Project description:

The coastal city of Velia is located in the province of Salerno in Campania. Founded by maritime populations from Asia minor (then known as Elea) in 540 BC the city continued to thrive as an important port and economic centre under Roman control. The Roman cemetery at Velia is located next to the modern port and contains over 400 burials of which only part have been excavated. The cemetery was used from the late Republican period to the 2nd century AD. A feature of this necropolis is the number of varied burial types which range from simple burials in bare earthen graves to various forms of elaborate mausolea.

The location of the cemetery itself, excellent bone preservation, varied types of burials and broad demographic structure allowed us to investigate the following through biomolecular analysis:

1. Residence mobility and genetic origins of the population through the extraction and analysis of mtDNAs and strontium isotope analysis.

2. Diet of the population through carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. In particular we are interested in the quantity of marine resources that were consumed by various 'groups' defined by their burial status and genetic structure.

This work was carried out in collaboration with the “Luigi Pigorini” National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography "Luigi Pigorini" National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography who conducted morphological analysis of the human remains.

PhD Thesis: The Roman necropolis of Velia -a molecular approach- Maxime Muespach (a.a. 2010-2011)

Project References: Elea-Velia: Le nove ricerche, (2003) Quaderni del Centro Studi Magna Grecia. (Atti del Convegno di Studi, Napoli, 14 dicembre 2001), Napoli. Garnsey, P. (1999) Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. Craig, O.E., Biazzo, M., O'Connell, T.C., Garnsey, P., Martínez-Labarga, C., Lelli, R., Salvadei, L., Tartaglia, G., Nava, A., Renò, L., Fiammenghi, A., Rickards, O., Bondioli, L. (2009) Stable Isotopic Evidence for Diet at the Imperial Roman Coastal Site of Velia (1st and 2nd centuries AD) in Southern Italy. American Journal Physical Anthropology vol. 139 (4):572-83.   This work was funded by the MIUR ( Ministry of Education, University and Research) under the "Programma di Ricerca scientifica di Interesse Nazionale" (PRIN 2005, prot. 2005057557_001) entitled "Dietary variability and genetic origins of Ancient Human Populations: a combined ancient biomolecular approach"