Museo di civiltà preclassiche della Murgia meridionale, Archaeological museum in Ostuni, Italy.
The Museo di civiltà preclassiche della Murgia meridionale is housed in the former Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, with the adjoining church of San Vito Martire. Its rooms display prehistoric and Messapian finds from the Ostuni area and the wider southern Murgia, including the cast of the Ostuni 1 skeleton, a woman who died in childbirth around 27,000 years ago, with a shell headdress and bracelets.
The museum opened in 1989 in the former Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi. The building underwent renovation to better display the collections and improve visitor access.
The collection displays Messapian burial goods, stone tools, and decorated pottery from various local excavation sites. These objects reflect daily practices and craft techniques that persisted for thousands of years across southern Murgia.
The rooms are designed for all visitors and the museum offers guided tours with certified guides. It helps to allow time for a thorough visit to explore all exhibition areas at a comfortable pace.
The skeleton known as Ostuni 1 belonged to a woman of about 20 who died in childbirth, a fetus still inside her. Her grave goods included a headdress of roughly 600 Cyclope neritea shells mixed with red ochre, and a right bracelet of pierced shells including a deer canine.
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