Archaeological Civic Museum of Bologna

About

The Archaeological Civic Museum of Bologna (Italian: Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna) is located in the fifteenth-century Palazzo Galvani building at Via dell'Archiginnasio 2 postal code 40124 Bologna, once known as the Hospital of Death. Founded in September 1881 by the merging of two separate museums: the one belonging to the University of Bologna – heir of the Room of Antiquity belonging to the Academy of Sciences founded by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili in (1714) – and that belonging to the City of Bologna (enriched by the antique collection of Artist Pelagio Palagi (1860) and the large amount of finds from excavations conducted in and around Bologna during these times. This museum is among the most important in archeological finds in Italy and is highly representative of the local history from prehistoric period to Roman Age. Additionally, its ancient Egyptian collection is among the most important in Europe. Between 1972 and 2012 the Museum has housed over 150 exhibitions with focus on archeology but also on arts. Out on exposition are materials from the Lower Paleolithic Age (almost 700,000 years ago) until the Late Bronze Age (10th century B.C.). The Paleolithic times are documented by items made of flint and chert: bi-facial choppers, points, scrapers, and cores. However, items representing the Mesolithic Age (11,000 years ago) and Neolithic Age (4,500 to 3,000 years ago), are more scarce. With the Bronze Age, finds became more frequent as testified by the numerous ceramic containers, tools made of bone, horn and metal, discovered, together with the casting moulds, in the big villages on the plain during the early half of the second millennium BC. The section is completed by prehistoric materials coming from Italy, Europe, and beyond. This section of the museum displays material from diggings from the 19th and mid 20th centuries done within the Bolognese area and deals with the reconstruction of the development of the ancient settlement of the Etruscan civilization from its origins (9th century B.C.) to the founding of the city of Felsina (the settlement of Bologna during Etruscan times) between the middle of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. The oldest phases of the Etruscan Bologna (Villanovan and Orientalising, from the 9th to the middle of the 6th century B.C.) are illustrated by the vast selection from the approximately 4,000 tomb kits discovered: vases characterised by a bi-conical form (for the deposition of the ashes of the dead), objects for personal use and bronze tools, pottery and bronze vases. Among the many pieces on display one may find: the Benacci askos, a very rare vase typology used to contain the oil for the lanterns and the "closet of Saint Frances" i.e. the deposit of a foundry made of a big vase (dolium) containing more than 14,000 bronze pieces. The urban phase of Felsina (mid 6th century B.C. - beginning of the 4th century B.C.) is primarily represented by tomb kits. Some standouts are the "Tomba grande" (Great Tomb) and the "Tomba dello sgabello" (Tomb of the footstool) coming from the rich necropolis of Giardini Margherita. They include some fine vases from Greece for drinking wine, others were luxury goods like a large candle holder or a seat made of ivory. Worth mentioning is also the "Certosa's Situla", a refined bronze container decorated with scenes of military, civic, and religious life. A room is dedicated to the Villanovan culture of Verucchio (the main site of Romagna of the first Iron Age) where a prince tomb is on display characterised by small tables for offerings, china, a throne with a wooden footrest, all perfectly preserved.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.