Aleria, Corsica (Greek and Roman Alalia), is a commune in Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. ... Haute-Corse is a French département. ... Capital Ajaccio Land area¹ 8,680 km² President of the Executive Council Ange Santini (UMP) (since 2004) Population   - Jan. ...

Geography

Aleria is built on the eastern coastal plain of Corsica, today at the crossroads of national routes N200 and N198, surrounded by agricultural lands of Teppe Rosse (to the west), the Pool of Diana (to the northeast), and Casabianda (to the southeast). The town sits on the Tavignanu which empties here into the Tyrrhenian Sea. The hamlet of U Cateraghju sits on the riverbank just back from the coast. Tyrrhenian Sea. ...

Ancient history

The earliest signs of human habitation on the plain date to the Neolithic of the sixth millennium BCE. According to Herodotus^[1] in 565-560 BCE Phocaeans fleeing from Asia Minor founded an emporium Alalia at the mouth of the Rhotanos (Tavignanu). They were reinforced by emigrants from Phocaea, which was under siege by Cyrus in ca 545-540. After initial friction with the Etruscans on the opposite mainland coast and with Carthaginians, who allied to put down Greek piracy from Alalia, who stood them off, with great losses (about 535), the city became an active port with a cosmopolitan population and wide trading contacts. The Phokaians introduced wine and olive culture. The indigenous population retreated into the mountains. Alalia became Roman ca 259 BCE. The development of Ostia as a port eventually sent the city into decline. An array of Neolithic artefacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools Excavated dwellings at Skara Brae Scotland. ... Bust of Herodotus at Naples Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: , Herodotos) was a historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ... Satellite photo showing location of the ancient cities of Phocaea, Cyme and Smyrna Phocaea (modern-day Foça in Turkey) was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. ... Emporium is an old-fashioned term for a Department store and for marketplaces or trading centers in ancient cities. ... The name Cyrus (or Kourosh in Persian) may refer to: [[Cyrus I of Anshan]], King of Persia around 650 BC [[Cyrus II of Persia | Cyrus the Great]], King of Persia 559 BC - 529 BC — See also Cyrus in the Judeo-Christian tradition Cyrus the Younger, brother to the Persian king... The Etruscan civilization existed in Etruria and the Po valley in the northern part of what is now Italy, prior to the formation of the Roman Republic. ... A map of the central Mediterranean Sea, showing the location of Carthage (near modern Tunis). ... Scale model of Portus, near Ostia The Temple of the goddess Roma on the Forum of Ostia. ...

Archaeology

Systematic excavation since 1955 has revealed wide-ranging contacts in the sixth century, through poettery shards in test pits, with Ionian, Phocaean, Rhodian, and Attic black-figure ware. Ionia (Greek Ιωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was an ancient region of southwestern coastal Anatolia (now in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea. ... Rhodes, Greek Ρόδος (pron. ... Attica (in Greek: Αττική, Attike; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a periphery (subdivision) in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece. ... Scene from a black-figure amphora from Athens. ...

The excavated necropolis of Casabianda's rock-cut tombs have revealed grave goods, from the Late Archaic period forwards, that include the finest works of art, in jewels, weapons, metalwares, bronze and ceramic plates and dishes in particular, Attic cups, rhytons, distinctive kraters decorated by some of the first rank Attic vase-painters. The finds can be seen in the Aleria Museum. A Rhyton (Greek ῥυτόν rutón) is a ceremonial drinking cup shaped like an animal head or horn. ... A krater (Greek κρατηρ, from the Greek verb κεραννυμι, to mix. ...

Medieval and modern history

Notes

1. ^ Herodotus, 1.162-67

References

• Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976: "Alalia, later Aleria, Corsica, France"