Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria. ^ Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, ( ISBN 9-X), Map 46, notes.^ a b Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3.10. ![]() Some ancient structures were restored and a small museum, the Antiqarium, was set up in a building nearby. The Laüs Archaeological Park was created in 1994 to protect the archaeological site and covers an area of approximately 60 hectares. In the south-east of the site, near the present cemetery, an area characterized by the presence of artisanal kilns for the production of ceramics was discovered. This created a checkerboard layout of building blocks containing four dwellings, which were further separated by narrow lanes. These were intersected at regular distances of 96 meters by perpendicular roads in an east–west orientation and approximately 5 meters wide. The urban space was organized according to a grid plan with at least two central roadways in a north–south orientation and 12 meters wide. The excavations revealed a city that was defended on at least three sides by a wall. Other burials of the same period, though less rich, were found in the same area in the 1950s and 1960s. The burial dated to the second half of the fourth century BCE and is now exhibited in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria. Dozens of red-figured vases, bronze and precious metals, and a finely crafted bronze armor were found in the tomb. A rich tomb chamber was discovered by accident in 1961 not far from the railway station of Marcellina. The necropolis of Laüs now lies below Marcellina and is notable for its important finds. The only material evidence of the Archaic Greek city consists of some silver coins with the legend LAFINON and symbols similar to those of the coins of Sybaris, dated between 500 and 440 BCE. This was probably caused by the Punic Wars, which had a profound impact on the economy of the Tyrrhenian coast. The city was downsized gradually and abandoned in the second half of the third century BCE. The site near Marcellina which is now identified as Laüs was possibly a refoundation of the Greek city by Lucanians on a previously unoccupied site. Pliny the Elder, whose Natural History was published in approximately 77–79 CE, states that the city no longer existed in his time. The first edition of Strabo's Geographica was published in 7 BCE and the last no later than 23 CE. He mentions a heroon to Draco, a companion of Odysseus, stood there. Strabo describes the city as still being in existence in his time. Pseudo-Scylax writes that it was a colony of Thurii. On the way to Laüs the Thurians were ambushed and crushed by the Lucanians. The Lucanians then withdrew to their own territory and Thurians pursued them to lay siege to the "prosperous" town of Laüs. ![]() He writes that the army of Thurii had repelled a force of the Lucanians which had attacked their territory in 390 BCE. Diodorus Siculus seems to imply that that city had been captured by the Lucanians before or during 390 BCE. Herodotus states that the inhabitants of Sybaris who had survived the destruction of their city in 510 BCE took refuge in Laüs and Scidrus. Little is known about its foundation or history. Today the archaeological site of the city can be found at a short distance to the east of Marcellina, a frazione of the comune of Santa Maria del Cedro in Calabria. The river and the city have the same name in Ancient Greek. It was a colony of Sybaris at the mouth of the Lao River, which formed the boundary between Lucania and Bruttium in ancient times. Laüs or Laus ( Ancient Greek: Λᾶος Italian: Laos) was an ancient city of Magna Graecia on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
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