The Pulo di Molfetta continues to surprise. An ancient idol dating back to the Neolithic was discovered in the ancient archaeological site in Puglia
From the Pulo di Molfetta, an ancient archaeological site in the province of Bari, comes the news of a new important discovery. It is a statue dating back to the Neolithic, an idoletto linked to the earth.
During some works carried out inside the Pulo di Molfetta which dates back to the XNUMXth and XNUMXth millennium BC, a team of archeologists found themselves faced with what to an inexperienced eye might have seemed a simple stone on which a sort of face was carved.
A small sculpture that the archaeologists of Molfetta Alessia Amato and Nicola de Pinto, coordinated by Anna Maria Tunzi, immediately understood to be of great importance. It is in fact a Neolithic stone idol, a limestone pebble representing a divinity linked to the earth.
In fact, anthropomorphic features are distinguished on the stone. On the back, an engraving with a zigzag pattern allowed to place the object in the right time. It would date back to the middle and final phase of the Neolithic (VI - V millennium BC).
A particular and unique find especially for the fact that it could be one of the oldest in Puglia but also in the world and considering that it is a rare stone sculpture (at the time it was preferred to sculpt on terracotta or animal bones).
According to the hypotheses of the experts, the idolet could perhaps come from the funerary sphere but, to better discover its origins and its history, an analysis is currently underway at the Superintendency.
The find is now on display in the deposits of Palazzo Simi, in Bari, but will soon return "home" to the Archaeological Museum of Pulo in Molfetta which, as the mayor of the Apulian city Minervini underlined: "continues to surprise with traces of history which is still able to tell “.
Source: Municipality of Molfetta
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