A small family of storage jars from Matera, Puglia. Matera sits on a ridge with deep canyons to either side. At least 9,000 years ago, and earlier, humans settled in natural caves in the canyon walls, extending them until thousands of grottoes honeycombed the town. The caves make up Italy’s oldest continually inhabited dwellings, “the most outstanding example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean” - Unesco. 56 x 66 cm in antique frame.