Ostuni

Museum of Preclassical Civilizations of Southern Murgia

Museum of Preclassical Civilizations of Southern Murgia

The Museum of Preclassical Civilizations of Southern Murgia is located in the former Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, with the annexed church of San Vito Martire. Its collection includes important archaeological findings from the Ostuni area that take us from prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages. The focus of museum is the section devoted to the important discoveries made at the Santa Maria d’Agnano cave located a few kilometers from Ostuni. The prehistoric section also presents the casts from the two Paleolithic tombs: Ostuni 1, known by most people as the Woman of Ostuni, who lived about 26,000 years before Christ, a young woman about twenty years old who carried the fetus of a small unborn child; and Ostuni 2. On display inside the Museum are the original remains of the young woman and the grave goods accompanying the burials, including the beautiful headgear made from a large number of shells. The museum itinerary ends with a suggestive diorama that reconstructs the cave and burial of the Woman of Ostuni.

Santa Maria d’Agnano Archaeological Park

Santa Maria d’Agnano Archaeological Park

The cave at the Santa Maria d’Agnano site, located about two kilometers from the town of Ostuni amid a grove of centuries-old olive trees, is evidence of how for about 30,000 years the cavern was the home of rites and cults devoted to a female image. The ancient rituals dedicated to the goddess Demeter were carried out in it until the veneration of an icon of the Virgin Mary dating back to the 1500s. Inside the cave, which is reached by means of beautiful nature trail, there is the plaster cast of Ostuni 1, the Paleolithic pregnant woman with her small fetus, as well as the cast of a hunter dating back to approximately 30,000 years ago.