Key to Umbria: Perugia

This series of rooms on the right at the end of the corridor through the Prehistoric and Bronze Age Collection, which was originally part of the dormitory of the convent, now houses a collection of artefacts from the most important cities of Roman Umbria.

The description below pre-dates a re-organisation of this part of the museum: none of these exhibits were exhibited here during my visit in June 2017. Some have been relocated and others are (hopefully temporarily) no longer exhibited.

Bettona

Inscriptions of the Sexti Valerii (early 1st century AD)

The inscribed plinth of a funerary monument that commemorated two members of the member of the Sexti Valerii family was found n Via della Sorgente, Bettona in 1996 and is now in the Museo Archeologico, Perugia. Each of the commemorative inscriptions inscriptions recorded that the decurioni (magistrates of the municipium) had paid for the funeral.

✴The first inscription (AE 1996 635a) commemorates Sextus Valerius Capitoni, son of Sextus, who had been: a military tribune; pontifex (municipal priest of the imperial cult); and aedile.
✴The second inscription (AE 1996, 635b) reads:

SEX. VALERIO SEX. F. CLV.

PROCVLO

IIVIRO PONTIFICI

PR. ETRVRIAE

FVNVS ET LOCVS SEPVLTV

RAE D.D. PVBLIC. DATVS

It commemorates Sextus Valerius Proculus, son of Sextus, who had been: duovir; pontifex (municipal priest of the imperial cult); and praetor Etruriae.

Bevagna

Architectural Terracottas (2nd century BC)

These reliefs, which were found in 2005 at the sanctuary at the Laghetto dell’ Aisillo, to the north of Bevagna, attest to its monumentalisation in the 2nd century BC.

Grave goods from Pilone di Bevagna (ca. 100 AD)

Some 200 tombs have been excavated at Pilone, just south of Bevagna (see Walk II, Bevagna), on either side of the Via Flaminia. They seem to have formed part of the main necropolis of Roman Mevania. The grave goods exhibited here, from Tomb 10, which was conspicuous for the quality of the grave goods that it contained. Among them was this lidded earthenware funerary jar and a number of oil lamps, including the anthropomorphic example illustrated here.

Carsulae

Portrait Busts (1st century AD)

These apparently undocumented marble busts portray

✴a young woman; and
✴a man crowned with laurels, who also sports a veil.

Città di Castello

Tabula Tifernas Tiberina (19 AD)

This large fragment of an inscriptions (AE 2012, 0467) on bronze (showcase 3a), which is dated to the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, was discovered in 1966 at Cà Spada, outside Città di Castello. It records the Senate’s debate about the appropriate funerary honours for Germanicus, the adopted son and favourite of the Emperor Augustus. He had been a fine soldier who had successfully led the Roman army in what is now Germany in 9 AD. Augustus had died in 14 AD and Germanicus had been killed in what is now Syria four years later, in circumstances that caused suspicion to fall on his uncle, Tiberius. Perhaps in order to dispel these suspicions, Tiberius features prominently in the discussion. The most important decision recorded is for the erection at public expense of a commemorative arch in the Circus Flaminius in Rome, near monuments to Augustus and to other members of the imperial family.

This fragment is complimented by a similar inscription, the Tabula Siarensis, which was discovered near Seville in 1982, so that some of the lacunae in each of them can be filled by the other.

Gubbio

Grave Goods from Via Perugina (1st century AD)

These grave goods in showcase 3 came from Tomb 6 of the small necropolis at Via Perugina (see Walk II), near the confluence of the Camignano and Cavarello torrents. They include:

✴a glass funerary urn; and
✴an ink pot made up of a glass inner part and a gilded silver outer cover.

Grave Goods from Via Vittorina (1st and 2nd centuries AD)

Some of the grave goods in showcase 3 came from a grave in the Vittorina necropolis, which was discovered in 1980 during earthworks for the construction of the new headquarters of a cement company, Collacem Spa (60 Viale Vittorina - see Walk II). Excavations in 1980-2 uncovered some 237 tombs, mostly from the period 1st century BC - 2nd century AD. Other finds from these excavations are exhibited in the Antiquarium, Gubbio.

The grave goods exhibited here, which came from Tomb 221 in the main part of the necropolis, include:

✴an oil lamp made by the workshop of Lucius Caius Caerius;
✴bone needles and a glass bead from a necklace;
✴three Roman coins:
•a bronze “quadrans” (coins, literally quarters), possibly from the year of the consul C. Cassius Longinus (126 BC), with a head of Hercules on the front and the prow of a ship on the back;
•a bronze “as” (small coin), with the head of the Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) on the front and a personification of Rome with a prisoner on the back; and
•an “aes” (bronze cast coin), probably from the period of the Emperor Trajan; and
✴a “lagoena” (vase) with anthropomorphic neck (ca. 200 AD), which was decorated with circus scenes (illustrated here).