The tombs of the 6th-5th centuries. B.C.

The main necropolis of the archaic and classical era, referable to the Messapian settlement located on the hill of Ugento, was located in the flat area located on its immediate eastern slopes, in the Borgo area along the Via Salentina, where in 1970 the monumental “Tomb of the Athlete” with a semi-chamber structure and painted internal decoration (fig. 1, n. 8); it contained several depositions dating back to the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 4th century. BC, accompanied by rich grave goods including Messapic productions and ceramic and bronze materials imported from Greece and Magna Graecia, which highlight their belonging to a rich family of the Ugentine aristocracy. This funerary area, which also included a 5th century box tomb. B.C. brought to light in 1985 (fig. 1, n. 7), it was located near the intersection of two important road axes, one oriented roughly in a north-south direction and followed by via Salentina and the other that descended from the greenhouse and continued towards the south-east. To the same necropolis, in addition to the "Tomb of the Athlete", there also belonged another monumental tomb, again with a semi-chamber and also with painted internal decoration, perhaps contemporary, found in the nineteenth century about 250 m further north, near via Madonna della Luce (fig. 1, n. 10). Furthermore, just east of the "Athlete's Tomb", in the Armino locality, near the intersection between via Casarano and via D'Azeglio (fig. 1, n. 9), a tomb from the second half was found in 1979 of the 6th century. B.C. which yielded a Messapian krater with mushroom handles, a single-handled cup with brown paint and a type B2 Ionic cup of probable Magno-Greek production, perhaps Metapotine.
Apart from a classical era tomb reported on the hill, immediately north of the historic centre, along via Colosso (fig. 1, n. 5), other funerary areas were located in more peripheral areas and could also have belonged to settlements different from the one that occupied the top of the hill, but to date not archaeologically attested. A necropolis was in the north-western sector of the relief and on its slopes, where a small sarcophagus tomb dating back to the first half of the 5th century. BC, containing a small trozzella and two bronze fibulae, was brought to light in via Indipendenza (fig. 1, n. 1), while a nucleus of box and sarcophagus tombs with grave goods dating back to between the 5th and 3rd sec. B.C. it was discovered in via Aghelberto del Balzo (fig. 1, n. 3); among the latter, a burial dated to the second quarter of the 5th century. BC, referable to an eminent figure of the Ugentine aristocracy, has revealed a krater with Attic red-figure columns together with a sieve and a bronze oinochoe produced by Apulian workshops.
Topographically intermediate between the tomb in via Indipendenza and the funerary area in via Aghelberto del Balzo is a sarcophagus burial identified in via F.lli Molle, just west of the intersection with via Alighieri (fig. 1, n. 2), which yielded a Sybaris coin from the second half of the 6th century. BC, this perhaps pertaining to a first deposition, prior to that to which the rest of the recovered items belonged, dating back to the High Hellenistic period.
Further funerary areas, in use from the 6th-5th century. B.C. until the entire Hellenistic era, they were found in the flat territories located on the south-eastern and southern slopes of the hill, in the Vigne Vecchie area (fig. 1, n. 4) and in the area of ​​Piazza R. Moro (fig. 1, n. 6), where a tomb has yielded grave goods dating back to the end of the 5th and the first half of the 4th century. BC, consisting of a column crater of indigenous production and a series of miniaturistic vases. Still others are documented on the north-eastern slopes of the relief, along via Madonna della Luce (fig. 1, n. 11) and even further north, in the locality of S. Antonio (fig. 1, n. 12), in the area of a vast necropolis from the Hellenistic era which extends to the neighboring locality of Crocefisso; in the latter, pits containing possible reductions from the 5th-4th century have been identified. B.C. and a pit tomb which yielded grave goods from the second half of the 6th century. BC, consisting of an olla with overlying handles decorated with 4 small bosses, a cup painted with brown paint and three bronze fibulae.

