La fondazione di Neapolis e la prima fase delle fortificazioni: una proposta di lettura

There is currently a tendency to date the foundation of the new city on the plateau to the latter decades of the 6th B.C. on the basis of the residual materials recovered in the emplekton of a stretch of the oldest Greek fortification in the Eastern part of Neapolis as well as in several other sections of the curtain-wall. This contribution analyzes the aporias of an interpretation of the archaeological evidence that tends to overlap the beginnings of the Cumaean re-colonization of Parthenope and the contextual expansion of the city with its urban planning and the construction of the city walls as emerges from the stratified urban fabric in the current city. At the same time there is a reflection on the nature of the cult connected with the votive deposit of St. Aniello a Caponapoli. The author accepts the proposal of M. Osanna of a connection to the siren Parthenope, which is contextualized in the well-known epoikia that around the middle of the 5th B.C. valorises all the components of the new city, under the aegis of Athens.