State Antiquarium of Numana

Via La Fenice, 4 - Tel. +39 071/9331162 
Open every day (8.30 - 19.30) 

Costs: 
 
under 18 years old - free
18 - 25 years old - € 1,00

26 - 65 years old - € 2,00

over 65 years old - free


Housed in a building belonging to the Local Administration, the Antiquarium of Numana was founded and open for visitors in 1974 to show the results of the acquisitions made after the lucky campaign for diggings, which started between the end of the eighties and the beginning of the seventies. On that occasion more than five hundred Picene graves belonging to the Quagliotti-Davanzoli necropolis of Sirolo were pointed out.
Revent discoveries made in its necropolis confirm the important function that this natural harbour situated in the South-east layer of the Monte Conero has fulfilled during the 6th, 5th and 4th centuries. In the same periods the city of Ancona suffered instead a dramatic decline. The Antiquarium underlines the importance of this Picene centre, whose rich necropolis left us more than two thousand graves found in the Marche Region and dating back to the period between 9th and 3rd century B.C.
The structure of the museum is connected with the necropolis, thus favouring the integration between the museum open space and the exposal area. There are three necropolis areas (the Guagliotti-Davanzali area in Sirolo, the cemetery-Montalbano area in Numana, the “I Pini” area in Sirolo) located between Numana and Sirolo, but today only the Pini Necropolis is accessible. This is the only archaeological area in the Marche Region where it is possible to visit a sector of a Picene necropolis minutely illustrated by didactic panels placed along the route. Great attention has to be particularly paid to the important archaeological discovery of the Picene Princess of Sirolo grave dating the end of the 6th century B. C. Two different kinds of carts (a biga and a calash) were found out. According to a typical funeral rite carried out by the Picene civilisations of Numana, the two carts were dismantled and carefully placed in the grave: this was a common habit of many other Adriatic Central Italian people. The rescued and restored metallic elements of the carts are now placed in a special support, reproducing the situation of the digging and respecting the lying posture ratios and dimensions. Another important and rare find is a “Kline” decorated with ivory and amber. The presence of this precious manufactured article further confirms the extraordinary importance of the grave. In addition to the symposium finds (Attic bowls and cups with black pictures, pinochle, strainers, bronze tripods) and to the “instrumentum domesticum” (andirons, earthenware pots) funeral clothes, materials and objects typical of a personal decoration (different type and coloured fibula, pendants, breastplates and sandals) are displayed.
A set of appliance, composed by an Attic kilyx with black pictures showing battles among the Satyrs of the Class, a bronze fibula and a greyish mixture pot, let us know that Numana had a lot of commercial and cultural relationships with Greece and other Northern Adriatic harbours, especially Spina.
The prosperity and the welfare testified by the rich graves found in its necropolis are a consequence of the important function carried out by this Picene Centre. Giant posters of materials coming from Numana and then ended up in foreign and Italian museums and collections (the Attic craters and the Etruscan cymae of candelabra lying in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Breastplate in Paris and the hydria handle in Munich) confirm the importance of Numana in the proto-history.

Source: museionline.it