Twice the size of Pompeii, the ancient city of Cumae lies 25 km west of Naples, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea opposite the island of Ischia, in the Archaeological Park of the Phlegrean Fields. Ancient historians considered it to be the oldest Greek colony established in the West. It was founded in the second half of the 8th century B.C. by Greeks from Euboea, and quickly prospered.
In recent years, French researchers have been focusing on an area where a Greek sanctuary, roads and a necropolis are located.
In June 2018, researchers discovered a tomb with exceptional figurative decoration. A naked servant bringing a jug of wine and a vase is still visible; as for the guests being served, they must have been depicted on the side walls. In addition to the very good preservation of the remaining plaster and pigments, such decoration is rare for a tomb of this period, the theme being, to say the least, "old-fashioned" as it was in vogue one or two centuries earlier.
In order to preserve the fresco, the archaeologists removed it and the fragments found on the floor in an attempt to piece together the decoration like a jigsaw puzzle.
The archaeological excavations at Cumae, directed by Jean-Pierre Brun (Collège de France) and Priscilla Munzi (Centre Jean Bérard, USR 3133 CNRS - École française de Rome), with financial support from the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (Commission des fouilles) and the École française de Rome, have uncovered a chamber tomb dating from the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, decorated with paintings.
In addition to the above-mentioned key players, the operation benefited from a substantial grant from the Fondation du Collège de France, which provided the means to extend the excavations and deepen the research, by extending the excavation zone into a sector hitherto unexplored except by clandestine excavations in the 19th century. Here, under thick fill deposited in the 90s AD, the Greek necropolis has been largely preserved. The first levels uncovered this year correspond to individual tombs from the 1st century BC and chamber tombs from the 2nd century BC. The help of the Fondation du Collège de France was therefore decisive in the discovery of the painted tomb.
