NIhK supports research on burial customs in southern Italy

Since 2009, the Department of Classical Archaeology at the University of Basel has been carrying out extensive excavations in the necropolis of "Macchiabate" near Francavilla Marittima (province of Cosenza in Calabria) under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Martin A. Guggisberg. The researchproject, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), was supported by the NIhK for the first time this year. In the rooms of the Museo Nationale Archeologico della Sibaritide, organic layers preserved on the grave goods of two particularly richly furnished tombs were examined and documented by Christina Peek in close cooperation with restorers from various institutions in Switzerland. This not only provided valuable information on the way metal jewellery and weapons were worn, but also important information on the equipment of the dead that did not directly belong to their clothing.