Museo Archeologico
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Giuseppe Sordini established the original Museo Archeologico in Palazzo della Signoria in 1910. In 1985, it was moved to a surviving wing of the ex-nunnery of Sant’ Agata, on the site of the Roman theatre.
Pre-Roman Spoleto
Finds from Colle Sant' Elia, Spoleto
A number of artefacts from the site of the Rocca di Albornoz, many of which were found during its restoration in 1983-6, reveal that it had been inhabited from a very early date. These include:
ceramic fragments that date from the middle of the Bronze Age (17th century BC) to the time of the Umbri (7th - 5th centuries BC);
in particular, a two-handled urn (11th century BC), which was found almost in tact in 2007, is decorated with the heads of birds [made of bronze ?]; and
a number of small bronze votive statues that provide evidence of one or more sanctuaries here that were in use in the 6th and 5th centuries BC.
Grave Goods from Piazza d’ Armi, Spoleto (7th century BC)

These exhibits came from three successive excavations of the ancient necropolis in Piazza d’ Armi, to the north of the city (see Walk IV):
A tomb containing bronze grave goods was discovered in 1982.
A bronze tray on a tripod that would have been used in ritual banquets was found in a ditch grave in 1989.
Another five tombs were excavated in 2004-5, three of which still contained grave goods:
The reconstruction illustrated here represents a female grave (Tomb 5).
Another female grave (Tomb 6) contained very interesting grave goods, including artefacts used in weaving.
A further 11 tombs were discovered in this area in 2008-9, and there was an article in the paper during my visit in May 2011 that reported the discovery of yet another 30 during the excavations for the construction of a residential complex.
Pre-Roman finds from Outside Spoleto
Grave Goods from Monteleone di Spoleto (6th century BC)
In 1902, a farmer called Isidoro Vannozzi discovered a grave under a field of his farm on Colle del Capitano, outside Monteleone di Spoleto. It contained rich grave goods that included a celebrated ceremonial chariot that is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Subsequent excavations of the area have revealed an extensive necropolis that probably belonged to a community that was dispersed along the Nera Valley and that used a series of hill forts in the region, the most important of which was on Colle del Capitano. 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. These excavations occurred in two phases:
44 tombs (12th - 6th centuries BC) were found during excavations in 1907, and 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. Grave goods from this phase are mainly in the here. A smaller number are exhibited in the Museo Archeologico, Perugia.
[Describe the exhibits in the museum]
Votive Offerings from Forma Cavaliera (7th - 3rd century BC)
  
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. The sanctuary was on the slope of a hill near a stream and might have been associated with the worship of water. A number of votive offerings found during systematic excavation in 1998-9 are displayed in the museum.
Grave Goods from Plestia (6th century BC)
These grave goods from the necropolis at Plestia (near modern Colfiorito) include three decorated laminated bronze discs.
Finds from the Santa Scolastica di Norcia Necropolis
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 (in restoration at January 2009).
Inscription (late 3rd century BC)

A display in the museum describes this inscription, which is on fragments from a bronze helmet that was discovered in a tomb in the Benacci-Caprara necropolis, Bologna. The inscription, which is written in the South Picene language of the Sabines, reads “erimínú spolítiú”. The precise meaning is unclear, but the second word must refer to Spoletium: this is the oldest surviving reference to the city.
The helmet is now in the Museo Archeologico, Bologna. The site “Antiqui” puts this inscription in its “South Picene” context: search on “Bologna”. The inscription is also described on this site in the page on Italic Inscriptions after 295BC.
Roman Spoletium
Cippi of the Lex Spoletina (ca. 240 BC)
 
