Pythagoras, driven out of Croton, took refuge in Metapontum and died here: the Greek city that stood on this plain was one of the centres of Magna Graecia's culture, and its remains lie around the museum. Inside are gathered some two thousand objects telling the story of the territory from prehistory to late antiquity.
What to see
There are Italiote vases and ceramics imported from Greece, some with scenes of the Iliad and the Odyssey painted on their sides, coins, votive terracottas, weapons and grave goods. The route is arranged by phases and lets you follow the meeting between the Greek colonists and the peoples who lived in these lands before they arrived.
The museum also gathers the material from the Incoronata and the area of Pisticci, that is from the settlements around the colony. A few kilometres away stand the Tavole Palatine, the columns of a temple in the middle of the fields, and the archaeological park with the theatre and the city's foundations.
Visiting
The museum is at Metaponto, commune of Bernalda, in the province of Matera, near the Ionian coast; paid ticket, often combined with the archaeological park, with a weekly closing day. An hour and a half.
Our editors' tip
Do museum, park and Tavole Palatine on the same day, and finish with the columns at sunset: they stand among the fields, with no monumental fencing around them, and the low light picks out the flutes. Then remember that western thought about numbers was born on this plain, which today is all vegetables and greenhouses.