The National Archaeological Museum of the Sibaritide preserves and promotes the finds from the archaeological area of Sybaris–Thurii–Copiae and, more broadly, from the entire territory of the Sibaritide. The museum displays numerous artefacts that recount the evolution of this region over the centuries and through which it is possible to reconstruct many aspects of the social, economic, and cultural life of the peoples who inhabited this area in antiquity.

The earliest materials belong to the indigenous communities that populated the Sibaritide before the arrival of Greek colonists, starting from the 2nd millennium BC. The Greeks came into contact with these communities at the end of the 8th century BC, when they set out from Achaea, in the northern Peloponnese, and landed on the Ionian coast to found Sybaris. In just two centuries of existence, Sybaris became one of the most important centers of Magna Graecia and the Mediterranean, renowned for its wealth and refinement.

After its violent destruction, a new Greek-founded city arose on its ruins, called Thurii. During the 5th and 4th centuries BC, Thurii established intense economic and cultural relations with the surrounding indigenous settlements, inhabited by the Brettii. With the beginning of the 2nd century BC, the arrival of Rome in Magna Graecia marked a new historical phase: Thurii was transformed into the Roman colony of Copiae, entering the political, military, and economic orbit of the city of Rome and its empire.

Visiting the museum therefore means embarking on a journey through the history of the Sibaritide, a land that bears witness to the continuous encounter between different civilizations, following an itinerary that spans centuries upon centuries of history.