Contact: Prof. Dr. Jon Albers
The Greek colony of Elea is located in Campania near present-day Ascea. Originally an important port city on the sea, the coast is now about one kilometer away as a result of silting. The city stretched across the ridge of Castellammare della Bruca, on which a medieval castle was later built on the ruins of the former acropolis. Archaeological investigations have focused primarily on the southern part of the city, the acropolis and its slopes, the city fortifications, including several cult sites lined up along a ridge, and the so-called southeast terrace.
Elea was founded around 540 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, who had been forced to leave their home in western Asia Minor due to the Persian invasion. After a failed settlement in Alalia on Corsica, they found a new home in Campania. Archaeological findings indicate that they did not take over any older indigenous settlements, as the earliest evidence all dates from after the Greek foundation.
Elea is mentioned several times in ancient sources as an important trading city. In the 4th century BC, it took part in the war against Dionysius of Syracuse as a member of the League of Italians. During the Punic Wars, it was an important ally of Rome and a naval port. In addition to Greek and Roman influence, Lucanian material has also been found archaeologically dating from the 4th century BC. In 89/88 BC, Elea was elevated to the status of a Roman municipium and henceforth called Velia. To this day, the city is best known for the Eleatic school of philosophy, whose most important representatives were Parmenides and Zeno.
Despite the city's importance as the place where Parmenides worked, archaeological research in Velia began relatively late. Although the first systematic excavations took place as early as 1927 under Amadeo Maiuri, more intensive scientific study did not begin until 1961 with the work of Mario Napoli.
Early research initially focused on the Acropolis, which formed the original settlement core before its monumentalization in the first half of the 5th century BC. Another focus was on the investigation of the city limits, i.e., the city walls, which were intensively researched by the Austrian mission, especially from the 1970s onwards. This work provided valuable insights into both urban development and cult topography. The eastern part of the city also became the focus of interest from time to time, with the work of Bernhard Neutsch and Friedrich Kinzinger concentrating primarily on previously excavated thermal baths and an insula complex, as well as on verifying the existence of a regular street grid. More recently, this research has been extended to the southeastern part of the city under the direction of Verena Gassner. In the southern and western parts of the city, the Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” has also been active for a long time under the direction of Luigi Cicala, and on the Acropolis in particular, the park itself has been under the direction of Francesco Scelza.
A key area of research in Velia is the Vignale hill, commonly referred to as the eastern city, although its western half actually forms the topographical center of the settlement. Due to its poor state of preservation, only limited investigations have been carried out there to date. Individual residential buildings, a thermal bath, and an independent road system adapted to the topography have been identified, while the use and development of large parts of the area—especially the western part—remain unclear. In particular, questions about the specific extent and organization of the archaic settlement, the use and diachronic development of the western part of the eastern city, the nature and extent of Lucanian influence, and the late antique phase require further systematic research.
The project “Velia – Città Orientale (VCO)”, which is being carried out in cooperation between the Universities of Bochum and Freiburg and the Parchi Archeologici di Paestum e Velia, addresses precisely this research gap. The aim is to gain a diachronic overview of the settlement history of the western part of the eastern city. In particular, the focus will be on periods that have been little researched to date, such as the Lucanian and late antique phases.
These objectives will be pursued using a combination of different methods. An intramural survey and targeted excavations in the insula between streets QE-3, QE-4, and QE-D (see the area marked in green on the city map) will first be used to test the informative value of a survey in an inner-city hillside location. The aim is to investigate the extent to which the last phases of use of this area can be reconstructed using this non-invasive method.
The field archaeology part of the project focuses on the development of this urban area, which will be examined diachronically in terms of its state of preservation and function. Particular attention will be paid to the question of how this area was used. According to current findings, it was a residential area, but this has only been proven for a small part of the eastern city. The exact period of use of the area is also uncertain: it is assumed to have been settled between the 5th century BC and the late Roman period, although there is no reliable evidence for either the early or late periods in the western part of the eastern city. In order to clarify these questions, the project will gradually uncover part of the buildings of the insula northwest of the QE-4/QE-D intersection, which has so far only been hypothetically reconstructed, and examine their function and different phases.
