26. Cumae in Campania during the Seventh Century BC

This chapter provides an overview of early Cumae, ca. 750-600 BC, through a combination of literary sources reflecting different traditions and the archaeological record which owes much to intensive fieldwork from 1994 onwards. Archaeological investigations of urban areas are starting to reveal the early town plan and the main phases of the Greek settlement. Sanctuaries on the acropolis have recently been reconsidered in a new topographical perspective, and their cults show connections with the motherland as well as important aspects of the colony. Cemeteries illustrate the links with Euboean elite burial customs established by the colonists but also their openness to the models of their new world in Italy.