The museum is currently located on the ground floor of the Palazzi Papali.

Palace of Pope Urban IV

The entrance and ticket office are on the left of the palace attributed to Pope Urban IV.   The rest of this room houses a collection of Umbrian (as opposed to Etruscan) finds from the area around Orvieto. 

The door at the back of the room leads to the inner courtyard: 

1. ✴The first part of the wall on the left originally contained an open arch that was first closed in the 16th century.  [Inscription of Cardinal Simoncelli ??]. 
   

2. ✴The entrance in this wall leads to what was originally an open loggia and on into the palace attributed to Pope Nicholas IV (see below).
   

3. ✴The entrance in front of you leads to the palace attributed to Pope Martin IV (see below).  You can see two of the trifore windows of this palace from the courtyard.
   

Palace of Pope Nicholas IV

Etruscan inscription (ca. 4th century BC)

Finds from Necropolis of Crocifisso del Tufo

Many of the finds in the museum came from the most recent excavation (1982-3) of the necropolis of Crocifisso del Tufo.

Drinking horn (6th century BC)

This striking bucchero drinking horn has a human head at one end and a crouching ram at the other.  There is a similar object, apparently from Chiusi, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Inscription [date?]

[Details ??]

[Not yet copied to page on necropolis]

Palace of Pope Martin IV

Finds from Cannicella (7th-5th centuries BC)

These finds from the temple in the necropolis of Cannicella are in the square tower that is usually referred to as the chapel.  The exhibits include: 

1. ✴a fragment of a painted terracotta relief of a soldier slaying a woman (ca. 500 BC)  that represents Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles sacrificing Polyxena, Princess of Troy to placate his father’s ghost; and 
   

2. ✴a beautifully preserved antefix in the form of a polychrome female head with particularly arresting features that possibly represents the goddess Vei.
   

Finds from the Tempio del Belvedere

Sporadic finds during the construction of the Pozzo di San Patrizio in 1527-32 pointed to an important Etruscan cult site nearby.  The remains of the temple itself (now known as the the Tempio del Belvedere) were discovered during roadworks in 1828.  Excavations on the site in 1923 unearthed the floor plan and a number of column fragments.

A number of decorative elements of exceptional quality that were also uncovered suggested that the temple had been dedicated to Tinia (Greek Zeus, Roman Jove).  Their dating on stylistic grounds pointed to the rebuilding or extensive redecoration of the temple in the late 5th or early 4th century BC.

The following are in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale:

Terracotta Figures (ca. 400 BC)

A number of terracotta figures discovered on the site include:

1. ✴a splendid full length figure of a bearded God who is nonchalantly naked except for his cloak;
   

2. ✴part of a figure in armour; and
   

3. ✴part of a figure of a captive.
   

Terracotta Antefixes (ca. 400 BC)

The large number of decorative elements found on the site include these three particularly well preserved polychrome terracotta antefixes (one with a bearded male head and two with female heads).

Finds from Palazzo del Popolo

The following were found in or near the present site of Palazzo del Popolo:

Antefix (5th century BC)

Finds from Via San Leonardo (ca. 400 BC)

The finds exhibited in the museum include two hollow terracotta heads of a bearded man (probably Tinia/ Zeus).  These heads might have been modelled on Phidias' famous statue of Zeus (437 BC) at Olympia.

Golini Tombs (4th century BC)

These finds these tombs are at the far end of the room.  An archaeologist named Domenico Golini discovered them in 1863 in a hillside at Settecamini, about 3 km south of the Abbazia dei SS Severo e Martirio on the road to Porano.  They belonged to a number of aristocratic families that had probably had country estates nearby. 

Two of the tombs that were on the higher part of the hillside  were distinguished by a series of frescoes painted on their walls.  George Dennis, who visited the site in the 1870s, reported that the frescoes were already deteriorating because of damp.  They were detached in 1950 and moved to the Museo Archeologico of Florence.  They were transferred to Orvieto in 1982 and are now displayed in a space that has been designed to replicate the original tombs.

[Another painted tomb, which belonged to the Hescanus family, is at Castel Rubello, outside Porano.]

Grave Goods

Frescoes from Golini Tomb I (mid 4th century BC)

The room on the left reproduces the arrangement of the older of the two painted tombs, which was divided by a wall of rock into two interconnected rooms. 

1. ✴In the first room, the frescoes show the preparations for a feast (illustrated above).
   

2. ✴In the second room, the deceased arrives in the underworld in a chariot.  He finds a feast in progress, presided over by Hades and Persephone, and his deceased ancestors welcome him to the fold.
   

The inscriptions identify everyone from Hades and Persephone down to the individual slaves and animals, and include those of five generations of the Leinie family. 

Frescoes from Golini Tomb II (late 4th century BC)

Thr room on the right reproduces the so-called the tomb of the two chariots (named for the chariots that were depicted on each side of the entrance).  The other walls depicted scenes from a feast in the underworld.  These frescoes are in a very poor state of preservation and are largely illegible.  The inscriptions refer to two families: Cnezus on the left; and Vercnas on the right.

Reproductions of the Frescoes (1881)

The reproductions of two scenes by Adolfo Cozza that are exhibited at the entrance to the exhibit give a sense of what has been lost.

1. ✴The scene to the left reproduces the feast in the underworld that was depicted in the inner room of Golini I.  In the scene reproduced here, servants bring food to the banquet.  In another scene, Hades on the far left , who wears a wolfskin, places a hand on Persphone’s shoulder. 
   

2. ✴The scene on the right shows meat that has been butchered for the feast hanging up to await the attention of the chef.  The original, which was on the entrance wall of the outer room of Golini I, has been completely lost.
   

Finds from the Campo della Fiera

The following were found during the excavation of sanctuary at Campo della Fiera in 2008.

Inscribed Base for a Statue (ca. 500 BC)

kanuta larecenas lauteniθa aranθia pinies puia turuce

tlusχval marveθul faliaθere

Kanuta, freedwoman of the Larecena, wife of Aranth Pinie, has offered ... [this statue?]

to Tluschva

The divinity “Tluschva” is also named on the famous “Piacenza Liver”.  The translation of the fuller name given here (“tlusχval marveθul faliaθere”) is still debated among scholars. 

The bust is now in the Museo Archeologico.  This website contains more information about its inscription.

Portrait Bust(early 3rd century AD) 

It has been suggested that this is a bust of the Emperor Geta, who was murdered by his brother and co-Emperor Caracalla in 212 AD and subjected to “damnatio memoriae” (i.e. dishonoured and removed from public memory).   If this is correct, sympathisers presumably buried the bust to avoid its destruction.

The presence of this and other Roman objects in the upper levels of the excavation show that the site retained its importance after the destruction of Volsinii in 265 BC.