Aléria

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Aléria (Greek and Roman Alalia) is a commune in the Haute-Corse département of France, on the island of Corsica.

1 Geography
2 Ancient history
3 Archaeology
4 Medieval and modern history
5 Notes
6 References
7 See also

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

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.

[edit] Medieval and modern history

As Latin Alalia, it was the capital of the Roman province of Corsica, and then the see of a bishop down to the French Revolution. At the end of the Ancien Régime, the bishop no longer lived in Aléria, but in Cervione.