Sewer workers in the southern Italian town of Manduria discovered a 2,300-year-old tomb while carrying out installation work, officials said, revealing a small funerary complex attributed to the pre-Roman Messapian culture.
The find, announced by the Brindisi and Lecce Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape in a Facebook post on Sept. 8, dates to the 4th century B.C. The burial is divided into two spaces and showed traces of painted plaster and a two-panel entrance door coated in red paint with a horizontal raised white band running along the walls, the statement said.
Archaeologists working at the site reported that one chamber contained numerous ceramic objects in primary deposition, including vases, oil lamps, unguent jars and plates, all datable to the 4th century B.C. On the southern side of the burial chamber, excavators identified four rectangular recesses near the base that they say were likely supports for a funerary bed.
The team also found evidence the site had been disturbed in antiquity. Officials said ancient looters appear to have perforated the tomb walls to access neighbouring burials. A second tomb in the complex, while still sealed, was found devoid of grave goods and apparently previously looted; within the fill of that burial a Roman Republican denarius was recovered, indicating continued use or presence of the area in the Roman period.
The superintendency said the excavation adds new elements to the understanding of funerary practices in the Messapian centre of Manduria during the Hellenistic age. Officials are developing a 3D digital model of the tomb to enable future accessibility through digital technologies and to support conservation and study.
Messapians were an indigenous people of the Apulia region in southeastern Italy, contemporary with Greek colonies and later absorbed into the Roman world. Archaeological finds that preserve in situ deposits and architectural features are relatively valuable for reconstructing rites and material culture from the period.
The Manduria discovery follows several recent tomb-related finds in Italy. This summer, archaeological teams uncovered three so-called "fairy houses" — burial chambers — on the island of Sardinia, and an Etruscan tomb north of Rome that investigators said had not been looted.
Conservation specialists and archaeologists from the superintendency will continue excavation and study at the Manduria site. Officials did not give a timetable for public display or the release of the full 3D reconstruction, saying ongoing work will determine the pace of documentation and preservation.
