Museo e Parco archeologico "Archeoderi"

The Museum and the archaeological Park are located in the site of Bova, along the southern calabrian site that was part - during Greek age – of the calcidese colony of Rhegion (as known today as Reggio Calabria), inhabited from the prehistoric age.The Bova site’s origin can be found in the Greek age, as we can see from the “Bovesia” or “Greek area” where people still speak the ancient Greek language.The Park is located in an archaic ruined site discovered in the '80, where was believed to be a synagogue in use between IV and VI century A.D., the only sign of the Jewish presence in Calabria in this age.The synagogue is one of the most important site in the Mediterranean area and is the oldest one in the western world, after Ostia Antica. Its discovery has represented a new perspective for the history of the Jewish communities in the southern Calabria. The excavations have brought to light three different synagogue's areas: two main zones divided in several rooms and the third one that was probably the entrance of the synagogue.One of the most interesting discoveries is the Prayer’s Room, “Aula della Preghiera”. The room’s mosaic floor depicts the menorah (the traditional multi branched candelabra), surrounded by a palm branch, a cedar and the shofar (the ram’s horn) used as musical instrument during religious ceremony. In the same room was also founded the traditional architectonic niche for the Torah (the two law scrolls).The Museum displays considerable artefacts: the polychrome mosaic floor from the Prayer’s Room (IV century A.D.); the assortment of 3079 bronze coins originally retained in an ewer (IV-V century A.D.) and the road milestone founded in the Amigdalà location (364-67 d.C.) presenting two inscriptions, one remembering the Maxentius emperor and the other one Valentinian and Valence emperors.