Castello del Buonconsiglio monumenti e collezioni provinciali

Archaeology

Signs of the past: the archaeology section

On exhibit are more than six hundred objects offering a rich overall view of the ancient Trentino populations from prehistory to Roman times and up through the early Middle Ages.

The oldest testimonies date from the end of the territory’s occupation by the nomadic hunters from the south, after the retreating glaciers, around 11,000 B.C. during the Upper Paleolithic period. There is an extensive collection of the subsequent periods when the spread of handmade metal objects coincided with the stabilization of the settlements and with the growth of contacts and exchanges and social complexity. Concerning metallurgy, it is assumed that there were specialized artisans due to a series of tools such as crucibles, forms used for smelting knives and axes, that were found at the Molina di Ledro pile-dwellings. The massive development of copper production towards the end of the second millennium B.C. is evoked by the reconstruction of a blast furnace, and by the numerous handmade bronze objects. Among these are innovative tools such as the pruning knife, an “invention” of the local populations. The bronze diadems from the Ledro pile-dwellings, a valuable Baltic amber necklace, and military equipment such as swords and the famous greaves used to protect the warrior’s legs of the Masetti of Pergine, are the prestigious signs of distinction and power of the emerging chieftains of the Bronze Age.

Written sources from Roman times refer to the Raeti population who were based in the central-eastern Alpine region between the 6th-1st centuries B.C.. On display are characteristic pottery receptacles, iron tools such as hoes, ploughs/weeders and large keys, and also bronze objects for adornment. The Etrurian-Italic influences are seen in the spread of domestic items related to the hearth and to the symposial consumption of wine, small divinity statues and carved bronze-plated votive figures, and the use of a variant of the north-Etruscan alphabet. One of the most detailed inscriptions is found on a locally-made bronze pail - a situla - discovered on Caslir of Cembra.

The contributions by the Celts are characterized by several items of adornment – brooches and necklaces – and in military equipment such as swords and helmets.

The Romanization of the territory manifested itself progressively with new social, administrative, political, economic, military and religious models that spread by way of an efficient road network and through new forms of organization. Along the axis of the Adige River, navigable in part, was the monumental development of the Roman city of Trento: Tridentum. Construction profited from new devices such as lead pipes for water, and bricks, also used for heating. The spread of Roman influences is seen in the use of Latin, in the coin circulation, in the new systems of weighing, in the refined marble works of art, in jewellery, and also in objects for daily use. The integration of the Alpine populations into that of the Roman world is evidenced in a famous inscription on a bronze slab found in Cles in the Valle di Non. It was an edict issued by the Emperor Claudius in 46 A.D. establishing a “remission” for the inhabitants of the Alpine valley – the Anauni, Tuliassi and Sindoni – who had behaved as Roman citizens without the right to do so. With the conferring of Roman citizenship, these populations became part of the “splendid municipality of Trento”.

Rome also left a profound mark in the religious domain as seen in inscriptions and small bronzes, and in funeral rites. A precious doll made of bone placed in a lead sarcophagus along with refined jewellery, are the touching testimony of the death of a well-to-do young girl before her wedding. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, that in 476 saw the deposition of the last western emperor, the central-eastern Alpine region became a borderland of battles and raids. Even though reduced in size, the city of Trento was the seat of an aristocratic ruling class, made up of Goths, Heruli, Byzantines and Longobards. The integration of the “barbarians” into Roman society generated a reciprocal assimilation of customs. In the exhibit, weapons and precious jewellery – distinctive elements of the upper social classes – mirror the traditions and innovations of a community that was by that time of a multi-ethnical character. Of extraordinary importance are the luxurious belongings of a Longobard “princess” of Civezzano that include gold and amethyst earrings, gold brocade and gilded bronze garters. Also from the Longobard period are the splendid gold crosses sewn on the shrouds of the wealthy dead. The social status of the free man, linked to the groups that held the military power, is reflected in the weapons found in the tombs of males.

With the spread of the Christian faith, there are objects of daily use that bear the paleochristian symbolic motifs, and the valuable mosaics dating from the 6th century brought to light in a place of worship built on Doss Trento. The mosaics are dedicated to the Saints Cosma and Damiano, most probably due to Byzantine influences. Among the reliquaries is a valuable example in silver with the figure of a saint and intertwined animals, which came from the ancient church of Santa Apollinare of Trento at the foot of Doss Trento; a natural fortress defended by its sheer rocky face and the Adige River. Christian liturgy is addressed by the valuable Sacramentarlo Gregoriano, a codex datable to the first decades of the 9th century. The magnificent ivory plaque used in the binding, pictures an evangelist saint and dates back to the 8th century Carolingian period.

The archaeology section also conserves interesting Egyptian objects, items from the Magna Graecia, and other objects originating from various areas, gathered together by collectors between the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, when the new national identities were asserting themselves, archaeology was attributed a fundamental importance as support to nationalistic claims. A large part of the “lovers of one’s country’s history” involved in forming the collections, were supporters of the Italianization of the territory. This was the case of Count Benedetto Giovanelli (1775-1846) Trento’s podesta, to whom is owed the nucleus of the Museum collection that includes the “situla of Cembra”.