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Archeoclub d'Italia Region Archaeological Museum (tel. +39 0933.912626) Text by Nuccio Mulè |
Some archaeological finds of the Museum |
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The Archaeological Museum of Gela was realized
in the second half of the years Fifties on behalf of the Ministry of
Public Works, with the money of the Development Fund for the South of
Italy and engineered by architect Luigi Pasquarelli.
I.C.O.R.I. Contractors, Milan, constructed this building under
the supervision of architect Rosario Corriere; it was inaugurated on the
21st of September 1958.
The birth of this museum stopped the
multi-decadal diversion of the archaeological finds from Gela to other
museums of Sicily, such as Palermo, Syracuse and Agrigentum. Unique and
very valuable finds, discovered in Gela, are also in the museums of
Naples, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Milan, London, Oxford, Berlin, New
York, Cambridge, Baltimore, Tampa, Yale, Rhode Island, Basel, Stuttgart,
Vienna, Hamburg, Zurich and so on; countless all those ones purloined
and exported illegally throughout the world belonging to the private
collections.
The exhibition of the archaeological finds is shared out in two
floors: in the ground floor, there are finds of protohistoric age come
to light in Gela urban territory, as well as those ones of the Greek age
of the
Acropolis,
the
Greek
Ship, the
Emporium
of Bosco
Littorio and
Caposoprano.
Moreover, also in the ground floor, there is a considerable set of Attic
and Corinthian vases of
Navarra’s
collection
and
a large series of finds from the archaic necropolises of Borgo. In the upper floor, you can see the finds coming from the suburban sanctuaries and from the centres of protohistoric, Greek and Roman age from Gela hinterland; in the same floor, there are also several show-windows containing ceramic materials, glassware and bronzes from the medieval period of the town.
In a near future, the complete exhibition of the
“Gela Treasure” is expected. It is a very noteworthy collection of
Greek silver coins, found out in 1956, related to the mints of Gela,
Agrigentum, Syracuse, Zancles, Reggio, Acanto and Athens; at present,
only a small but representative part of them in on display.
Thanks to Salvatore Morinello’s
intervention, our fellow citizen who was in office as Region Councillor
for the Cultural Heritage and Education, the Archaeological Museum was
upgraded to “Regional”. Lately, the museum manager, Mrs. Rosalba
Panvini, MA, realized a bulky catalogue
concerning the museum consisting of 464 pages and 512 pictures that
represents a rare publication to the point to be unique.
The Museum opening hours all days are: 9 a.m.
– 1 p.m. / 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
The finds of the Museum All the material consists of about 4200 finds showed in the premises and divided into eight departments. At the ground floor: - Dept 1 - History, protohistory, acropolis, emporium and ship; - Dept 2 - Heraion and town between 4th and 3rd c. B.C.; - Dept 3 - Kilns and epigraphy; - Dept 4 (suitable for 8) – Greek necropolises and Navarra + Nocera’s collections. At the first floor: - Dept 4 - Amphorae; - Dept 5 - Suburban sanctuaries; - Dept 6 – Territory from protohistory to the Greek age; - Dept 7 – Territory from the Roman age to the mediaeval age. The most important and known archaeological finds that can be admired in the displaying journey of Gela Museum, are quoted below. |
Ground floor:
-
Attic
cup foot of the 5th c. B.C. with a votive inscription to Anthiphemos,
founder of Gela (small window on the right of the entrance); - Big rough clay bowl with seven ritual clay horns (window 1), almost in front of it, you can observe some architectonic earthenware, with gutters and drains from a sanctuary;
-
Clay
Khores, imitation of Ionic style with an incensory on its head,
dating back to the 6th c. B.C. (window 6);
-
Antefixes
of a rare beauty like a Gorgon and
Silenus’s
head (23 cm high, 11.5 cm wide) (9 inches, 4 ½ inches), 5th
c. B.C. (windows 7 + 8); as to the artistic value of the Silenus
antefixes, we do not exaggerate if we affirm that an archaeological
excavation has never brought to light antefixes more superb than these
ones (15).
-
Small
stone statue
of Khores,
6th c. B.C. (window 9);
-
Small
clay statue of Athena, 5th c. B.C. with Gorgon’s head on its chest
(window 11);
-
horse
head
(29
cm high, 41 cm long) (11 ½ inches, 16 inches), 5th c. B.C.,
fragment of decorative acroteria from the pediment of a little sacred
building and also a big tile with the shape of a horse with rider, both
masterpieces of the Geloan architectonic plastic arts.
