 he Civical Archaeological Museum "U. Granafei" was founded in 1935 with a private donation, wich was part of the homonymous Popular Library.
Later, it was enriched with the find coming from other donations and from campaigns of excavation, with casual finds and with those assigned in deposit from the Archaeological Superintendence for Puglia. At present, the total patrimony of the museum amounts to around 2.500 finds, of which around 1.000 are exhibited.
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Krater of Gnathia style
(first decemniums III cent. B.C.)
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 Most of the showcases documents the material culture of the Messapic Age (VI-IV B.C.), relatively to the urban area and to that of the two Apulian villages, of "Muro Tenente" (Scamnum) and "Muro Maurizio" (Graxa), included within the precincts of the town. In the remaining showcases are displayed earthenware of the Bronze Age, finds of lithic industry, finds of the Roman Age and ceramics of the Middle Ages.
The lapidarium, made up prevalently of Latin inscriptions, evidence the importance of the Roman settlement in the ager brundisinus after the conquest (around 240 B.C.); there is a grave-slab with a Messapic inscription, coming from "Muro Tenente". Of remarkable importance is the inscription dedicated to Diovei Mourgo (Jupiter of Hills); coming from "Muro Maurizio" and datable to the end of the II century B.C., it proves the insertion of the cult of Jupiter in the Messapic tradition. One inscription is dedicated to an Augustal; another one, coming from the area of Brindisi, is dedicated to a Roman ship commander (classiarius of liburna triton). In the museum is also exhibited one miliarius (datable to 313 A.C.), of the Appian Way, which went through the modern inhabited centre. There are, besides, some fragments of Messapic and Greek inscriptions and many grindstones of Messapic Age. |
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 Most of grave kits documents the two so far more studied Messapic cemeteries in the urban area: the northern one (Amendoleto quarter) and the southern one (S. Andrea quarter). It is the typical material of the native culture (trozzellas), kraters, paterae, etc.) and few imported objects, wich prove the attic influence and this of Taranto.
Remarkable is the kit, coming from the southern necropolis, found in 1988 in an intact semichamber-tomb, datable to the Hellenistic period, reassembled ideally in three adjacent showcases. This kit consists of 33 finds, which include on big red-figured krater with high handles and big masks, one big bell krater of the Gnathia style on which a Dyonisian procession is represented, with some small kraters and small amphorae of Gnathia ware, two wine kraters (one cnidia and one rodia), numerous golden leaves of laurel of a crown or diadem. This tomb was reconstructed into one rom of the civic Castel. |
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