Created in 1981 and opened in 1983, thanks to the participation of the City of Carmignano and the Tuscan Superintendant for Archeology and Cultural Heritage, the Artimino Museum first opened in the cellars of the Medici’s Villa “La Ferdinanda”.
The new museum, located in an old wine cellar inside the city, was inaugurated on March 26, 2011.
The museum illustrates the history of the Etruscan city of Artimino and the surrounding area displaying artefacts that have been found primarily during fifty years of excavations. This area, in fact, from the Orientalising period of the Etruscan Civilization (VII century B.C.), had an extraordinary economic and cultural development, thanks to its fertile ground and strategic location close to the meeting point of two rivers, the Pistoiese Ombrone and Bisenzio in Arno. This allowed Artimino control of the commercial routes that connected Etruria proper to Etruria Padana as well as the northern regions of the Italian penisola.
In the foreground is the Vipia Vetes stele
The upper level is dedicated to the population of the area with its different settlements and evidence of daily life: “The World of the Living“. The lower level presents the most interesting aspects of the necropolis in: ” The World of the Dead“. Each section is organized topographically and chronologically.
The visitor travels through time to discover the wonderful artifacts that have been brought to light primarily by Francesco Nicosia, the archaeologist to whom the museum is dedicated.
Magnificent incense
The magnificent incense burner in black bucchero (class of ceramic distinguished by its black fabric as well as glossy, black surface) is made up of five different parts, separately realised and cooked, and then put together: a boat-shaped central bowl, two conic-shaped side littler bowls, with a supporting horizontal connection, based on a high foot carved with arches decorations. The basis bears also the inscription in northern Etruscan alphabet (mi zinaku larθuzale kuleniiesi). Made by the second half of the VII century BC by a local for the funeral service of Larthuza Kulenie, the first inhabitants of Artimino that we know.
Archaeological Museum of Artimino Francesco Nicosia official website
