Ischia cosmopolitan community of the 8th century B.C.
In the 8th century B.C., the volcanic island of Ischia saw the first Greek settlement in the western Mediterranean and became a true emporium of coexistence between local communities, Greeks and Phoenicians: this is revealed in a study entitled Where Typhoeus lived. 87Sr/86Sr Analysis of Human Remains in the Volcanic Environment of the First Greek Site in the Western Mediterranean (Pithekoussai, Italy), published in the scientific journal ‘iScience’, by an international research team coordinated by Melania Gigante of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua, which analysed the human remains of the Pithekoussai necropolis (on Ischia) demonstrating the complexity of cultural and biological interactions in this key site for the study of the birth of Magna Graecia.
The archaeological heritage of Ischia offers a unique insight into the dynamics of human mobility and biocultural interactions at the dawn of Magna Graecia during the Iron Age Mediterranean (between the 8th and 7th centuries BC). The study is based on strontium isotope analysis of teeth and bones of individuals buried in the Pithekoussai necropolis, many of whom have been identified as immigrants from the earliest times.
‘By analysing the isotope ratio of strontium (87Sr/86Sr) in mineralised bone and tooth tissue samples from more than 50 individuals, both inhumed and cremated, our study identified an important component of foreigners at Pithekoussai, revealing a highly heterogeneous society in which the newcomers - Greeks, Phoenicians, Italics - coexisted and interacted, contributing to the formation of a multifaceted and cosmopolitan social identity,' says Melania Gigante, first author of the study and lecturer at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua.
‘The integration of archaeological, anthropological and biogeochemical data allowed us to reconstruct the movements and interactions between the peoples who populated the island of Ischia with a level of detail never reached before and confirming the image of a Mediterranean of dialogue and mobility during the first millennium BC,’ adds Carmen Esposito, co-author of the study and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research Fellow at the University of Bologna.
Contrary to expectations, the data also show that female mobility - and not just that of male settlers and traders - was a structural element in constructing the Pithekoussai community.
‘What has been published well represents the current state of advanced research in bioarchaeology where the most cutting-edge techniques are used, opening up horizons of knowledge on the past that were unimaginable until recently,’ comments Alessia Nava, an anthropologist at Sapienza University of Rome, lecturer at the Department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Sciences and co-author of the study, in stressing the importance of this type of scientific approach.
The University of Bologna (Carmen Esposito), University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Federico Lugli), the Museum of Civilisations in Rome (Alessandra Sperduti), the Ministry of Culture (Regional Secretariat for Campania, Teresa E. Cinquantaquattro), Università L’Orientale in Naples (Bruno d'Agostino), Sapienza University of Rome (Alessia Nava) and Goethe Universität Frankfurt (Wolfgang Müller) collaborated on the research.
The Tomb of Nestor's Cup
One of the most significant aspects of the research concerns the famous Tomb of Nestor's Cup, one of the most iconic burials of Pithekoussai and Mediterranean archaeology, dated to the second half of the 8th century BC. The tomb is known for the presence of a cup bearing one of the oldest inscriptions in the Greek alphabet known to date, evoking the legendary cup of the Homeric hero Nestor. For decades, the meaning of the inscription and the identity of the deceased have been debated. An earlier study (published in 2021 by Gigante and colleagues) had already shown that the burial contained human and faunal remains, disproving the hypothesis that it was a cremated child: now, thanks to isotopic analysis, the scholars have established that at least one of the individuals buried next to the precious cup was born locally. ‘The case of the Tomb of Nestor's Cup is emblematic of the complexity of Pithekoussai as a multicultural community, but also of how Homeric culture spread far from the Greek geographical world. The evidence of a (possibly) locally born individual in a burial with prestige elements of clear Greek origin opens new perspectives on the construction of identities and the dynamics of social integration in the early Greek settlement of the West,' Gigante continues.
‘As well as providing new evidence for the settlement of the western Mediterranean in the early Iron Age, this research successfully tested the applicability of isotopic analysis on human remains found in extremely destructive volcanic sediments, opening up new perspectives for the study of mobility in the past,’ concludes Luca Bondioli, co-author of the research and lecturer at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua.
The research represents the first direct evidence, based on the history of individuals, that confirms the historical-archaeological reconstruction of Greek colonisation in the 8th century BC, and the interdisciplinary approach adopted offers a new insight into a crucial phase of Mediterranean history, paving the way for future studies on the dynamics of mobility and cultural integration in antiquity.
References:
Melania Gigante, Carmen Esposito, Federico Lugli, Alessandra Sperduti, Teresa Elena Cinquantaquattro, Bruno d’Agostino, Alessia Nava, Wolfgang Müller, Luca Bondioli, “Where Typhoeus lived. 87Sr/86Sr Analysis of Human Remains in the Volcanic Environment of the First Greek Site in the Western Mediterranean (Pithekoussai, Italy) – “iScience” (2025). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Further Information:
Alessia Nava
Department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Sciences