-
Red
pictured Siceliote skyphos with a cosmic scene, 4th c. B.C. (window
15); - Objects recovered during an underwater excavation from the wreck of the archaic Greek ship, among which, two very rare red pictured Attic askoi, 5th c. B.C. (window 17); - big fragment of clay arula (small altar), 6th c. B.C. with pictured scene (window 22);
-
epigraphic
documents, from the 6th to the 5th c. B.C., of an
exceptional importance consisting of votive graffito inscriptions under
the feet of the vases (window 31) ; - Pictured stamnos (13,5 cm high, 18 cm Æ) (5 inches, 7 inches) of local manufacture, 7th c. B.C. (window 32);
-
craters,
amphorae and lekythois coming from the Geloan necropolises of the 6th
and 5th c. B.C., samples of the great Greek ceramics with
black pictures on a white background and red pictures on a black
background (windows 32 and 33); - big clay sarcophagi, one of which decorated inside with four little columns surmounted with two Ionic capitals from the Geloan necropolises of the 5th c. B.C.; - Navarra’s collection, about 600 pieces datable between the 7th and the 6th c. B.C. (windows A-H), consisting of Proto-Corinthian, Corinthian/Ionic and Attic crockery with black and red pictures, coming from sanctuaries and Geloan necropolises excavated in the first half of the 19th century; on the upper shelf of the window “H”, some finds of the Navarra’s collection are displayed and among them, a little bronze of an athlete stands out (28 cm high) (11 inches), 4th c. B.C.; Navarra’s collection derives from the merging of two previous collections, one coming from Carlo Navarra Jacona and another one from Carlo Navarra Navarra. A group of vases of it, we report of later on, constitutes the most important and precious part, particularly: the Attic pelike with red pictures representing Theseus and the Minotaur, the lekythos with a white background representing Ajax while chasing Cassandra and the polychrome Attic lekythos on a white background representing Aeneas and Anchises. The Painter of Pigs Pelike Pelike (470-460 B.C.) with red pictures on a black background (36.9 cm high, 16.5 cm mouth) (14 ½ inches, 6 ½ inches) representing Theseus killing the Minotaur, attributed by Beazlev to the Painter of Pigs; on a part of this vase, Theseus is represented while dashing against the Minotaur and brandishing a sword in his right hand; the bleeding Minotaur under way of escape, turns his glance to the hero and is ready to fling him a stone. Minos with a long sceptre and Ariadne with her naked breast according to Crete custom, both watching this scene; Ariadne waves to the hero inciting him. On the other part of this vase, a bearded paidotriba and three ephebes while chatting.
Theseus, the most famous hero of Attica, was
Aegeus and Aethra’s son according to the Greek mythology; the most
dangerous feat, among so many of his fulfilled exploits, was the one
against the Minotaur in the Isle of Crete.
Minos, king of Crete, had levied a heavy duty on the Athenians: every nine years, they had to send seven young men and seven young women to Crete for being devoured by the Minotaur, a half man and half bull monster, born from the union between Pasiphae, Minos’s wife and a magnificent bull, lovely, strong and snow-white; this bull was sent by Poseidon to confirm Minos’s title to the throne, but instead of being sacrificed, it was substituted with another bull. But Poseidon, god of the deep seas, after noticing the deceit, for revenge, drew Pasiphae’s inspiration from a crazy love for that bull. So she started running after him up mountains and through woods until she reduced it to her desire. Then the Minotaur was born from them and Minos imprisoned it in the labyrinth built up by Daedalus in Cnossus. Meanwhile the Athenians had paid their tribute in human lives to Minos twice and got ready for the third time; but Theseus joined the young people and helped by the goddess Aphrodite, left for the Isle of Crete. The same goddess made fall Ariadne (Minos’s daughter) passionately in love with Theseus and that was his salvation, because she, thanks to Daedalus’s help, provided him with a ball of thread. So he could enter the labyrinth with it, then he could also kill the Minotaur and finally find again the way out by following the thread. At last, Daedalus was imprisoned with his son Icarus in the labyrinth for punishment owing to his help to Theseus. The Edinburgh Painter Lekythos Lekythos (500-480 B.C.) with a white background (41 cm high, 7.5 cm mouth) (16 inches, 3 inches) representing Ajax while chasing Cassandra, attributed by Haspels to the Edinburgh Painter; terrorized with her head turned to Ajax, Cassandra opens her arms and tries to stop the hero with one hand and with the other hand to cling to the Palladium. At Ajax’s feet, the serpent Ericthonius comes to the woman’s aid. On the right of the Palladium, Athena appears under way of hurling a lance against Ajax and also Priam watches the scene in despair with his right hand on his head. The Brygos Painter Lekythos Polychrome lekythos (480-470 B.C.) with a white background (43 cm high, 8 cm mouth) (17 inches, 3 inches) representing Aeneas and Anchises, attributed by Beazley to the Brygos Painter: on a part of it, Aeneas wearing a short tunic leads the unsteady steps of his father to the right and holds him by wrist; his left hand holds a lance and a shield and also a lifted Corinthian helmet is on his head. Anchises wears a long brown chiton and holds a stick in his left hand.
