Rome, Villa Giulia National Museum of the Etruscans
Nectar and ambrosia. The food of the gods
The miracle of nature with the passing of the seasons, the precious gift of the fruits of the earth, the conquest of farming techniques were considered in antiquity to be under the protection of a divine entity. The Greeks gave a face and name to the deity that accompanied this development, as did the populations of ancient Italy, to whose imagination this exhibition is dedicated.
7th May – 31st October
Cerveteri, Cerite National Museum
“Here there is the fire of Bacchus”. The wine of ancient Caere
Within the rich display of Etruscan grave goods from the National Etruscan museum groups of materials have been arranged that illustrate the various aspects linked to the Etruscans use of wine, in the period between the 7th century B.C. and the Romanisation of the territory.
14th May – 31st October
Pyrgi (Santa Severa), the Antiquarium.
Sacred water. Pyrgi and the gods who came from the sea
The exhibition intends to illustrate the close links between Pyrgi, the famous Etruscan sanctuary, and the sea. A number of objects are on display, found in the proximity of sacred buildings, which were associated with rituals during which liquids were used.
14th May – 31st October
Tarquinia, National Archaeological Museum
The sea transformed into gold. Heracles and salt
In the ancient world, salt was the only element useful for conserving food, especially meat and fish, as well as being an important ingredient in cheese making.
On display is a large group of metal artefacts for cooking meat “seasoned” with salt and used at banquets, which are striking in their resemblance to the implements still used today for barbecuing.
21st May – 31st October
Santa Marinella. Santa Severa Castle
“The expanse of sea did not stop him”. The ancient voyage on the water that nourishes
The sea and the Etruscans. The sea as a sacred element, source of food and important commercial route. Sailing techniques, fishing, the cults, and objects from all over the Mediterranean that attest the sea’s role in bringing populations into contact with one another.
3rd June – 31st October
Canino, Vulci National Archaeological Museum.
Fruits of gold and silver. The wheat ear and the olive
Cereals and oil were the basic ingredients of the ancient diet but also symbols of the human condition in relation to the sacred. The exhibition in the Castello della Badia at Vulci, the Etruscan city that has preserved intact the characteristics of the Etruscan landscape, aims to bring to the fore the real and symbolic aspects of the use of these products, which are both fruits of the earth and of Man’s labours.
4th June – 31st October
Canino, San Francesco Civic Museum.
Fruits of gold and silver. Etruscan food under the microscope.
At the beginning of the summer the countryside around Canino is coloured by the warm tones of golden ears of wheat and the silvery reflections of the olive leaves. This small exhibition in the evocative suroundings of S. Francesco is dedicated to science applied to archaeology and what it can tell us about the ancient diet.
4th June – 31st October
Tuscania, Tuscania National Archaeological Museum
The imaginary landscape. Lions, sphinxes, and seahorses
An exhibition dedicated to the ancient landscape, both real and imaginary, populated by real or fantastical animals, of Orientalizing tradition, reworked in the funerary sculpture of Etruscan Tuscania, or in small objects of everyday use, with a look at the success of this iconography, especially that of the lion, in later centuries until the medieval period.
6th June – 31st October
Civita Castellana, Archaeological Museum of the Ager Faliscus – Sangallo fortress
The sacred that flows. The rituals of water
Water that flows and purifies was very strongly linked to various aspects of the sacred. The Faliscans felt this association and often built important sanctuaries on riverbanks, left votive offerings in the gravel of riverbeds or even created hydraulic structures linked to mysterious nature cults.
11th June – 31st October
Viterbo, Rocca Albernoz National Museum
Raised kantharoi. A banquet at Acquarossa
The famous plaque from Acquarossa showing a banqueting scene will provide the central thread to this exhibition. From the precious silver and gold kantheros from the Tomb of the Chariot to the refined Attic vases from the Cima Pesciotti collection, on display for the first time, together with the ceremonial bronze utensils.
12th June – 31st October
Viterbo, Luigi Rossi Danielli Civic Museum
Raised kantharoi. The Etruscans of the stone face
The exhibition’s theme is the natural landscape, with the tufa and its varying colours, such as the nenfro from which the 35 sarcophauses present in the museum are sculpted. The visit, illustrated by 8 talking figures, begins with the earliest sarcophaguses displayed in the cloister and the model of Norchia and then continues with the terracotta sarcophaguses from Musarna and the symposium objects. Next comes Poggio della Lupa, between Etruscans and Romans, and the exhibition concludes with the marble sarcophaguses from Ferento.
12th June – 31st October
Grosseto, Maremma Museum of Archaeology and Art
The just measure. The Etruscan princes and the ritual of the symposium
On show in this exhibition are bronze and pottery banqueting services of Greek and Etruscan production, which illustrate the habit of drinking wine. The exhibition looks at the various ideological aspects linked to the symposium. There is a brief look at wine production, and at the end of the exhibition there is a table laid (with reproductions) for a symposium, which may be used for educational games.
13th June – 31st October
Castiglione della Pescaia, “Isidoro Falchi” Civic Museum of Archaeology
Stolen antiquities. At Vetulonia, ancient Italy can be seen.....on the table
The exhibition wishes to highlight the undeniable value of ancient art. Displayed for the first time is an extraordinary group of finds from the most recent operations to recover archaeological artefacts carried out by Rome’s GdF. These vases would have been seen on aristocratic tables and used during the ceremonies associated with the banquet and symposium.
4th July – 31st October
Bolsena, Lake Bolsena Territorial Museum
Good harvests, good crops, good luck. Agricultural and health cults at Bolsena.
The exhibition centres on the votive objects from the sanctuary of Pozzarello, where rituals took place in honour of deities that watched over the successful outcome of agricultural work (for example ears of wheat made of silver), but also people’s health (strips of gold with an impressed eye). Offerings were also made to the underworld divinities, attested by the polychrome architectural plaques showing the heads of Charun and Vanth, which decorated the sanctuary in the necropolis of Poggio Pesce-Poggio Battaglini.
25th July – 31st October