G. Scardozzi

The “Athlete's Tomb” in via Salentina [set up in the center of the cloister]

The CD. “Tomb of the Athlete” is one of the most monumental tombs found in Messapia which, due to its structural characteristics, size and richness of the funerary objects, represents a unicum among the known tombs of Ugento. It was found on 13 July 1970, along the eastern side of Via Salentina, inside the village located on the eastern slopes of the historic centre.
It is a semi-chamber tomb (2.95 x 1.10 x 0.80 m) made with great accuracy in all its details and composed of carparo slabs, including a base (3.90 x 2.18 x 32 m ), two lateral sides with relative heads, composed of six large blocks, and two juxtaposed double-pitched roof slabs, which allowed the burial to be reopened for subsequent depositions. On the bottom there is a recess for the deposition (2.75 x 0.97 x 0.10 m), in which a wooden kline must have been housed with boards fixed by large iron nails.
The internal walls are covered with an elegant painted decoration, placed on a layer of white plaster, composed of linear motifs in red and blue, obtained using ochres and Egyptian blue: at the bottom there is a high red band and a blue one, in tall, thin parallel red lines, within which there are red bandages with rounded ends, from which three thin wavy ribbons hang. Below the line of bandages, there is a series of holes for fixing long iron nails from which some objects of the grave goods must have been suspended, such as small vases, utensils and perhaps crowns or garlands of flowers. The two covering slabs also had a decoration painted on the internal face, which was poorly preserved: on one there was a small blue bush, on which a red dove or dove was resting, and two suspended objects (a little trozzella with archaic shapes and a globular aryballos painted red and held by blue ribbons); on the other there was a rooster painted in red and blue, placed above a red bandage with rounded ends (from which three thin wavy ribbons hung), and a blue bush (fig. 2).
The recomposition of the funerary objects is quite complex, since the tomb has yielded materials belonging to several subsequent depositions (an adult male of around 30 years of age, an adult woman, a girl of around 15 years of age and an infant), which cover an arc very broad chronological period, between the end of the 6th and the first decades of the 4th century. B.C. The furnishings include bronze vases of Greek, Magna Graecia and Etruscan production, Attic and Proto-Italian ceramics (with red figures and black paint), as well as vases of Messapian tradition and other valuable artefacts and personal ornaments.
The first deposition, for which this large tomb was built, belongs to the adult male individual and dates back to around 510-490 BC. Some objects that recall the values ​​connected to the world of the gym, such as the pair of bronze strigils (fig. 3, n. 1) and an alabaster alabaster imported from Egypt (fig. 3, n. 2), characterize the deceased as a high-ranking person, probably dedicated to athletic activities. This association takes up a representative funerary scheme characteristic of the Taranto environment of the 6th and 5th centuries. BC, for which participation in the sporting life of the city constituted a distinctive sign of the aristocratic class. However, alabastron represents an exotic container of rare imported perfumed substances, a true luxury good, whose value is conferred by the material in which it is made and by the skill of the artisans involved in the production of these artefacts. His presence contributes to characterizing the activities, comforts and refined leisure of an elite world and conveys an image of prestige of the deceased and his high economic resources, also transmitted by the set of highly valuable artefacts that make up the grave goods. Among these, the bronze vases of rare beauty and refinement stand out, dating back to the second half of the 6th century and the beginning of the 5th century. BC, which make up a complex service for the symposium, such as an oinochoe of Corinthian production with the handle consisting of a naked virile figure resting his feet on a large Gorgon head (fig. 4, n. 1), a large basin on a tripod base with lion's paws with handles shaped like crouching lions and an olpe with a handle ending in the shape of a swan protome. The importance of the deceased is further underlined by the presence of two other valuable bronze vases imported from Greece, such as a Rhodian oinochoe with a three-lobed mouth (fig. 4, n. 2), characterized by a handle of complex workmanship, and a 'Corinthian hydria, with the vertical handle decorated with a splendid lion protome overlooking the mouth of the vase (fig. 4, n. 3), interpreted as a probable prize received for an athletic competition. They are older than the context and refer to the first decade and the second twenty-five years of the 6th century. BC, almost certainly prestigious goods kept by the family and handed down for generations, i.e. a sort of inheritance, as demonstrated by the signs of wear present on the top of the handles which indicate prolonged use of these vases before being placed in the tomb. These precious artefacts are also accompanied by ceramics of Greek and Magna Graecia production which include two Attic lekanides with black paint (fig. 3, nos. 3-4), an achromatic hydria probably produced in Taranto (fig. 3, no. 5) and a small lekythos with a fine linear decoration attributable to colonial workshops (fig. 3, n. 6).
