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Vintage photos of Rosarno, Calabria, Italy

Photos by Calabria ieri

Beautiful Women of Ancient Medma in Rosarno, Calabria, Italy

Medma, Rosarno? For most travelers to Italy, these names will not ring any bells. The former was an ancient city-state of Greater Greece and the latter is its modern-day counterpart in Calabria. Medma’s terracotta is exceptionally beautiful. You can see a few pieces in the collection of the British Museum, or visit the archeological museums in Rosarno and Reggio, and have your fill.

The terracotta figurines from Medma are particularly striking. The sculptures were fashioned from a local clay that has lent their characteristic reddish color. Medma had close ties with Locri Epizephyrii, a colony established in the 7th century BC by women from Locris in central Greece. Handsome ladies, no doubt.

MEDMA HISTORY

The Locrians founded Medma (or Mesma) in the 6th century BC. Locri lies over the mountains along Calabria’s eastern coast on the Ionian Sea and Medma is on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western shore at what would have been less than a day’s walk back in the day. The present city is called Rosarno and its center sits on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Gioia Tauro. Today, state highway 682 goes west across the peninsula from just north of Locri.

From the dimensions of the excavations of the area, Medma would have been able to accommodate over 4,000 citizens in its heyday during the Greek period. The town was mentioned by Roman writers. However, it is thought that the population eventually moved and founded nearby Nicotera some time in the 2nd century AD.

Excavations have uncovered numerous artifacts as well as structural remains of the city. Judging from the craft of the terracotta and bronze pieces discovered in the necropolis and sanctuary areas, Medma had a distinctive and sophisticated lifestyle with particular emphasis on the exaltation of beauty. Interesting to note that Locri Epizephyrii, the founding city-state, was a matriarchal society that was unique in the Greek world.

MEDMA’S LADIES

The wealth of terracotta includes many female heads and busts. These votive offerings would have been divine representations or stylized images of the donors, themselves. Various hairstyles frame the noble faces set off by classic earrings or a modest crown. What are they all thinking behind those half smiles?

The enigmatic expressions date these sculptures between the late 6th to the 5th century BC. The following terracotta figures with a rigid, frontal stance, one seated on a throne and the other standing, offer winged creatures that bring to mind the cults of Aphrodite and Persephone.

Another standing female figure from the Archaic Period balances the high cylindrical head covering of a goddess with a wreath in her left hand and a pomegranate, the symbol of fertility, in her right.

MEDMA ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN ROSARNO

Numerous ancient objects from Medma are on display in the archeological museum in Reggio Calabria, and in 2014 the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Medma-Rosarno opened in the city of Rosarno, which is in the Province of Reggio Calabria less than an hour’s drive north of Reggio. More information can be found on the Museo Medma’s Facebook page.

Written by Karen Haid

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Rosarno, Calabria, Italy

Photos by Turismo Reggio Calabria

a cura della redazione 3^ edizione: cinema, cultura e inclusione sociale dal 15 novembre al 16 dicembre 2024. Torna per il terzo anno consecutivo il “Rosarno Film festival - Fuori dal Ghetto", un evento che coinvolge 5 Comuni calabresi e 8 Comuni in altre regioni, con l'adesione di 17 associazioni e una programmazione di numerosi eventi tra proiezioni, concerti, presentazioni di libri. Il…

Rosarno (in dialetto è Rosàrni o Rusàrni) è un Comune della Città Metropolitana di Reggio Calabria, i cui Abitanti sono detti Rosarnesi o Rosarnisi. Vertice Settentrionale della Piana di Gioia Tauro, la Cittadina, confinante con la Provincia di Vibo Valentia, oltre ad essere uno snodo ferroviario ed autostradale di primaria importanza per l’intera provincia. Centro del versante tirrenico della…

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