Tavole Palatine

[1] The temple, located near the Bradano river in the south of Italy, was part of a countryside sanctuary and remains of the wall of the temenos and of a very ancient altar are visible.

[2] The remains are located in the archaeological area of Metapontum, on the last of the Givoni, ancient sandbanks near the right bank of the river Bradano, built over the remains of a neolithic village on the prehistoric road from Siris-Heraclea, about three kilometres from the ancient city of Metapontum.

[1] The temple, restored in 1961, was initially attributed to the cult of the goddess Athena,[3] but a fragment of a vase found in the course of the 1926 archaeological excavations turned out to be a votive dedicated to the goddess Hera, showing that she was the patron of the sanctuary.

[3] In the fifth century BC, the temple had a tiled roof with multi-coloured decoration in the Ionic tradition, with leonine protomes and gargoyles.

[2] Numerous remains of terracotta decoration, statuettes and ceramics, along with smaller column fragments were found near the temple during the 1926 excavations[3] and are now kept at the Museo archeologico nazionale di Metaponto.