20/12/2013
THE MARTA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN TARANTO OPENS AGAIN
From December 22, 2013 the new halls of the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto will be reopened to the public. Visiting hours 8:30 to 19:30 (ticket office closes at 19.00). The new exhibition sections are dedicated to the city in Roman period, Late Antiquity and early Middle Ages, down to the Byzantine re-foundation in the 11th century A.D.
In addition to the rooms already open to the public, now integrated with the display of new finds (funerary monuments, figured vases, mosaics, frescoes, furnishing items), the new halls are devoted to the evidence of the rich Taranto productions and imports in the Roman time, including various finds from the urban necropolis, from Q. Fabius Maximus’ conquest in 209 B.C. to the 3rd century A.D. Outstanding finds on display include amazing jewellery, embellished with coloured glass and stones, polychrome terracottas still in the Greek tradition, bone and ivory artworks, and imported coloured glass characterizing the cremation burials of the imperial age. Moreover the exceptionally elegant fragments from a marble sarcophagus with scenes of assault to the ships are on display.
The section dedicated to the city from Late Antiquity to Byzantine age offers a wide documentation of mosaic floors from public and private buildings, featuring polychrome geometrical and figured motifs, and materials from recent stratigraphic excavations (Villa Peripato, Palazzo delli Ponti, Cathedral of St. Cataldo), which provided fundamental data for the reconstruction of the town in those chronological phases. The last hall shows also Jewish, Christian and Muslim funerary inscription, documenting the presence in Taranto of people from different cultures and religions between the 4th and 11th century A.D.
The section devoted to the history of the museum has been completely renovated, with the reconstruction of old exhibition contexts, dating to the period of Q. Quagliati and C. Drago, and the display of materials purchased or donated to the museum from the late 1800s to present. These finds include figured vases (both imported and locally produced), stolen from the archaeological sites in the Apulian territory, merged into foreign museums and today returned to the MARTA for public fruition.
Moreover the paintings donated by Monsignor Ricciardi to the Museum in the early 1900s received a new exhibition arrangement in an area at the mezzanine floor facing Room IX.
At the same time the additional services are entrusted to Novamusa s.r.l. Ticket booking by phone at 099.4538639 or e-mail [email protected].
