PERUGIA Museums and galleries - Museo Archeologico

Archeological Museum of Umbria

Housed in the former Dominican convent of San Domenico, the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell'Umbria was started by a donation from the patrician Francesco Filippo Friggeri of Perugia in 1790. The collection was enlarged in 1921 with the addition of the Bellucci Pre-historical and Palaeontological collection and in 1948 with finds from the archaeological sites of Cetona, near Siena.

The collection includes a number of Palaeolithic and Aeneolithic remains, found chiefly in Umbria, from the Bronze and Iron Ages, that date back to the inhabitants of the Apennine regions from the 16th to the 12th centuries BC.

The Etruscan archaeological remains from the area are particularly important and date back to the Villanova-period (9th - 8th centuries BC), as well as to the rich tomb gifts of the Hellenistic period: urns and sarcophagi, vases and gold objects, works in bronze and weapons.

The prime piece of the collection is the Cippo di Perugia (3rd –2nd century BC), which is the longest Etruscan inscription ever found. It is a boundary stone with a contract between the Velthina and Afuna families concerning the property of a piece of land, and includes a judiciary sentence.

The museum also displays African and ethnic pieces collected by the Perugian naturalist and explorer Orazio Antinori.

The former convent also houses the State Archives, where the library that had belonged to the Dominican convent is kept. It includes codices, some of which are illuminated, from 991 to 1851; the Annali Decemvirali (13th – 19th centuries); the Acts of the Papal Government from its establishment until 1860; and documents concerning abolished religious orders, corporations or welfare organisations.