The baboon holds a vase, an Egyptian canopus. On the top of the container there is a frog, from whose open mouth came the perfume of the ointments that were poured inside.
The one made in the Phoenician Punic necropolis of Nora , in the territory of Pula , is an extraordinary discovery: tomb number 62, the subject of recent excavations, has returned a refined and rare majolica balsamarium dating back to the end of the 7th century BC. The origin is certainly oriental: the hypothesis is that this specimen arrived from Egypt by sea, confirming the centrality of the port in the south west of the island in the ancient Mediterranean trade.
The news of the exceptional discovery, unusual for Sardinia, became known thanks to the disclosure on the specialized site Archereporter, which produced photographic and video documentation, as well as interviews with the protagonists in the field.
The tomb on which the archaeologists are working “is for cremation: it represented someone brought to collect prestigious goods from all over the Mediterranean. The two Etruscan buccheri that were part of the trousseau testify this from the same tomb, and the silver jewels, including a ring with a scarab, in this case a clear Egyptianizing imitation ”.
The baboon statuette has aroused great emotion among those involved in the excavation work: archaeologists and students of the University of Padua who "together with Genoa, the Statale di Milano and Cagliari have been committed since the 1990s to training generations of scholars", explained .
(Unioneonline / EF)
