calabria-mediterranea:

Archeological Park of Locri, Calabria, Italy

Epizephyrian Locris was one of the most important Southern Italian colonies of Ancient Greece. An active commercial centre in the Mediterranean, the city is also remembered for its landscape and for its flourishing culture, attested by archaeological evidence.

The many sacred areas, dedicated to Demeter, to Zeus the Thunderer, and the Casa dei Leoni (House of the Lions) with the sacellum dedicated to Aphrodite, offer a vivid image of the cults practiced by the inhabitants of Locri. 

The National Archaeological Museum documents the productions of Locrian craftsmen with significant artefacts such as the pinakes (votive tablets), the terracotta offerings to the gods, the bronze mirrors and the tablets from the Archivio di Zeus Olimpio (Archive of Olympian Zeus).

Ceramic productions from different areas of the Greek and insular world are also exhibited, evidence of the intense commercial exchanges of Locri.

The exhibition is completed by architectural elements recovered from the buildings of the city.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, immediately outside the city walls, the archaelogist Paolo Orsi identifies the Persephoneion, a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Persephone, already mentioned by the historian Livy. The pinakes, small polychrome terracotta votive tablets offered by the faithful, which depict scenes linked to the myth of the goddess, come from this area.

The pinakes were manufactured by Locrian artisans during the first half of the fifth century BC, with the use of matrices (81 different ones were found), and decorated with vivid colours. Archaeologists have recovered and classified thousands, distinguishing them in ten groups according to the scene they depict.