Giuseppe Sordini found these cippi on two separate occasions in locations between Spoleto and Trevi some 5 km apart:
Tablet A was found in 1879 on Colle di San Quirico, between Castel San Giovanni and Castel Ritaldi; and
Tablet B was found in 1913, embedded in the facade of the church of Santo Stefano in Picciche.
The inscriptions were written in archaic Latin, presumably at the behest of the authorities in the new Roman colony of Spoletium, and bear nearly identical texts (CIL XI 4766):
Honcho loucom, nequis violatod, neque exvehito, neque exferto, quod loucu siet neque cedito nesei quo die res devina anua fiet.
Eod died quod rei dinai causa fiat sine dolo cedre licetod.
Seiquis violasit Iove bovid piaclum datod.
Seisquis scies violasid dolo malo Iovei bovid piaclum datod et A.CCC moltaí suntod.
Eius piacli moltaique diactorei exactio estod.
This has been translated: “Let no-one profane this sacred wood, or remove anything that belongs to it, or cut wood if it is not the day of the annual sacrifice. If it is the day of that sacrifice, it is legal to cut what is needed for the sacrifice. Anyone who violates (the law) must sacrifice an ox to Jove. Anyone who knowingly and willfully violates (the law) must sacrifice an ox to Jove and pay a fine of three hundred ‘asses’ (small bronze coins). Let the collection of that fine pertain to the “dicator” (magistrate)”.
The inscription is of great interest in relation to both archaic Latin script and to Roman law. It clearly relates to a sacred wood (which was probably in the region in which the cippi were found. There is a copy of one of the cippi in the woods on Monteluco (see Walk IV), probably because the name of the mountain derives from the Latin “lucus” (sacred grove).
These inscriptions are also described on the page Latin Inscriptions after 295 BC.
Temples on Colle Sant' Elia (3rd and 2nd centuries BC)
A number of artefacts found on the site of the Rocca di Albornoz suggest that this was the site of the Arx (acropolis) of the Roman colony:
A number of antefixes and clay votive offerings provide evidence of one or more temples here that were in use in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.
One of these fragments came from an antefix (3rd or 2nd century BC) representing “Potnia Theron” (Artemis as Mistress of the Animals), in which the goddess is flanked by rampant panthers.
A display in the museum describes an inscribed stone cippus that seems to date to the early decades of the Roman colony . The Latin inscription reads “SATURNO SACRO” (sacred to Saturn ). The cippus was found embedded in the wall around the Rocca and would originally have been placed in the ground to mark the limit of the area dedicated to the God. This suggests that the colonists built a temple to Saturn on the lower slopes of Colle Sant' Elia.
This inscription (1st century AD), which is on the base of a statue, commemorates Gaius Oppius, a friend of Julius Caesar. It is likely that the statues of a number of similarly famous men were erected in front of the Roman temples here.
Antefixes from San Nicolò (3rd and 2nd centuries BC)
Finds from San Nicolò include ceramic fragments and terracotta antefixes from a temple. The latter include:
decorative elements from a frieze;
a fragment from an antefix representing “Potnia Theron”, similar to that found at the Rocca (see above); and
a fragment of a young man.
Head of a goddess (2nd century BC)
This is a copy of a lovely marble head was discovered at the foot of Monte di Arrone (some 30 km south of Spoleto) in the late 19th century. (Be patient - the link is slow to open. Search on “santuario”). (The original is still in Arrone).
This head probably came from a full-length statue that stood outside the sanctuary, traces of which survive on the mountain.
Inscription (2nd century BC)
This inscription, which was incorporated into the campanile of the Duomo, 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 the guild of “Scabillares”: these were musicians who accompanied themselves on the scabillium, a pair of hinged wooden plates attached to their sandals, which 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.
Funerary Altar (1st century BC)
This funerary altar was found on Colle San Tommaso, north of the city.
Marble Cippi (1st century BC)
These are copies of two marble cippi that were found in 1986 in Via Reguardati, Norcia. They are decorated with reliefs of Dionysian revels. [Are the originals in the Criptoportico Romano di Porta Ascolana, Norcia ??]
Inscription (1st century BC)
In this inscription [CIL XI 2 4772], Caius Calvisius Sabinus, who is described as “Patroni”, dedicates an altar to the goddess Pietas, the personification of duty. It came from Trignano (some 8 km west of Spoleto). Caius Calvisius Sabinus was one of only two senators who tried to protect Julius Caesar from his assassins in 44BC and was consul in 39 BC.
Finds from the Roman Theatre (1st century AD)
The following artefacts were found during the excavations of the Roman theatre in 1954-60.
Reliefs from a well
These marble reliefs, which probably came from the exterior surface of a well, depict nymphs or Maenads (female followers of Dionysus) and the god Pan.
Marble busts
The bust on the left here is sometimes said to be of Julius Caesar. However, it is more likely to portray Caius Calvisius Sabinus, who is named in an inscription from Trignano (see above) as a patron of Spoleto.
The bust on the right probably represents the young Octavian (later Emperor Augustus). It is typical of the portraits that were commissioned to celebrate his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium (31 BC).
Reliefs

These fragments probably came from reliefs in niches that supported the scena (stage).
[Relief on the left?]
The relief on the right probably represented Apollo approaching the seated figure of his father, Jove.
Eros
[More]
Young woman (early 1st century AD)
This statue, which is made of Greek marble, probably represents Aura, the personification of a light breeze. The inferior quality of the workmanship on the rear of the figure suggests that it stood in a niche.
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.

The inscription (CIL IX 4787) 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.
[See also CIL XI 4085 (Ocriculum), an inscription from the same march: 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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