Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tuscania

The Tuscania National Archaeological Museum presents Etruscan funerary finds from the city's necropoleis in a Renaissance Franciscan convent. Its collection includes nenfro sarcophagi, bronzes and grave goods associated with the Curunas and Vipinana families.

Why it matters

The museum occupies a Franciscan convent founded in 1247 beside the church of Santa Maria del Riposo, rebuilt in Renaissance forms between 1495 and 1522. The convent served until 1875; the municipality assigned the building to the museum in 1970. The first section opened in 1988, with the upper floor following in 1997. Much of the collection comes from tombs discovered intact or nearly so, providing a view of aristocratic funerary practices from the fourth to second centuries BC.

What to notice

Funerary complexes associated with the Curunas and Vipinana families were recovered from the necropoleis of Madonna dell'Olivo and Carcarello. Sarcophagi carved from nenfro, a local volcanic stone, show the deceased reclining as if at a banquet. The collections also include Faliscan, Caeretan, Vulcian and local ceramics, figured bronze mirrors, ornaments and bronze banquet vessels. The Amazon Sarcophagus from Madonna dell'Olivo bears Amazonomachy scenes on three sides and an animal combat on the fourth. Other works include a Vipinana sarcophagus, a house-shaped cippus from Pian di Mola and a felid roof ornament from a porticoed tomb.

Material from the necropoleis of Pian di Mola, Ara del Tufo and Le Scalette spans the eighth century BC through the Roman period. Architectural elements from the columned portico tomb at Pian di Mola illustrate Etruscan funerary architecture. The convent's Renaissance cloister includes forty-eight lunettes painted with scenes from the life of Francis of Assisi, dated to the seventeenth century.

Context and history

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Tuscanian archaeologist Vincenzo Campanari obtained papal permission to excavate and divide finds. He reconstructed the Vipinana tomb in his garden and arranged the sarcophagi according to their original context. The municipality describes Campanari's display as an early Etruscan museum. The modern museum inherited this emphasis on archaeological context. Restoration of the convent prepared the building for the present collections.