Excavation and processing of finds
During the first campaign in 2024, two excavation sections were positioned in the investigation area. One of these, S1, was designed to cover the insula corner and parts of the road intersection and was laid out in a square shape; the other, S2, was placed further north in order to document a possible separation of residential units and was therefore rectangular in shape.
In both sections, relatively well-preserved walls were found just below the modern surface during the first campaign. The massive wall running from north to south through both sections undoubtedly represents the outer wall of the insula, confirming the previous reconstruction of the city plan in this regard. To the east of this, a dense layer of rubble was found, which is probably material that had been washed down the slope after heavy rainfall and buried the road beneath it. Parts of sophisticated residential buildings were apparently also swept away, as evidenced by the discovery of mosaic fragments and a Medusa antefix.
As early as 2024, it had been observed that the width of the eastern outer wall of the insula varied strangely. At that time, it was also not possible to locate its southern end; instead, the wall continued at a lower level and in a slightly different orientation into the southern profile. In 2025, it was therefore decided to concentrate work on the southern section, S1, especially since this was the only place where remains of an interior structure of the insula had been found the previous year. In order to continue tracing the eastern outer wall, the section was extended to the south. This revealed that this was not an ordinary corner, but a kind of horseshoe-shaped apse, which also did not adhere to the southern boundary of the insula, but crossed the street QE-D. In conjunction with the considerable wall thicknesses, it seems likely that this was not a residential insula that was cut into here, but a public building.
In later times, this building was repurposed by the addition and construction of narrower walls. The last level of use of the room uncovered so far (in the north of S1) was also identified in 2025; possibly a type of kitchen or storage room from late antiquity, as several large (but not completely preserved) kitchen and storage vessels were found directly above this last level of use, whose good condition suggests that they were found in the area where they had been used. There may also have been a lime kiln nearby. This is because two fragments of marble slabs were found in the north of the room, leaning against each other and against a low wall, and in the east, a marble labrum base leaning upside down against another low wall. This room was abandoned in the first half of the 5th century AD. Before this, it appears that everything that could still be used, such as undamaged kitchen and storage vessels or the brick slabs of the former floor, was removed from the room; only in three places have remains of the floor covering been preserved.
Survey
In 2024, an intramural survey was conducted in parallel in the area of the two sections and west of the excavation site. The aim of this investigation was to examine whether the method could provide further insights into the ancient use of an urban hillside area, which would later be compared with the results of the excavation. In order to obtain the most accurate data possible, a 1 x 1 meter grid was used to count the collected material. Although the analysis is not yet complete, a wide range of finds has already been identified, including bricks, amphorae, and household objects, most of which can be dated to the late Roman period.
in Print: J. Albers – B. Bergmann, Il progetto Velia – Città Orientale (VCO): Prima relazione di indagini, in: Parchi archeologici di Paestum e Velia (Hrsg.), Nuovi scavi archeologici a Paestum e Velia, Argonautica (2027)
Prof. Dr. Jon Albers
Professor für Klassische Archäologie mit dem Schwerpunkt Siedlungen und Landschaften im antiken Mittelmeerraum
Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Am Bergbaumuseum 31, 44791 Bochum
Raum: 0.3.2
Tel.: (0234) 32-28528
Mail: jon.albers@rub.de
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Birgit Bergmann
Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften
Abteilung für Klassische Archäologie
Universität Freiburg
Friedrichstraße 39 (Fahnenbergplatz)
D - 79098 Freiburg i. Br.
Tel.: 0761 - 203 3108
birgit.bergmann@archaelogoie.uni-freiburg.de
Dr. Kai Riehle
Universität Innsbruck/Tübingen
Kai.Riehle@uibk.ac.at / kai.riehle@uni-tuebingen.de
Dr. Barbora Weissová (2024)
Barbora.weissova@gmail.com
Lennart Fütterer (2025)
lennart.fuetterer@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
2024: Sarah Blumenschein, Katrin Dorfner, Denitsa Koseva, Sophie Peintinger, Anna-Lisa Schneider, Timur Sipahi, Anja Wolf
2025: Janine Enns, Lena Katharina Fischer, Denitsa Koseva, Fionna Liebert, Anna-Lisa Schneider, Maxi Jasmina Werner, Anja Wolf
2024: Universität Regensburg, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
2025: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
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Last update: Mar 18, 2026
