and as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1886-1963, amedeo, amphora, amphorae, ancient, archaeological, archaeologist, archaeology, archeologico, ascea, broken, buried, campania, cilento, city, colonists, colony, , di, dig, ele, elea, emerging, excavated, excavations, finds, fragments, graecia, greek, greek-speaking, handle, hellenic, hellenistic, heritage, hidden, hyele, italian, italy, jar, kerr, magna, maiuri, marina, missing, mud, municipium, neapolitan, orange-red, parco, park, phocaea, port, pottery, province, region, rim, roman, salerno, sea, shards, site, soil, southern, storage, terence, terracotta, treasures, tyrrhenian, unesco, velia, vessel, world
