Spirals in ancient cultures (part 2). From left to the right, from top to bottom: Shang/Western Zhou Dynasty, China - Neolitic China - Shang Dynasty, China - Jomon, Japan - Khmer culture, Angkor Wat, Cambodia - Maya, Mexico - Tarxien, Malta - Tibradden Mountain, Dublin, Ireland - Cucuteni culture, Romania/Moldova/Ukraine
Spirals in ancient cultures (part 3). From left to the right, from top to bottom: Maya, Mexico - Sedona, Arizona - Maya, Mexico - Jomon, Japan - Hohokam, Tuscon, Arizona - Jomon, Japan - Viking, Oseberg, Norway - Etruscan, Italy - Viking, Oseberg, Norway
The treasures of Hera : Greek antiquities from Crotone, in southern Italy’s Calabria
In Crotone there was one of the most important sanctuaries in Magna Graecia (the area of southern Italy populated by Greek settlers from the eighth century BC). It was dedicated to the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus and queen of the gods, who was venerated here as the protector of women, as well as a type of Mother Nature.
Excavations in Crotone in 1910 uncovered a treasure trove of gold, silver and bronze votive offerings to the goddess, which provide insight into the people and traditions of the time.
The most outstanding piece is a glistening gold diadem, or tiara, shaped out of a band of gold leaf and decorated with both a braid pattern and foliage garland. Interestingly, coins used in Crotone from the fourth century portrayed a crowned head of Hera.
To this day, the diadem still maintains its golden glow and is quite a treat to stumble upon in the museum.
Beautiful Women of Ancient Medma in Rosarno, Calabria, Italy
Medma, Rosarno? For most travelers to Italy, these names will not ring any bells. The former was an ancient city-state of Greater Greece and the latter is its modern-day counterpart in Calabria. Medma’s terracotta is exceptionally beautiful. You can see a few pieces in the collection of the British Museum, or visit the archeological museums in Rosarno and Reggio, and have your fill.
The terracotta figurines from Medma are particularly striking. The sculptures were fashioned from a local clay that has lent their characteristic reddish color. Medma had close ties with Locri Epizephyrii, a colony established in the 7th century BC by women from Locris in central Greece. Handsome ladies, no doubt.
MEDMA HISTORY
The Locrians founded Medma (or Mesma) in the 6th century BC. Locri lies over the mountains along Calabria’s eastern coast on the Ionian Sea and Medma is on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western shore at what would have been less than a day’s walk back in the day. The present city is called Rosarno and its center sits on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Gioia Tauro. Today, state highway 682 goes west across the peninsula from just north of Locri.
From the dimensions of the excavations of the area, Medma would have been able to accommodate over 4,000 citizens in its heyday during the Greek period. The town was mentioned by Roman writers. However, it is thought that the population eventually moved and founded nearby Nicotera some time in the 2nd century AD.
Excavations have uncovered numerous artifacts as well as structural remains of the city. Judging from the craft of the terracotta and bronze pieces discovered in the necropolis and sanctuary areas, Medma had a distinctive and sophisticated lifestyle with particular emphasis on the exaltation of beauty. Interesting to note that Locri Epizephyrii, the founding city-state, was a matriarchal society that was unique in the Greek world.
MEDMA’S LADIES
The wealth of terracotta includes many female heads and busts. These votive offerings would have been divine representations or stylized images of the donors, themselves. Various hairstyles frame the noble faces set off by classic earrings or a modest crown. What are they all thinking behind those half smiles?
The enigmatic expressions date these sculptures between the late 6th to the 5th century BC. The following terracotta figures with a rigid, frontal stance, one seated on a throne and the other standing, offer winged creatures that bring to mind the cults of Aphrodite and Persephone.
Another standing female figure from the Archaic Period balances the high cylindrical head covering of a goddess with a wreath in her left hand and a pomegranate, the symbol of fertility, in her right.
MEDMA ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN ROSARNO
Numerous ancient objects from Medma are on display in the archeological museum in Reggio Calabria, and in 2014 the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Medma-Rosarno opened in the city of Rosarno, which is in the Province of Reggio Calabria less than an hour’s drive north of Reggio. More information can be found on the Museo Medma’s Facebook page.
