Vista quadrata di anfora in terracotta frantumata o vasetto di stoccaggio in parte sepolto in terreno scavato sul sito archeologico del porto greco e romano del Mar Tirreno di Velia, Marina Ascea, Campania, nella regione del Cilento nel sud Italia.
2823 x 2823 px | 23,9 x 23,9 cm | 9,4 x 9,4 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
9 agosto 2011
Ubicazione:
Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy.
Altre informazioni:
Questa immagine potrebbe avere delle imperfezioni perché è storica o di reportage.
Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy: square format view of shattered terracotta amphora or storage jar lying 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 using 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. D0795.A9513.A
