Excavations At Ancient Paestum. The southern part of the Forum and part of the Gymnasium in Paestum, the city founded between the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. by Greek colonists, where interesting discoveries have recently been made. An eminent geologist has put forward the theory that the ruins of Paestum must have been buried for several centuries as the result of a slow geological movement, and afterwards as slowly restored to sight by a reverse movement. March 9, 1932.