The Gaudo culture.
The fertile plain around Paestum has long attracted
settlement, and numerous prehistoric finds have been made.
On the second floor of the museum a some of the best of these are displayed. The finest are those from the Gaudo culture.
In 1943, the invading Allied armies decided to put an aerodrome a kilometre north of Paestum, near the village of Gaudo.
The work soon cut through some prehistoric burials. At the at first they were ignored, but then a young British officer, Lt John Brinson carried out some excavations, and rescued what has become the prime site of the Eneolithic, that is the late Neolithic to early Bronze Age in Southern Italy, dating to about 4000 BC.
The site was a cemetery where most of the burials consisted of a pit with two rooms about either side of the central shaft where the burials were made. This is a reconstruction of one of the burial pits with two skeletons and some pots
These pots, all double pots connected by a single handle are also found in the prehistory section on the second floor of the museum at Paestum.
They are sometimes called ‘askoi’.
Another pot with a side handle
This exotic pot with a lid is similar to those found in the Villanovan culture and belongs to the earliest Iron Age of Italy. .
The neolithic finds from Paestum are unexpectedly rich!
On to the story of How Paestum was discovered.
23rd November 2014