Archaeological Museum of Bologna

The Room X wing dedicated to findings from Bologna of the Felsinean or “Certosa” period, is the part of the Museum that best retains the appearance of the original layout, both in how the showcases are arranged and in how the objects are laid out, so it is one of the few surviving examples of an 1800s Italian museum plan.
Almost all the objects on display come from the large burial grounds used between the mid-6th and late 4th century BC by Felsina inhabitants, and explored extensively during Bologna’s enthusiastic archaeological season, which went from 1869, the year the Certosa necropolis was discovered, to the early 1900s.

More info

As of the mid-6th century, the entire Po area was radically transformed by the Etruscans on a territorial, political and economic level.
Bologna, which was already a thriving proto-urban centre, became a fully fledged city and reinforced its role as a stronghold, becoming the capital – also on a “political” level – of the entire Padanian system. Unfortunately, very few archaeological traces remain of Felsina’s layout, which has been erased by the layers of the modern city. There is significant testimony of the community’s sacred area: traces of a temple have been found and this edifice can be interpreted as the shrine of the deities who protected the urban community, possible Heracles and Apollo.

Findings from the necropolises are extremely important and they allow us to reconstruct Felsina’s economic and sociopolitical framework. These necropolises fanned around the town, often in the same places or on terrain adjacent to that occupied by Villanovan tombs, and were more concentrated, respectively, to the west and the southeast of the urban area.

In the western sector a series of almost uninterrupted burial grounds goes from east to west, known by the names of the farms where they were brought to light: Arnoaldi, De Luca, Battistini, Aureli and Certosa, and line the sides of a broad road that was the ancient route connecting with Etruria.

The tombs were thus arranged in tidy rows parallel to the route road, following hierarchical criteria that meant the more eminent figures were buried nearest to the highway and had the largest stelae with the most extensive decoration.

A similar situation must also have occurred in the southeast sector, which is the site of the great Giardini Margherita funeral nucleus.