The Museo storico-archeologico dell'Università del Salento (MUSA) is a university museum in Lecce, in the area between Porta Napoli and the Belloluogo park, with a route that covers various historical periods and geographical areas and gives an overview of the results of the archaeological research carried out by the University in the Mediterranean basin.
What to see
The museum covers about 500 square metres, divided into five rooms, and presents over 400 finds from the University's excavations, alongside reproductions of archaeological contexts in the form of models, casts, virtual and multimedia reconstructions. Room I, devoted to research resources and methods, has an illuminated totem, three multimedia stations on the development of research in Archaeology and Ancient History at Lecce and two large screens, and recalls the contribution of Professors Giuseppe Nenci, Dinu Adamesteanu and Giuliano Cremonesi. Room II is devoted to the prehistory and protohistory of Salento, with finds from the Grotta delle Veneri at Parabita, from Sant'Anna near Oria, from the Grotta Cappuccini at Galatone, from Roca and from Torre Guaceto, and information on daily life from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age. Room III is devoted to the Messapians, with finds from Otranto, San Vito dei Normanni, Muro Leccese and Oria and a section on Messapian-age coinage. Room IV displays finds of the Roman and late antique age from Brindisi, Vaste and Giurdignano and has a medieval section divided into the early Middle Ages, the Normans, Swabians and Angevins, and the end of the Middle Ages, with finds from Otranto, Giuggianello, Martano and Muro Leccese. The last room illustrates the archaeological missions and investigations carried out in various regions of Italy and abroad.
The museum opened to the public in June 2007 and is the result of the Coordinated Plan of the Universities of Catania and Lecce, funded by the Ministry of University and Research and by the European Union through the National Operational Programmes. It is on the Studium 2000 university campus, on via di Valesio, at the corner of viale San Nicola. It offers permanent and temporary exhibitions, popular lectures, educational workshops and guided visits, for schools and for a wider public, and promotes an inclusive approach to cultural heritage, with accessible educational and informational materials.
Visiting
The museum is on the Studium 2000 campus, on via di Valesio, at the corner of viale San Nicola, in Lecce. The sources consulted give neither hours nor tickets: these should be checked on the official website of the University of Salento (unisalento.it).
Our editors' tip
In the last room look at the Tabula Peutingeriana reproduced on the walls and the satellite map of the Mediterranean on the illuminated totem: they show where the University's excavations are, from Hierapolis, in Turkey, to Tas Silg, in Malta, and on to Soknopaiou Nesos, in Egypt, and Khartoum, in Sudan.