The skeletal remains of an adult woman, perhaps previously buried elsewhere, which were placed in reduction in a corner of the monumental funerary structure, probably also belong to the first phase of use of the tomb. His grave goods include two vases peculiar to the female world, such as the kalathos, characterized by a dense two-tone geometric and floral decoration (fig. 5, n. 1), and the trozzella, whose shape characterizes the female tombs of adult women, from particular social status (fig. 5, n. 2). Also of exceptional importance are a series of fragments relating to a gilded silver sheet decorated with embossment, on some of which the representation of an Ionic kymation and two wings has been recognised, referable to the representation of a winged female divinity. They may pertain to an elaborate headdress (in all probability a polos), attributable to a refined Taranto production, attested in various aristocratic tombs of Taranto and Metaponto (fig. 6). It is a very rare object, an explicit sign of the relevant social role of the deceased, worn by female figures belonging to powerful and rich noble groups, who perhaps also held priestly functions in city cults and who were chosen among the representatives of the most noble families . The deposition can also be associated with a fragmentary bronze fibula of the simple arch type, with a conical button at the end, which frequently occurs in Messapic grave goods and also in Ugento.
The most recent phase of use of the tomb, approximately three generations later than the Athlete, can be placed between the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 4th century. BC, with most of the grave goods probably hanging from nails fixed in the walls of the tomb, not due to a lack of space but due to a symbolic reference to domestic life which finds confirmation in Greek and Etruscan environments. In fact, it is the deposition of a young woman also of high rank, accompanied by a rich group of personal ornaments composed of ten fibulae in gilded silver of the simple leaf arch type, one of which bears a very fine phytomorphic motif composed of flowers of lotus, palmettes and heart-shaped leaves, probably produced in Campania. These are fibulae exclusively belonging to women, associated in several pairs in the funerary objects, which excludes the attribution of this most recent deposition to a boy of around 15 years old as has been hypothesized in the past.
The rich vascular equipment that accompanies this burial is structured around two groups of objects: the first consists of a wine service, while the second includes ceramics that clearly allude to the female universe. Among the objects of the first, a valuable set of bronze vases for the symposium stands out, consisting of a strainer, a pyriform olpe of Etruscan production, a patera-plate, two other paterae with handles (fig. 7, nos. 1-2) and a valuable situla made by workshops in Taranto (fig. 7, n. 3), the latter artifact connoting the eminent burials of Messapia. The vascular ceramic kit is extensive, including red-figure vases of Attic and Italian production and black-painted vases, which are associated with other forms created indigenously. Among the Greek figurative imports, an Attic lekythos and a proto-Italian hydria stand out, functional in containing perfumed substances and transporting water. The lekythos, in particular, attributable to the Louvre Handmaiden Painter (430-420 BC), bears the representation of a richly dressed girl heading with her arms outstretched towards a palmette floral motif (fig. 8, n. 2 ). The group of proto-Italic vases includes a pair of skyphoi, one with the depiction of young ephebes (fig. 8, n. 3), the other with an owl among olive branches, dating back to the beginning of the 4th century. B.C. and probably attributable to a Lucanian production.
The most prestigious example among the proto-Italian ceramics is certainly a proto-Apulian hydria on which a difficult-to-read scene is represented, in which a young woman adorned with jewels is turned towards a naked male figure who is clasping her arm with one hand ( fig. 8, no. 1); it is perhaps the wedding of Sisyphus and Anticleia or a rare episode of the myth of Antigone and Creon, with the heroine led by two guards in the presence of the king. The vase, which can be dated to 430-400 BC, was made in the workshop of the Berlin Dancer Painter, one of the most important Taranto ceramic artists active in the most ancient production of Apulian ceramics. This is a truly significant object, if we consider that in this chronological phase and until the end of the 5th century. B.C. in Messapia the imports of proto-Italic vases are mainly made up of craters of proto-Lucanian production, while proto-Apulian ceramics are rather rare. Therefore, this precious artefact constitutes a tool of social differentiation for this young "emerging" female figure, perhaps who died before marriage, since it belongs to a type of vases used to exclusively distinguish Messapic female burials of particularly high rank, carefully selected taking into account the form, but also the figurative scenes with profound symbolic meaning; in fact, the desire to exalt with this scene the values ​​of the lineage and the family through emotional bonds, understood as a "blood bond" (Antigone's love for her brother Polynices) or as the fruit of seduction (the union of Sisyphus and Anticleia from which Odysseus was born).
