Impressions

    Light and blue waves of seas lap sands that give way to vegetation up to the hinterland, with hills and valleys full of memory.
    From ancient times, natural stony pads blend with the mimetic work of men, with their excavation of mazes of rock, in the manner of buildings of industrious swarms.
    Between wind of East and West, we are witnessing the fusion of warrior and peasant cultures, migrated and turned over the centuries: the footsteps of Greeks and then of Romans, signs of barbarians swept by Byzantine sails, and still, towers and buildings of lords contending medieval feuds, and prosperous superb buildings of new golden ages.
    The massive walls of the castles, with their seals, styles, tell stories of dark conspirators and rebels in their seriousness geometric unfolding on strategic heights.
    With the background of sky, sea and land, stand out the white ruins of the ancient world, of kingdoms, empires and other illustrious eras.
    Arms of the Metaponto's warriors tinkle amidst rumors of spirits of distant time, which take place in a historical ideal path, showing traces of all forms of art and artifacts.
    In paintings and sculptures of walls worn, but still erect and always proud, the symbols revive of a world of glory and splendor, in changing forms animated by light.
    The green and velvety folds of the land are moved almost imperceptibly in the wind like cloaks of fairs that are sleeping and breathing lightly in the sun, up to the beaches and to the blow of sea breeze, arriving wet and invigorating as a breath of eternity.
   

National Archaeological Museum of Metaponto

    The exhibition guides visitors through a historic and archaeological tour of Metapontino, from prehistory to the late antiquity.
    In the halls there is a remarkable collection of artifacts found during excavations of settlements, cemeteries and shrines of the area.
    The artifacts of the Bronze Age show a probable contact with the Mycenaean civilization, while the Iron Age is dating of the precious relics of the indigenous community of the Enotri .
    The Greek colonization is dating of the testimonies from the Sanctuary of Incoronata between centuries VIII and VII BC, among which the Censer of the Incoronata characterized by a drum decorated with stamps of waves, figures of winged animals and scenes of fighting.
    Very interesting is also the crater with the representation of Bellerophon on Pegasus and the monumental basin on which are set in relief mythical episodes from Iliad and Odyssey.
    The foundation of the colony of Metaponto, in the century VII BC, dates back to the Greeks from the Peloponnese region of Achaia.
    The city reached quickly power and splendor, spreading its influence in the area until the Roman occupation, which decreed the gradual decline and end.
    Phase of splendor around the centuries VI and V BC is documented by archaeological finds from the three temples of the city and from votive material consisting of clays, potterys, black-painted ceramics, a archaic bronze of kriophoros (bearer of lamb), an archer of limestone from the Temple of Apollo and fragments of architectural decoration from the same temple, including gutters in form of suggestive leonine head.
    A specific room is dedicated to the discovery of the sanctuary of San Biagio alla Venella , with architectural fragments of the temple and interesting votive material depicting female deities of nature.
    The exhibition is complemented by the presence of gray Hellenistic potteries, Roman and African sealed ceramics and those late-empire produced in Asia Minor, up to a Byzantine lamp with spiral decoration of the sixth century AD.