Archeologists conducting preventative excavations ahead of an industrial expansion in southern Italy have discovered a well-preserved, 2,500-year-old necropolis. The news was first reported at a press conference held on July 15 by the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan Area of Naples (Soprintendenza ABAP Napoli), which supervised the excavation.

The cemetery, which was unearthed beneath the historic Garofalo pasta factory in Gragnano, near Naples, dates to the Archaic period (8th–6th centuries BCE), when the surrounding region of Campania was a cosmopolitan mix of native, Greek, and Etruscan cultures. Containing 85 graves, it appears to have been, at least in part, a burial site for a wealthy 6th-century elite.