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Laus
Λᾶος; Laos
	Stater of Laus with man-headed bull, c. 510-500 BC
	Shown within Italy
Alternative name	Laus
Location	Marcellina, Province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy
Coordinates	39°46′3″N 15°49′50″E / 39.76750°N 15.83056°E
Area	60 ha (150 acres)
History
Periods	Archaic Greek to Roman Republican
Cultures	Greek, Lucanian
Site notes
Excavation dates	First between 1929 and 1932
Ownership	Public
Management	Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria
Website	ArcheoCalabriaVirtual

Laüs or Laus (Ancient Greek: Λᾶος; Italian: Laos) was an ancient city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was at the mouth of the Lao River, which formed the boundary between Lucania and Bruttium in ancient times and gave it its name.^[1]^[2]^[3]

The archaeological site of the city can be found at a short distance to the east of Marcellina, near Santa Maria del Cedro in Calabria.^[4]

History

Herodotus states that the inhabitants of Sybaris who had survived the destruction of their city in 510 BC took refuge in Laus and Scidrus.^[5] Silver coins were found with the legend LAFINON and symbols similar to those of the coins of Sybaris, dated between 500 and 440 BC.^[6]

Diodorus Siculus implies that that city had been captured by the Lucanians before or during 390 BC. Thurii had repelled a force of the Lucanians which had attacked their territory in 390 BC. The Lucanians then withdrew to their own territory and Thurians pursued them to lay siege to the "prosperous" town of Laus but on the way the Thurians were ambushed and crushed by the Lucanians.^[7]

Pseudo-Scylax writes that it was a colony of Thurii.^[8]

Strabo in 7 BC-23 AD describes the city as still being in existence. He mentions a heroon to Draco, a companion of Odysseus.^[1] Pliny the Elder in approximately 77–79 AD states that the city no longer existed.^[2]

Excavations

The first excavation started between 1929 and 1932. The necropolis of Laus now lies below Marcellina and is notable for its important finds. A rich tomb chamber was discovered by accident in 1961 not far from the railway station of Marcellina, in which were dozens of red-figured vases, bronze and precious metals, and a finely crafted bronze armour. Dated to the second half of the fourth century BC, it is now exhibited in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria. Other burials of the same period, though less rich, were found in the same area in the 1950s and 1960s.

The excavations revealed the city was defended on at least three sides by a wall. The urban space was organised according to a grid plan with at least two central roadways in a north–south orientation and 12 m wide. These were intersected at regular distances of 96 m by perpendicular roads in an east–west orientation and approximately 5 m wide. This created a checkerboard layout of building blocks, which were further separated by narrow lanes. In the south-east of the site, near the present cemetery, an area of artisanal kilns for the production of ceramics was discovered.^[6]^[9]

The site today

The Laus Archaeological Park was created in 1994 to protect the site covering an area of approximately 60 hectares.

References

^ ^a ^b Strabo, Geographica 6.1.1
^ ^a ^b Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3.10
^ Ptolemy, Geography 3.1.9
^ Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), Map 46, notes.
^ Herodotus, The Histories 6.21.1
^ ^a ^b "La Città di Laos". ArcheoCalabriaVirtual (in Italian). Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria. 2007. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 14.101.3–14.102.1
^ Pseudo Scylax, Periplous, §12
^ "La Necropoli di Marcellina". ArcheoCalabriaVirtual (in Italian). Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria. 2007. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2013.