Iuvanum Archaeological Museum

Four sections, from the Neolithic to the imperial age. Among the pieces, the bronze and silver harness of an eques's horse.

The story

A modern building put up close to the acropolis houses the Iuvanum Archaeological Museum, opened in 2006. It gathers the finds made in the land of the Carecini Infernates, where — according to Pliny the Elder — ancient Iuvanum stood.

Divided into four thematic sections (“Around Iuvanum”, “The cults of the gods”, “Everyday life”, “The lapidary collection”), the museum holds tools from the Neolithic to the early Iron Age, evidence predating the birth of the Roman town, and rich assemblages from temples, tombs and houses.

These are both objects used in the worship of the gods and implements of daily life, but there is no shortage of warriors' grave goods: articles and tools in bronze, pottery and terracotta, weapons and jewellery, vessels of every kind, votive statuettes, working tools, objects for personal care, plates, cups and glass containers.

The pieces not to be missed

Among the many finds, the many objects of worship recovered from the sanctuary area on the acropolis stand out. Among the deities shown, Hercules is the most prominent, venerated by the people of Iuvanum for his links with stock-rearing and farming.

A large case is given over to a rich horse harness, in bronze with some elements plated in silver: it probably belonged to a horse of the equites, the patricians who made up the Roman cavalry and who were leading figures at Iuvanum as well.

In the Lapidarium, the last part of the display, fragments of stone from the buildings that stood on the ancient acropolis are kept: notable is a limestone fragment of the imperial age, from a small altar consecrated to Diana, to whom the reliefs on the sides, showing a deer and a goat, refer. Significant too is what remains of a limestone sarcophagus, found in 1980 in one of the burial areas of Iuvanum: dated to the 3rd century AD, it carries on its front a verse epitaph for the dead man, the young Marcus Titazius Celer.