The Ori of Taranto fly to Mexico. Among them, the tiara and scepter of a Daunian princess

Precious golds, part of the trousseau of a young Daunian woman of royal rank, housed within the collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Taranto, fly to Mexico City for the final leg of the exhibition Forms and Colors of Pre-Roman Italy. Canosa di Puglia. This exhibition is the latest event in the ambitious program The Tale of Beauty, a collaboration between the Ministry of Culture’s Directorate General for Museums and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy. The project aims to promote Italian cultural heritage abroad, having already made stops in Buenos Aires, São Paulo and, from July 12 until Sept. 29, at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City.

The exhibition, curated by Museums Director General Massimo Osanna and Luca Mercuri, was created in collaboration with the Puglia Regional Museums Directorate and the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, and aims to offer an engaging narrative of the Dauni civilization, an important Italic population that inhabited the northern area of present-day Puglia and part of Basilicata, and to represent an eloquent essay onApulian archaeology, bearing witness to the cultural exchanges and intertwining of the period.

The materials on display come from the deposits and collections of some of Puglia’s major museums, including the National Archaeological Museum in Canosa di Puglia, the National Archaeological Museum in Taranto, and the Archaeological Museum of Santa Scolastica in Bari, as well as from the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of Barletta-Andria-Trani and Foggia, and the Soprintendenza Nazionale per il patrimonio culturale subacqueo. The exhibition also includes artifacts recovered during operations to combat the clandestine trade in cultural goods, conducted by the Carabinieri Command of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit. The exhibition therefore illustrates a significant moment in the history of ancient Italy, prior to the unification brought about by Rome, focusing on the Dauni.

The gold diadem and red gold scepter from the tomb of the Ori of Canosa (late 3rd to early 2nd century B.C.), discovered by chance in 1928 in an underground funerary structure, completed the royal trousseau of a young Daunian aristocrat. The name of this young woman, Opaka Sabaleida, is engraved on a shell-shaped silver case, which, along with the rest of the trousseau, is on display in Taranto’s National Archaeological Museum. The gold and precious metal objects on display are creations of the finestworkmanship, representative ofTaranto’s goldsmith craftsmanship in the Hellenistic age. These artifacts, made by the goldsmiths of the former Spartan colony, are masterpieces destined for the emerging classes of the indigenous area of Daunia, symbols of ancient royalty and evidence of the technical and artistic mastery of the period.

“It is an honor for the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto to be part of this project,” explains MArTA director Stella Falzone, “because through these world-class exhibitions we are able to be ambassadors of the richness and history of our territory, also because in the scientific project the cultural interconnection that existed between all the ancient peoples who inhabited Apulia is clear.” “This is a great promotional opportunity for the MArTA,” the director continues, “because all the visitors who will go during this period to the National Museum of Anthropology, the most important in Mexico and with the world’s largest collection of pre-Columbian art, will also be able to appreciate up close all the craftsmanship that on the other side of the world Taranto goldsmiths were able to express between the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.”

Image: Gold diadem (late 3rd-early 2nd century B.C.) in the exhibition layout in Mexico City.

The Ori of Taranto fly to Mexico. Among them, the tiara and scepter of a Daunian princess

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