The archaeological heritage of Pithekoussai offers a unique insight into the dynamics of human mobility and biocultural interactions at the dawn of the Magna Graecia during the Iron Age Mediterranean. Pithekoussai was founded by Greeks on the volcanic island of Ischia in southern Italy in the mid-eighth century BC, marking the earliest Greek settlement in the western Mediterranean. The archaeological evidence suggests that Pithekoussai was an emporium where local communities, Greeks, Phoenicians, and people from the mainland lived together and interacted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
November 2021
Cremation 168 from the second half of the 8th century BCE (Pithekoussai's necropolis, Ischia Island, Italy), better known as the Tomb of Nestor's Cup, is widely considered as one of the most intriguing discoveries in the Mediterranean Pre-Classic archaeology. A drinking cup, from which the Tomb's name derives, bears one of the earliest surviving examples of written Greek, representing the oldest Homeric poetry ever recovered. According to previous osteological analyses, the Cup is associated with the cremated remains of a juvenile, aged approximately 10-14 years at death.
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