Level A

SECTION I – Before Magna Grecia

From Paleolítico to Mesolítico (120,000-12,000 years ago)

Calabria, a land in the heart of the Mediterranean, has always been a crossroads of peoples and cultures, and offers extraordinary evidence of the early stages of the population related to ancient prehistoric times.

Tools of stone from Casella di Maida (CZ) are a precious evidence of the skills of tools manufacture that belong to the so-called “Pebble culture”.

The Grotto of the Virgin (Cosenza), an early expression of artistic and communicative style are painted pebble in Mesolithic Ages. Important vestiges of the upper Palaeolithic come from Grotta of the Romito: numerous perforated shells witness to the use of primitive jewelry, while the cast of the inscription of Bos primigenius taurus is one of the cave oldest in Italy.

Neolítico (12,000 a 4,000 years ago)

There are many examples of mill and mortar stones and axes used in recovery of land belonging to this period. Flint and bone were the most commonly used materials both for the realization of everyday objects (knives, drills, punches and spatulas), and for the production of jewelry (necklace elements), and even for the realization of female figures related to the sphere, symbol of fertility.

The exhibition of some of the earliest examples of vascular forms allows us to follow the evolution of the techniques of engravings and painted ceramics. The decorations were made before cooking the clay when it was still easy to model, with nails or punches of different shapes and materials.

From the middle Neolithic period, ceramic processing capacity was refined: clays became purified, and for decorations, bands, circles and rectangles were preferred. Among the material recovered in Grotta S. Angelo, there are some vessels carrying carved deep primitive signs, pre-graphics, paintings and engravings, seem to refer to real-life objects.

SECTION II – Metals ages

The age of Bronze and the iron age (Since the second Millennium until the 8th century B.c.)

Along with pottery, decorated metal objects from the bronze age, as a majestic canister (whistles) found at the home of Broglio di Trebisacce (CS) it is the largest sample found so far in the second half of the second Millennium Calabria before Christ

With the end of the bronze age funerary practices, cremation begins to prevail: the ashes of the deceased were collected within a URN deposited along with some items of regalia. From Punta di Zambrone becomes beautiful figurine of ivory of Minoan, unique in all the Western Mediterranean production.

In the first age of iron, we find two pairs of gold Wire Bracelet wrapped in a spiral, a pair of Greaves of bronze and spear heads, date from the period. Rica is the production of male and female brooches (fibulae) and several bronze jewelry. Precious jewels from distant lands come from the richest necropolis. Female burials were distinguished by the presence of frame weights decorated with incisions.