The necropolises of Ugento between the 6th and 1st centuries. B.C.

The necropolises of Ugento between the 6th and 1st cent. BC

The oldest tombs tracking back to the Messapian settlement of Ugento, and whose grave goods are exhibited in the Museum, date back to the 6th century BC and consist of sarcophagus or coffin burials made of calcarenite slabs, which can also reach considerable dimensions with a so-called semi-chamber structure. the deceased were placed inside the tombs, accompanied by more or less rich ceramic and metallic materials. In some cases, the interior surfaces of the tombs show simple pictorial decorations, mostly consisting of geometric motifs.
The archaic and late-archaic burials (6th-5th century BC) of Ugento show similarities with those of the other centres of Messapia, in terms of ritual and in the typology of the grave goods (fig. 1). It can be highlighted that the funerary objects of the female tombs of the second half of the 6th century BC are characterised by the presence of a small bowl with overlapping ribbon handles without "trozze", with geometric decoration, accompanied by a single-handled cup (as in Tomb 2 of S. Antonio);between the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century BC, the olletta was replaced by the trozzella with small "trozze" and geometric decoration (as in the "Tomb of the Athlete"), which could also be accompanied by a one-handled cup or an aryballic lekythos, always with geometric decoration. Male grave goods of the second half of the 6th century BC, on the other hand include the krater with mushroom handles and a globular body, which can be attributed to local sub-geometric productions, associated with drinking cups, also of Greek and Magna Graecia imports, such as Attic kylikes with red figures of type C and black-painted cups of Ionic type B2 (as in the Tomb of Armino), the latter produced in the nearby cities of the Ionic cost, such as Taranto and Metaponto. In the tomb of 5th century BC, we find instead the krater with columns decorated with bands (as in the Tomb of Piazza R. Moro), which represents a local imitation of Greek models, which can be exceptionally attested in burials of particularly important personalities (such as the krater red-figure attic of the Tomb in via Aghelberto del Balzo).The analysis of the funerary objects allows us to establish that in the archaic period also in Ugento, as in many other Messapian centres, a progressive stratification of the social body began, with the emergence of a rich aristocratic class, and that the centre it was part of a network of intense commercial relations that involved Greece and the Greek colonies of the Ionian arc, first of all Taranto.
In the Classical and High Hellenistic periods (4th-3rd century BC) the tombs maintain the same typology as the previous phase (fig. 2); the reuse of tombs for multiple burials is common, with the grave goods and osteological remains of the oldest ones being collected and placed either in ditches within the tombs themselves or immediately outside them. The Ugentine grave goods from this period reflect what has been documented in other Messapian settlements, with a predominance of locally unpainted or decorated with brown or red bands pottery, accompanied by black-painted products in the Gnathian style, more rarely by ceramics with figures red wines produced in Apulia. As far as the shapes of the vessels are concerned, with the exception of the trozzella, those of  the Greek tradition prevail, including some bell-shaped craters which characterise various male burials of higher levels; bronze materials (especially fibulae and, to a lesser extent, belts and strigils) are rather rare and also limited to tombs related to important figures, among which the so-called “Tomba del Guerriero” in via Rovigo, which yielded a belt, a phiale and two strigils.
A phenomenon that seems to characterise some Ugentine necropolises already in the High Hellenistic period, and which persist into the 2nd and perhaps even the 1st century BC, is the burial of newborn babies and infants placed on tiles (fig. 3). These burials, which are difficult to date because of the scarcity of the grave goods associated with them (generally consisting of miniature vessels and ointment jars), were found in the later phases of  Tombs 8, 10 and 11, where there are a total of 16, or they were found grouped together in box and sarcophagus tombs, as in via Peri, or they have been discovered, singly or in groups, placed in small earthen pits and covered with other tiles or fragments of large terracotta vessels. So far, their presence seems to be limited to the western sector of the town and to cemeteries located along road axes.

The most recent funeral objects exhibited in the Museum finally date back to the late Hellenistic period, when Ugento was in a state of gradual decline, as can be seen from the materials found in the tombs:  there are imported objects and, unlike the previous phases, no particularly relevant contexts related to high-ranking personalities. An important innovation also concerns the funerary ritual, since between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. cremation became increasingly widespread. The burials therefore consist of cremations contained in stone cists or, much more frequently, in terracotta ollas (covered with large fragments of tiles or other ceramic vessels) placed in earthen pits or inside more ancient box tombs or sarcophagus (fig. 4). The burials of infants on tiles and those of children in earthen graves also seem have persisted in this phase.