Museo Archeologico Nazionale

The museum is housed in a surviving wing of the ex-nunnery of Sant' Agata and includes the site of the Roman theatre.

Pre-Roman Exhibits

Spoleto

Piazza d’ Armi 

A tomb (7th century BC) containing bronze grave goods was discovered in Piazza d’ Armi (north of the railway line - see "Around Spoleto") in 1982. 

A bronze tray on a tripod (7th century BC) that would have been used in ritual banquets was found in a ditch grave here in 1989.

Another five tombs were excavated in 2004-5, three of which still contained grave goods. 

Colle Sant' Elia

These finds were made during the restoration of the Rocca in 1983-6.  

  • A number of small bronze votive statues are evidence of one or more sanctuaries here that were in use in the 6th and 5th century BC.
  • An antefix and clay votive offerings that are evidence of one or more sanctuaries here that were in use in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

San Pietro

[More]

Monteleone di Spoleto 

Colle del Capitano

In 1902, a farmer called Isidoro Vannozzi discovered a grave (6th century BC) with rich grave goods under a field of his farm on Colle del Capitano, outside Monteleone di Spoleto.  The grave goods, which included an amazing ceremonial chariot, found their way into the possession of the American banker, John Pierpont Morgan and appeared in the Metropolitan Museum, New York in 1903.  The murky circumstances have recently been described in  "La Biga Rapita" (The Stolen Chariot) by Mario La Ferla.  (The Vannozzi family still own the farm, which offers accommodation: Agriturismo Colle del Capitano).

This led to further excavations in 1907, when 44 tombs (9th - 6th centuries BC) were excavated.  They probably belonged to a community that was dispersed along the Nera Valley and that used a series of hill forts in the region, principally that  on Colle del Capitano. The earliest graves were cremation tombs, but those from the 6th century were sites of inhumation.  The associated grave goods were sent to the Museo Archeologico, Florence.

An opportunity for further excavation arose in the late 1970s when some of the farm buildings were demolished.  A further 26 tombs (20 cremation tombs and 6 inhumation tombs) came to light during this and subsequent campaigns.  From this work, it became clear that the necropolis had in fact been in use mainly for cremations since the 12th century BC, with a period of interruption in the 7th century followed by the emergence of mainly inhumation tombs on the site in the 6th century.  [Grave goods from these later excavations in the museum ?]

Forma Cavaliera

 
 

A number of casual finds over the centuries pointed to the existence of a pre-Roman sanctuary at Forma Cavaliera, Ruscio, near Monteleone di Spoleto.  A number of votive offerings  found during systematic excavation in 1998-9 are displayed in the museum.

The sanctuary was on the slope of a hill near a stream and might have been associated with the worship of water.   It seems to have been in use from the 7th to the 3rd century BC.









Santa Scolastica di Norcia

A vast necropolis found was found in the late 19th century on the Plain of Santa Scolastica, Norcia.  It was in use from the Iron Age to Roman times.  A large number of votive bronzes indicate that there was a sanctuary (5th century BC) nearby.

  • The grave goods include black painted pottery (4th - 1st centuries BC) from chamber tombs.
  • In one of the later tombs (2nd century BC), which was made up of several chambers and had been used for three burials, a large number of fragments were found from the decoration of a carved bone burial couch.

Roman Exhibits

Cippi of the Lex Spoletina (ca. 240 BC)

 

 Front of Tablet A 
Image © William P. Thayer

These two cippi contain inscriptions forbid the desecration of the sacred woods between Castel San Giovanni and Castel Ritaldi (between Spoleto and Trevi) that were consecrated to Jove. 

The cippi were found respectively:

  • near the church of San Quirico, Castel San Giovanni, in 1879 (Tablet A); and

  • near the church of San Stefano at Picciche, near Trevi in 1913 (Tablet B).

The cippi were written in archaic Latin, presumably at the behest of the authorities in the new Roman colony of Spoletium.  They banned anyone from cutting wood in the forest except for sacrifice on the day of the annual festival.  Anyone violating the law was required to sacrifice an ox to Jove and pay a fine of 300 asses.  Thus the Romans honoured a sacred tradition that probably stretched back into antiquity.

Head of a goddess (2nd century BC)

This lovely marble head was discovered at Arrone (some 30 km south of Spoleto) in the late 19th century.  It probably came from a full-length statue that stood outside a sanctuary.

Inscription (2nd century BC)

This inscription [which was found when? where?] records a dedication of something (perhaps a statue or an altar) to Minerva by four officials of the guild of fullers:

  • Caius Evulus Stazius;

  • Publius Oppius Filonicus;

  • Lucius Magnus Alaucus; and

  • Panfilus di Turpilius.

Inscription (1st century BC)

Bishop Paolo Sanvitale moved this inscription [CIL XI, 4813] from the crypt of San Gregorio Maggiore to the Palazzo Comunale in 1591.  It records a dedication by four officials of the guild of “Scabillares”: these were musicians who accompanied themselves on the scabillium, a pair of hinged wooden plates attached to their sandals that they used to beat time.  The dedication was to their patron, the Quattuorviro Marcus Settimius Settimianus and it probably came from the base of a statue that they had erected in his honour.

Marble busts (1st century AD)

  

These busts, which probably portray Julius Caesar and the young Emperor Augustus, were found during the excavations of the Roman theatre in 1954-60.

Inscribed gravestone (312 AD) 

Until 1854, this gravestone served as a cover for the sarcophagus of St Abbondanza (the virgin) the crypt of San Gregorio Maggiore. 

D(is) M(anibus) / Florio Baudioni viro ducenario / protectori ex ordinario leg(ionis) II Ital(icae) / Divit(ensium) vix(it) an(nis) XL mil(itavit) an(nos) XXV Val(erius) Vario optio leg(ionis) II Italic(a)e Divit(ensium) / parenti karissimo / m(emoriam) f(aciendam) c(uravit).



It commemorates Florio Baudioni, a soldier in the Emperor Constantine's army who died, aged 40 during Constantine's march on Rome, having spent 25 years in the army.  The gravestone was erected  by his kinsman, Valerius Vario.  Both men belonged to the  II Legione Italica Divitensium, which had its base at modern Deutz, near Cologne and [CIL IX 4787]

[See also  CIL XI 4085 (Ocriculum)

D(is) M(anibus) / Val(erius) Saturnani mil(es) / leg(ionis) II Ital(icae) qui vix(it) / an(nis) XXX mil(itavit) an(nis) XIII /5 co(ho)r(tis) VI / Val(erius) Laupicius fratri / karissimo /m(emoriam) f(aciendam) c(uravit).]

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