Museo Archeologico di Pithecusae
Villa Arbusto di Lacco Ameno nell'Isola d'Ischia

I

Welcome to the experimental pages of Pithecusae's Archaeological Museum which illustrate the history of the island of Ischia from Prehistory to the Roman Age. The Museum is located at the main building of Villa Arbusto complex in Lacco Ameno, Ischia. The scientific direction is run by the Archaeological Superintendence for the Provinces of Naples and Caserta, while the Town Administration of Lacco Ameno, owner of the property bought with contributions from the Campania Region and from the Naples' Provincial Administration, is responsible for the management.

II

The information regarding prehistoric settlements is unreliable, whereas numerous and important are the findings witnessing Pithecusae's settling (founded in the second quarter of the VIII century BC by Greeks from the island Euboea) thanks to George Buchner's excavations in Ischia since 1952.

III

The findings in the first section witnesses the "net" of commercial exchange Pithecusaens established with Near East and Carthage, Greece and Spain, Southern Etruria, Puglia, Ionic Calabria and Sardinia. The exposition goes on with part of the objects accompanying the dead of the necropolis, located at S. Montano's valley, which served as a burial place since the second half of the VIII century BC.

IV

The most famous pithecusaen vases were found at the Necropolis: among these are the typical late geometric crater decorated with the shipwreck scene, and the famous Rhodes' cup, on which an epigram in three verses in Euboic Alphabet was engraved after baking, therefore surely Pithecusaen, referring to the famous Nestor's cup described in the Iliad. It must be mentioned, at this point, that the Euboic alphabet testifies the patrimony the populations from central Italy borrowed from the Greek of Pithecusae.

V

Due to political reasons related to the development of mainland Cumae, rather than volcanic events which instead strongly influenced the settlements in the island in Roman times, the progressive decline in importance of Pithecusae is recorded at the beginning of the VII century BC.

VI

In Roman times the island, called then Aenaria, was struck by numerous volcanic eruptions, for this reason Romans did not settle there as they had done in the nearby Phlegraean Fields.

Sezione in lingua inglese a cura della prof.ssa Patrizia Cuomo

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