9.25.2010

Where the good stuff is...

The Museo Nazionale, or National Museum, is located right outside the walls of the ancient city of Paestum.  Well we actually think it’s located on part of the buried city, but that’s just a technicality. 


Scenes like this one were lined across the top of the museum on display.  They were from the sanctuary to Hera.


This was a statue of Hera.  It was pretty small which made me wonder if it was on a smaller shrine or if there were more than one?


These are a pair of vases that were found in the city.  The pictures and detail are impressive.  It is also impressive that they are in such great shape over 2000 years after they were made.  They just don’t make things like they used it.


This fresco is one of the symbols of Paestum.  A lot of the content of the museum was tomb paintings they discovered when they excavated a local cemetery.  They found jewelry, pottery, and other things people got buried with in order to take with them.  The most fascinating discovery though were the paintings on the walls of the tombs.


This is a different tomb, but it gives you an idea of what the different depictions were inside the tombs.  These are some rare examples of Greek and pre-Roman pictorial art.


These lions lined the top of the Temple of Hera.  I am not sure if they were used as a sacrifice, protector, or decorative role. 


Modern art?  Along the road of tourist shops and cafes where more ruins are known to be buried, there is a stone shop that makes lawn ornaments among other things and there was Snow White staring out at me.  There are illegal Disney reproductions everywhere, but the princesses always remind me of my BFF Glo.

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