The complex of black-painted vases is quite conspicuous, mostly of colonial production (Tarantina and Metapontina), but also Athenian, with shapes dedicated to the sphere of the table, including a three-lobed oinochoe and a pair of oinochoai with round mouth with body decorated with pods (fig. 8, n. 4). Among these vases there is also a complex set of containers for perfumed substances and ointments, dedicated to women's toilets, including several aryballic lekythoi (fig. 8, n. 5), to which are added an elegant prochoe (fig. 8, n. 6), three epichysis and a lamp. Also associated with the same context is a pair of acromi aryballoi (fig. 8, n. 7), characterized by lines engraved on the body, perhaps of local production, also used to contain precious ointments and perfumed oils.
The tomb must have hosted, in all likelihood, a further deposition referable to an infant (not identified during the excavation perhaps due to the easy consumption of these remains), as demonstrated by the presence of some vases of small dimensions and particular shapes. Among these, a small Attic red-figure hydria stands out (fig. 9, n. 1), on which two young girls are represented placed on the sides of a kalathos, dating back to 430-420 BC. Even in this circumstance, a shape and a depiction were carefully selected that seem to suggest the female sex of the little deceased. But the fundamental indicators that confirm the presence of an infantile deposition are above all the two small black-painted bottle-vases, represented by the guttus/baby-feeder (fig. 9, nos. 2-3). Other miniaturistic black-painted vases also belong to the same context, such as a hydria, an aryballic lekythos, both decorated with very fine pods, and a very elegant pyx with lid of Metapontine production (fig. 9, nos. 4-6).
Finally, above the slabs covering the tomb, with a probable function as a marker, there was a proto-Italian amphora of the Panathenaic type with red figures, found in fragments, on which a scene of a Dionysian komos was represented. Attributed to the Metapontine production of the Intermediate Group, it was placed after the definitive closure of the burial, which took place between the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 4th century. BC, as confirmed by the chronology of the vase.
Overall, the "Tomb of the Athlete", with its monumental structure, pictorial decoration and rich funerary objects, characterized by bronzes and ceramics imported from Greece, Taranto and Etruria, clearly shows the signs of the acquisition of Hellenic ideologies on the part of the ranking members of the Ugentine noble families. Think of the particular technical measures adopted on the architectural structure or the wall decoration which in terms of execution and pictorial motifs recall the tombs of Tarantino athletes. Also unique in its kind is the presence of the pictorial decoration on the internal face of the covering slabs, which can only be compared with the "Tomb of the Diver" of Poseidonia. Equally significant is the presence of refined bronze vases of Peloponnesian and Taranto production, which testify to direct and close contacts with the Greek and Magna Graecia worlds. Added to these are the precious alabastron imported from Egypt and the strigils which have suggested recognizing in the client and owner of the tomb an adult male individual, member of the Messapian aristocracy of Ugentina, deeply permeated by the ideologies relating to the Hellenic paideia, linked to the world of athletic competitions.
However, it must be underlined that these Greek figurative motifs and themes were received in Ugento and re-proposed in a completely different interpretation, having been adapted to "messapic" ideologies and specific needs of self-representation. Think above all of the "family" connotation of the tomb, in which several individuals (of different sexes and ages) were buried over the course of a century, according to a funerary concept widely known in the Messapian context. Particular attention deserves the presence of the trozzella among the oldest materials of the funerary objects, which, as we have seen, is also found painted on one of the slabs of the roof. The most recent studies on the funerary ritual and on the Messapic grave goods have now ascertained the objective and symbolic value of the trozzella which characterizes the female tombs of adult women, in this case also of high social rank, identifiable as real "matrons". In this perspective, the iconographic program expressed by the association rooster/aryballos, on the one hand, and tortorella (or dove)/trozzella, on the other, on the internal face of the lid, could suggest a planning of the pictorial decoration influenced by the diversification of the genres masculine and feminine. This is a distinction that has as its purpose the celebration of the role played by the "forefathers" of the aristocratic family group that owned the tomb, with the reception of Greek themes and ideologies; however, they are reworked and adapted to the mental categories and values ​​of Messapian society, where the figure and role of women seem to present peculiar and distinctive characteristics compared to the Greek world.

