Scientists have uncovered a major secret about the Tomb of Nestor’s Cup – a famous burial in Italy – more than 65 years after it was first discovered.
The researchers performed a new analysis of the contents of the tomb, which was found on the Italian island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples in 1954 but dates back around 2,800 ago.
They found evidence of three cremated humans – not just one human, as previously thought – as well as the remains of animals including dogs and goats.
Also in the tomb was Nestor’s Cup, a wine goblet made from clay and featuring one of the earliest surviving examples of writing in the Greek alphabet.
The cup was named after a legendary golden cup owned by the mythical hero Nestor and described in Book 11 of the Iliad, the epic poem by Homer.
Nestor’s Cup (pictured) was found in a tomb on the Italian island of Ischia in 1954 – along with human remains
Nestor’s Cup is now on permanent display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Villa Arbusto, in the town of Lacco Ameno on Isola d’Ischia (Ischia Island)
Since the tomb was discovered in 1954, many assumed that the cup was a treasured memento of the person who had been buried with it.
Previous research suggested that the tomb’s remains belong to a single young human who could’ve been the cup’s owner, but this new study suggests any one of the three individuals could have owned it, along with the animals also now discovered in the tomb.
The study was led by Melania Gigante, an archaeologist at the University of Padua, Italy, and published in PLOS One.
It presents the first evidence of multiple human individuals (and non-humans) among the remains in the Tomb of Nestor’s Cup, which is considered one of the most intriguing discoveries in Mediterranean pre-classic archaeology.
‘Our research rewrites the history and the previous archaeological interpretation of the tomb, throwing new light on funeral practices, culture and society of the Greek immigrants in the ancient West Mediterranean,’ the authors say.
‘This work reveals the commingled nature of the bone assemblage, identifying for the first time, more than one human individual mixed with faunal remains.
‘These outcomes dramatically change previous reconstructions of the cremation deposit, rewriting the answer to the question – who was buried with Nestor’s Cup?’
According to previous analyses, the Tomb of Nestor’s Cup – formally designated as ‘Cremation 168’ – only housed the cremated remains of a juvenile, aged approximately 10 to 14 years at death.
Pictured are the human fragments from the Tomb of Nestor’s Cup. Bone and dental fragments are recognised as human by the gross morphology observations
Pictured are bone fragments of the sheep (Ovis aries): (A) Articular fragment of the left ulna (one of two bones that make up the front legs); (B) odontoid process of the axis
Since then, a vast body of literature has attempted to explain the link between this juvenile and the inscription on the cup, which is now on permanent display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Villa Arbusto, Lacco Ameno (Ischia Island).
One of the earliest serving Greek inscriptions, the inscription translates: ‘I am the cup of Nestor good for drinking. Whoever drinks from this cup, desire for beautifully crowned Aphrodite will seize him instantly.’
For the study, Gigante and colleagues performed detailed analyses on the shape (morphology) and tissues (histology and histomorphometry) of the 195 burnt bone fragments in the tomb.
They determined that only about 130 of these fragments are human, while at least 45 belong to animals, including sheep, goats and possibly dogs.
Among the human remains, the researchers identified bone tissue characteristic of varying life stages, indicating at least three individuals of different ages.
According to the researchers, their results raise even more questions about the mysterious tomb and ownership of the priceless cup.
This study was unable to determine details about the humans among the remains, including their age at death or why they were buried with the cup.
As for the animal remains, the researchers suspect these might have been included as food or companions for the deceased.
The tomb was one of hundreds uncovered in the Italian site of Pithekoussai on the island in the 1950s.
Comparison between thin sections in human and faunal specimens from the Tomb of Nestor’s Cup. (A) Thin section from the human specimen; (B) thin section from the faunal specimen; and (C) thin section from the faunal specimen
Pithekoussai was an early Greek colony and may have acted as an early trading post, strategically positioned from copper and tin sources located in modern day Tuscany.
‘Our research, which combines the great work of archaeological interpretation to specific know-how in histology and advanced analysis on cremated remains, marked a double goal,’ the authors say.
‘Firstly, we were able to reconstruct the osteobiography of the individuals from Tomb 168 at Pithekoussai, answering the thorny question, “Who/what was buried with Nestor’s Cup?”
‘Secondly, we are sure that our study can be a new methodological step toward the reconstruction of the life-history of people in ancient times, even in case of poor preservation and/or complexity of the skeletal assemblage.’