Underground Shrine (Paestum)
Creators: Keri Lynne Porter, Tom Elliott
Show place in Google Earth.
Show area in GeoNames, Google Maps, or OpenStreetMap.
https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/307187361
40.4232711, 15.00488995
- Representative Locations:
- Imagery location of so-called Underground Shrine (550 BC - 30 BC) accuracy: +/- 5 meters.
- OSM location of sacello - heroon (550 BC - 30 BC) accuracy: +/- 20 meters.
- None
- Underground Shrine (Paestum) located at Poseidonia/Paestum (330 BC - 30 BC)
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sanctuary (religious center), shrine
Pleiades
The Underground Shrine, located in the agora of the ancient city, was first constructed in the sixth century BCE. The exact use of the building remains unknown, but the artifacts found within (iron bars with remains of leather, a ceramic vase, a black-figure Attic vase, and eight bronze vases sealed with wax, containing honey that was still soft) suggest that it served some ritual purpose. The building is most commonly believed to be a shrine to worship a god of fertility (particularly the Nymphs), or a heroon dedicated to the founder of the city (oikist). The building is easily recognizable from the large red tiles that cover a double-gabled roof added during the third century BCE, along with a rectangular enclosure. The temple was buried during the later Roman phases of occupation and was not rediscovered until 1954.
Locational information from Google Earth. Temporal information from UNESCO.
Keri Lynne Porter, Tom Elliott, Jeffrey Becker, and Adam Rabinowitz, 'Underground Shrine (Paestum): a Pleiades place resource', Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2020 <https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/307187361> [accessed: 18 April 2024]
{{cite web |url=https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/307187361 |title=Places: 307187361 (Underground Shrine (Paestum)) |author=Lynne Porter, K., T. Elliott |accessdate=April 18, 2024 9:24 pm |publisher=Pleiades}}