Made between the 6^th  and 3^rd  centuries BC in Apulia and Lucania or imported from Athens, the ceramics were a prestigious part of the rich burial practices adopted by the aristocracy of Apulia.

Most of them were used to store food, liquids and unguents; they combine the practical with the exquisitely artistic, decorated as they are with figurative paintings in red or black.

 The collection’s masterpiece is the famous Attican kalpis by the Leningrad Painter (5th century BC): its frieze depicts a ceramics workshop, with craftsmen and a young woman decorating the pottery.