Upper
floor: - Expository exhibition of altars (5th c. B.C.) found in the archaeological area of Bosco Littorio: 1) Altar with Gorgon Medusa embracing her own children Pegasus and Chrisaore; 2) Altar with two scenes: the upper one represents a lioness sinking her teeth into a bull, in the lower one the divine triad of Demeter, Khores and Hecate Aphrodite; 3) Altar representing the abduction of Kephalos by Eos, the dawn goddess.
-
Gold
earrings, 5th
– 6th c. A.D. coming from the necropolis of Sofiana; - objects of the early Christian and medieval periods; an early Slavic bronze crucifix of the 10th – 11th c. A.D. and a set of very fine and extremely rare painted dishes with pictures of animals and floral motives datable end of the 13th century.
-
Big
clay mask of Demeter
(50cm high, 46 cm wide) (19 ½ inches, 18 inches), 6th c.
A.D., with veil on her head and a double string of necklaces with
pendant like an ox head (window 5);
-
Clay oil lamp
(11 cm high,
Æ
26 cm) (4 inches, 10 inches), 7th c. B.C. of local
manufacture with an alternation of human and ram heads (window 5);(alt. cm.11, diam. cm. 26) del VII sec. a.C. di fabbrica locale
con alternanza di teste umane e di ariete (vetrina n.5); - sclay support shaped like a crouched demon (15 cm high, 24 cm wide) (6 inches, 9 ½ inches), 6th c. B.C. (window 6); - protohistoric finds of the necropolises;
-
(gallery)
Hellenistic amphorae from the 7th to the 3rd c.
B.C.; The collection of coins is a sample of 72 silver coins of Gela Treasure subdivided into the following quantities: Agrigentum 23, Gela 16, Syracuse 13, Reggio 1, Zancles 2, Acanto 2, and Athens 15. The
collection of coins Coin was an essential instrument for trade activity; it was invented short after 700 B.C. and was firstly made with electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver, which was realized by rich individuals with a seal stamped on it). Later made with melted metal, silver and gold. Only the “polis” (state-town) had the power to issue coins and guarantee them with its own symbol. The coin system which prevailed in the Greek world from Pericles’s Age on, was the Athenian one based on “drachma”, a measure unit equal to 4.35 grams of silver (67 grains). The coins and the medals of Gela portrayed its tyrants, the Minotaur, an ear of wheat and the horsemen (the fame of the Geloan cavalry was widespread in the tradition of the ancient writers). One of the most known coin today is the Tetra drachma of Gela with the protome of the "androprosope" bull, that is, a human head with bull-like attributes, a personification of Gela River and emblem of the Geloan coinage; between the 6th and the 5th century, the ancient master engravers practiced their ability on such motives to create some masterpieces among the most admired ones of Siceliote numismatics. In coinage, the attributes of the ear, the wheat and the barley grain, placed close to the river symbol, make us notice clearly that the town of Gela found its reason for life and prosperity in farming and mainly in the plenty of these cereals due to the provident waters of Gela River, the fertile fields benefited from by irrigation. On the contrary, the periods of freedom (democracy) were expressed with the symbol of an unbridled horse, whereas the Olympic triumphs were represented with a cart wheel (Gela was the first Siceliote town to be represented in the Grand National Sanctuary of Olympia; firstly, the Geloan citizen Panthares (in 488 B.C.) and then (in 474 B.C.) Polizelos tyrant of Gela won the competition of the cart race respectively in Olympia (27) and in Delphi (28); Polizelos himself, in honour of his victory, presented this Greek town with a bronze quadriga, later lost, but which the famous Charioteer belonged to, (seen now in Delphi Museum); the fish and pelican symbols represent the plenty from fishing and hunting; then column behind the biga horses represents the wealth of its temples; the figuration of the bare horseman, on the back of a running ram, represents the abundance of its herds. |