A.C. Montanaro

The state of conservation of the paintings on the walls and lid and the arrangement of the accompanying objects displayed in the Museum's display cases do not allow visitors an immediate and unified reading of the monumentality of the "Athlete's Tomb" and the richness of the materials it contained ( fig. 10). For these reasons, a reconstructive study was carried out of the two main phases of use of the funerary monument (the first with the so-called Athlete and the adult woman in reduction, the second with the young woman and the infant), capable of offering a organic vision of the depositions and the objects associated with them.
In a first phase we proceeded with a 3D photogrammetric survey of the structure, to be used as a basis for the reconstructive process of the entire architecture of the monument, which was carried out with handmade modeling techniques for the integration of the missing portions of the individual slabs and for the reconstruction of those lost pertaining to the bottom of the half-chamber. At the same time, using matte painting software, the chromatic reconstructions of the internal decorative motifs, both geometric and figurative, were developed, the traces of which are still partly legible on the frescoes that cover the internal surfaces of the slabs of the sides and the roof.
The same activities (3D photogrammetric survey integrated with handmade modeling techniques) were then proposed again for all the individual grave objects, in order to be able to have their digital copy and proceed with the virtual setup of the first phase of use of the tomb (figs . 11-12): a young athlete, wrapped in a shroud and lying on a wooden funerary bed, accompanied by a rich set of objects partly placed on the bottom of the semi-chamber and partly hung on nails on the walls. In a corner of the tomb, the reduced skeletal remains of the adult woman are also visible, among whose grave goods there is also a headdress (polos?) in gilded silver sheets and decorated with embossment, which was modeled starting from the fragments found.
The second phase of use (figs. 13-14) concerns, as we have seen, the deposition of a young woman and an infant, who in the reconstruction also appear both on the funeral bed and wrapped in shrouds. The ceramic and bronze materials that accompanied the new depositions have been added to the grave goods pertaining to the most ancient phase, which remained substantially unchanged in their location; in this phase, the reduction of the adult woman is joined by that of the athlete's remains, placed in another corner of the semi-chamber.
Therefore, the 3D graphic visualizations produced summarize the research results acquired so far and offer an easier and more immediate reading of the funerary monument and the dynamics of use that affected the tomb for almost a century.

