Tomb of Cerberus discovered in Giugliano, frescoed and in perfect condition

The Tomb of Cerberus has been discovered within cultivated land in the municipality of Giugliano in Campania (Naples), as part of the program of works conducted by Acqua Campania for the “Completion and adaptation of the water supply system of the Phlegraean Domitian area,” the Tomb of Cerberus: a chamber tomb, inviolate and in a perfect state of preservation. This was announced by the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the Naples Metropolitan Area.

Thanks to surface reconnaissance, during preliminary archaeological investigations prescribed by the Superintendence for the Naples Metropolitan Area, which led to the recognition of a scattering of material from the historic period, and to an intuition of Simona Formola, the official responsible for the area, a an excavation essay was placed in correspondence with the area that turned out to be rich in burials, with different rites (both inhumation and incineration), testifying to the long use of the area for funerary purposes, with multiple levels of frequentation, from the Republican to the Roman imperial age.

Almost marking the boundary of the necropolis area, the crest of a wall in opus incerta turned out to be the front of a monumental chamber tomb, with the entrance still well sealed by theoriginal closingtufa slab, barely notched at the top to create a gap and evidently allow access in a later phase of mausoleum use, well closed at last with tiles.

The burial chamber has frescoed ceiling and walls, in perfect condition, with mythological scenes, Ichthyocentaurs supporting a clypeus on the front wall, festoons circling all around the chamber, and figurative representations, including a three-headed dog, hence the mausoleum’s conventional designation as the Tomb of the Cerberus. And also three painted klìnai and an altar with libation vessels, inhumates still laid on burial beds with rich grave goods.

The necropolis area is significantly located at a neuralgic point of the ager Campanus, near known centurial axes, and equidistant from the ancient road axes of the Cumis-Capuam road and the road to Liternum. In particular, from an initial analysis of the context, it appears that the area may gravitate to the latter’s cultural and political sphere.

Investigations and documentation activities are ongoing.

Tomb of Cerberus discovered in Giugliano, frescoed and in perfect condition

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