Messapii
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Messapii
an ancient tribe that inhabited southern Italy (the southern part of present-day Apulia). In the first half of the 20th century, vessels of local manufacture with symbols of the Cretan Linear A script were discovered in Apulia. The writing on these vessels supports the opinion of Herodotus (History, VII, p. 170) and the viewpoint of V. I. Modestov (Introduction to Roman History, part 2, 1909, pp. 101 ff.) regarding the migration of the Messapii from the island of Crete in the tenth and ninth centuries B.C.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.