Archeonaut - APT Basilicata

TheArchaeologicalArea and Museum ofAncient Peoples inVagliodi BasilicataLocality Rossano tel. (+39) 0971 305011; (+39) 340 4896718Opening times: from Monday to Friday through advanced booking;Saturday, Sunday and holidays: 9:30 am - 1:30 pm; 3:30 - 6:30 pm;The Archaeological Areaand Museum of Ancient Peoplesin Vaglio di BasilicataA good harvest and the arrival of a child,or better still, several children, is whatthe Lucanian women asked from thegods when they went to the sanctuariesdedicated to them. This can be seenfrom the objects discovered in the votiveniches (depositories for objects broughtas gifts and in fulfilment of vows to theplaces of worship): models of breasts,or other parts of the female anatomy,as well as produce of the soil and firstfruits, mostly in terracotta. There are alsosmall reproductions of female divinities,dressed and adorned as women wouldbe when visiting the sanctuaries to invokeand find favour with what normally wasa goddess. She would be a powerful,heavenly female figure, which that theindigenous women naturally imagined intheir own image. And so this is how shewas portrayed, with the clothes, jewelleryand hairstyles worn by women when theycame to pray in the sanctuary or facedimportant moments in their lives: thepassage from puberty to adolescence(when dolls were left aside to be replacedby spindles, loom weights and toiletrymirrors), marriage and death.These are the stories of devoted women,wives and promised brides, girls andfemale companions of valiant warriorswho shared the same domestic activitiesand anxieties as angels of the hearthmore than two thousand five hundredyears ago.The more fortunate ones, of high socialrank, wore finely-crafted jewels, ambershaped into elegant parures, gold,silver and bronze from which skilledcraftsmen managed to create elegant andextraordinarily modern-shaped rings,brooches, bracelets, pendants and belts.This was the wealth of accessories withwhich they had to visit the sanctuaries,which were fundamental in the lives ofancient peoples. They were not simplyplaces dedicated to divinities that hadto be adored and placated, but focalpoints for social aggregation and thebeating heart of the federate life ofpeoples like the Lucanians, who wouldlive independently until the time came toplan a battle and wage war.At this moment they would gather andchose a leader (a “Basileus”), whowould then lead his army armed to theteeth.The Sanctuary in Rossano di Vaglio,which was a Lucanian stronghold until thearrival and conquest by the Romans (3rdcentury BC) and a point of reference forthe area’s populations, represented allof this. The excavations there uneartheda complex and fascinating world ofrelationships, liturgies and rituals, aswell as a wealth of information about thevalues of a people, and more particularly,its women, since it was mainly they whowould go to the temple in times of peaceto invoke and venerate the goddessMephitis, to whom the sanctuary wasdedicated.61