In the splendid landscape setting admired from the Aragonese fortress, the museum exhibition, created under the scientific direction of Prof. Fausto Zevi, intends to present in five distinct sections according to a reasoned display by topographical and thematic contexts, the history of the ancient sites in the Phlegraean Fields: Cumae, Puteoli, Baiae, Misenum, and Liternum. Groups of artifacts (sculptures, inscriptions, architectural coroplastic, figurative terracottas, pottery, metal and glass artifacts, jewelry, and coins) fragmented from old findings of Phlegraean origin, mostly kept up till now in the deposits of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, have been reunited here with contexts from recent excavations carried out in the Phlegraean territory.
In the former soldiers’ dormitories of the fortress, arranged in continuous sequence on two levels, the visit begins with the section dedicated to Cumae, located on the second level and composed of twenty-four rooms illustrating the site’s history, from the Opic settlement of the 9th century BC to the Greek city and later Italic-Roman until the late antiquity. Through the presentation of findings unearthed during excavation campaigns conducted by the Superintendency in collaboration with the University of “Federico II” and the “L’Orientale” University of Naples and with the Centre Jean Bérard, the entire historical development of the Hellenic colony is traced with the reconstruction of urban topography (walls, streets, sanctuaries, and necropolises with rich tomb furnishings) from the properly Greek phase, between the 8th and 5th centuries BC (Orientalizing, archaic, and classical age), to the Samnite city of the 4th century BC (with the display of a very rare frieze of painted metopes and triglyphs from a temple building), and then Hellenistic-Roman (with the presentation of sculptural and architectural finds from the public buildings of the Forum) until the last phase of occupation in the Byzantine period.
The section dedicated to Puteoli, made up of twenty rooms on the first level, also illustrates, in its entire evolution, the history of the site: the first urban expansion of the Augustan colony with evidence relating to its entertainment buildings, aqueduct, and finds documenting the cosmopolitan character assumed by the city (also recalled by the reconstruction of the Wady Minahy Grotto in the Egyptian desert); the Neronian colony with the new urban plan desired by the emperors; the revival in late antiquity, documented through finds recovered in suburban villas and necropolises.
On the Parade Ground you can visit the section of Rione Terra, with the exhibition of objects from recent excavations carried out in the Puteoli acropolis. They relate to the architectural decoration of the Capitolium and the sculptural decoration of other public buildings of the Augustan Forum, consisting of ideal statues, including the splendid head copy of Athena Lemnia by Phidias, a series of portraits from the Julio-Claudian period, and fragments pertaining to caryatid statues and clipei, recalling the attic of the Forum of Augustus in Rome, for which an external reconstruction hypothesis is proposed.
The section dedicated to Baiae and Misenum includes, besides thematic rooms dating back to previous exhibitions with the reconstruction of the Augustales’ Shrine from Misenum, the Nymphaeum of Punta Epitaffio, and ancient plaster casts derived from original Greek works of the classical and Hellenistic age used by a sculptural workshop operating in Baiae on imperial commission, presents the discoveries of the Roman maritime villa from the late Republican period, uncovered under the Castle and the Knight’s Pavilion, with splendid mosaic and cocciopesto decorated floors, and fragments of frescoes in late Pompeian Second Style.
A separate section is also reserved for Liternum, a maritime colony founded in 194 BC, where artifacts (sculptures, inscriptions, tomb furnishings, and various artifacts) recovered from old excavations and those from new research conducted by the Superintendency, not only in urban quarters, the Forum area, the amphitheater, and necropolises but also in the territory pertaining to the ancient city, have been aggregated by contexts.
Information about the Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields
Via Castello, 39
80070 Bacoli (Naples)
+39.081.5233797
pm-cam.baia@beniculturali.it
https://www.polomusealecampania.beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