I. Ferrari, F. Giuri

The tomb of Armino [showcase 1]

The tomb was found in 1979 in the locality of Armino, in an area located near the intersection between via Casarano and via D'Azeglio, probably home to a larger archaic age necropolis intended to house several burials belonging to high-ranking figures particularly high. The kit (fig. 15), which can be dated to the second half of the 6th century. BC, was made up of a few objects: a Messapian krater with mushroom handles and a globular body, with a two-tone decoration with geometric motifs and which can be dated to the Subgeometric Messapian II phase (550-400 BC), a single-handled cup, partially painted brown, and an Ionic type cup probably produced in Magna Graecia, perhaps in Metaponto. The association between the krater with mushroom handles and the imported drinking cup seems to suggest the pertinence of the tomb to a male individual of high rank, as was also found in other contemporary burials found in various Messapic centers (Alezio, Soleto , Vaste, Rudiae, San Cesario di Lecce, Cavallino, Muro Tenente, Mesagne and Oria).

A.C. Montanaro

The tomb in via Indipendenza [showcase 1]

The burial was found in 1989, in an area located near the intersection of via Indipendenza and via Armida, and consists of a small sarcophagus tomb (80 x 50 cm) containing the remains of a young man buried. It has yielded a very sober outfit (fig. 16), which can be classified in the first half of the 5th century. BC, composed of a small trozzella, with geometric decoration of bands and broken line motifs in red, and two bronze fibulae, one with a double arch, the other with a simple arch and a long stirrup with a conical terminal button. The latter constitutes a typical ornament of the burials of this phase and is present in most of the Messapian necropolises. The presence of the trozzella (attributed to the "Geometric Zigzag Group") indicates that the burial belonged to an adult woman of high rank, as has been ascertained by the most recent studies which confirm the presence of the same shape also in other similar female funerary objects of the Messapia.

A.C. Montanaro

Tomb 2 of S. Antonio [showcase 1]

The tomb was found in 1986 inside the necropolis of S. Antonio, in use mainly between the mid-4th and 3rd centuries. BC, and is the only burial from the archaic period (the grave goods from the Hellenistic period are displayed on the first floor). It consists of a lithic chest (90 x 60 cm) and contained the remains of an inhumed person in a curled up position, with the skull facing north-west. The kit (fig. 17), dating back to the second half of the 6th century. BC, consists of a olla with geometric decoration and overlying handles, with two pairs of small bosses applied to the top, a single-handled cup with brown paint and three bronze fibulae.

M.P. Caggia

The tomb in via Aghelberto del Balzo [showcase 2]

The tomb was discovered in 1969, in an area intended for funerary purposes (including numerous pit, box and sarcophagus burials) in use for a long period of time between the 5th and 3rd centuries. B.C. It has returned a collection made up of a few objects, however quite significant, which can be framed during the second twenty-five years of the 5th century. B.C. (fig. 18): it includes a krater with Attic red-figure columns, attributable to one of the ceramic artists belonging to the circle of the Late Mannerists (475-450 BC), a bronze oinochoe with engraved and embossed decoration and a strainer, also in bronze, with goose head handle. Both metal artefacts are produced in Apulian workshops and are closely linked to the consumption of wine, as is the crater, which was the central element of the service for the symposium. On the main side of the vase a young man is depicted on a racehorse, with kentron and reins grasped in his hands, who is approached by a Nike who grasps the equine bit; on the secondary side are three cloaked youths. The scene on the main side seems to clearly refer to the victory of a horse race, from which arises the prominence that the painter wants to give to the vigorous image of the racehorse; the deliberately central position assigned to the equine bit seems to allude to the prestigious role of knight held by the deceased. The valuable artefacts found in the tomb therefore attest to the belonging of the burial to a male figure of particularly high rank, documenting the emergence in Ugento, in the archaic age, of an aristocratic class capable of acquiring prestigious goods imported from Greece, from Magna Greece and Etruria, as also highlighted by the "Tomb of the Athlete".

A.C. Montanaro