The National Archaeological Museum Domenico Ridola of Matera

THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM DOMENICO RIDOLA OF MATERA

The National Archaeological Museum Domenico Ridola of Matera is the oldest museum in Basilicata.
Established on February 9, 1911, by the will of senator and physician Domenico Ridola, who donated to the State his important archaeological collections, resulting from years of research and excavations, presents numerous testimonies found in the territory of the province of Matera and Murge.
The museum is housed in the premises of the seventeenth-century convent of Santa Chiara and collects materials from prehistoric times until the 3rd century BC.

The material kept in the museum is divided mainly into five different rooms. There is first of all the prehistoric section, the most typical one. Here we find materials dating back to the Palaeolithic, such as arrows, javelins and axes...,

There are also two rooms where objects from the centers located in the valleys of the two main rivers of the mater area, the Basento valley and the Bradano valley are exposed.

In a further room are exposed materials from the excavations of Matera and the surrounding area; it is mainly archaeological evidence of archaic, lucana and later roman...
From the votive stupa and the Timmari necropolis, dating from the fourth century BC, there are many terracotta votive statues and funerary kits with bronze armor and monumental red-colored vases.

Finally, in the Ridola Room, there is a display of manuscripts, documents and memorabilia showing the activity of Domenico Ridola, founder of the museum and local scholar of history and antiquity, as well as physician and senator.

source wikipedia