Museo sannitico

Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Ente/Istituzione

Category:

Archaeology museums

The Museum was founded in 1881 and it is situated, together with the Provincial Library, in the Palace of the Prefecture.

A first cataloging of the material was carried out by the archaeologist Antonio Sogliano who published the Inventory in 1889. Since then, the Museum and the Library have experienced alternate events and have changed different of offices until 1995, when the Museum was set up in the premises of the eighteenth-century Palazzo Mazzarotta, in the historic centre of Campobasso.

The collections count in both the original nineteenth-century provincial collection and the discoveries that look place during modern archaeological excavations in the Province of Campobasso. The permanent exhibition is articulated according to a chronological and thematic principle.

On the ground floor the Bronze Age and Iron Age, with the emerging and the consolidation of the warrior aristocracies: particularly important are the arms of the Bronze Age and the iron amber jewels of the Iron Age.

On the first floor the Sannites, their sanctuaries, their trades, their tombs: to note a rich collection of Hercules votive statues, terracotta ornaments coming from sanctuaries and some votive treasures.

On the second floor, the romanization of the Sannio, with materials coming from the Roman city of Sepino: of particular interest are the marble sculptures and many small objects of everyday life, such as keys, elements of female toilets and bronze furnishings.

Always on the second floor the high Middle Ages are represented by the rich tombs of Bulgari knights found in the Plain of Bojano: among them the complete reconstruction of the tomb of a warrior and his horse with rich silver harnessas; in the appendix a short section with medium medieval materials, in particular ceramics.