Archaeology in the Fascist Period at Elea-Velia: men, ideas, methodologies

Recent Researches in the last decades have offered the items to draw a very extensive and innovative picture of archaeological activities at Elea-Velia in the years of fascism. From 1927 to 1933, archaeological surveys, led by Amedeo Maiuri, Superintendent Archaeologist of Campania, are incurred by the Società Magna Grecia and mainly by Umberto Zanotti Bianco. One of the most interesting themes of this period is precisely the relationship between Zanotti Bianco, against the Fascist regime, and the Superintendence led by Maiuri, burdened with the difficult task of having to face a very complex reality. Since the beginning of the thirties of the twentieth century, as part of a broad propaganda program and rootedness in the Salerno area, the fascist archaeology also fits in Elea-Velia. The excavations are funded by Ente per le Antichità e i Monumenti della Provincia di Salerno, an expression of the transformation of the political and ideological climate. In 1935, Raffaele Umberto Inglieri with the direction of the same Amedeo Maiuri, led a wide excavation remained unpublished, which offers the opportunity to examine in details, through the archive documents retrieved, methodological, cultural, historical and economic aspects. Despite the general direction of the ideology of the time, closely related to the new myths of the "Romanity", the image of Elea-Velia preserved his character of "Greek city", in the writings recovered, aroused by the urban planning, the culture material, the landscape, etc. A key to interesting reading to the archaeology of Magna Graecia during the Fascist period.