Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Abstract:
The monumental complex of Insula II, a public building in the Lower Town of Velia, founded by the Phocaeans in 535 BCE, is one of the most known and discussed buildings in the town due to the spectacular finds of marble statues. The reason why the function and the chronology of this complex remain unclear until today can be found in the complex and – because of the inadequate state of publication – difficult to comprehend history of research. In fact, the building has been understood as the meeting place of a medical school, as a place of memory of an important Velinian family or as a complex for the imperial cult. The present contribution starts with the presentation of the various stages of research and the different attempts to explain the building. On this basis, we then give a synthesis of the stratigraphical sequence found during the Austrian excavations in the so-called Triporticus court and distinguish three phases. The first phase, following the suggestion of Hans Lauter, who studied the façade of the building, is dated to the Late Republican period. After its destruction, possibly due to a mudflow, the complex that is visible today was built in the Augustan period. It is here that we can assume that the marble portraits were exhibited. In the later 1st c. AD this building was destroyed as well. While M. Napoli supposed that the reason could be found in an earthquake, testified for Pompeii in 62 AD, new investigations make it more probable that the damage can be connected with the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The subsequent phase of reorganization is difficult to reconstruct, as all contexts were already excavated in the 1960s, but the Hadrianic period, as suggested by M. Napoli, does not seem improbable. Finally, the development of Insula II is compared to a newly found building complex in Velia. The so-called Masseria Cobellis, a monumental building organized around an open court like Insula II, but housing a natural spring, was found in the vicinity of Insula II and shows not only similarities in architecture, but also in the history of the building. This allows us to reach new conclusions depending upon the stage of development of ideas and function of this area of the Lower town.