The visit of the museum
The Museum’s exhibition starts form the ground floor and finishes to the second floor of the Finaguerra Palace.
On the ground floor are exposed some Roman epigraphs of Matilica municipium, amongst of them the marble base dating from the second half of the 2nd century A.D., with an inscription in honour of Caio Arrio Clemente (Caius Arrius Clemens) who held the highest municipal office of duovir.
Entering the first floor rooms, extraordinary scenery of the millenary history of Matelica and its territory opens out before visitors’ eyes.
The ancient history is represented by a surface collection of flint-stone artefacts going back to the Palaeolithic, as well as by the Neolithic site discovered in Braccano, which dates from 4.330-4.328 B.C. and where flint-stone cutting and earthenware production were largely developed.
Proceeding, visitors can admire archaeological finds belonging to the end of the Iron Age, such as fragments of structural elements of houses with tile covering and clay walls, pieces of kilns, vases and utensils found in some ancient villages along the Esino valley.
The high level of culture and refinement reached by those communities, during the Orientalizing period (7th century-beginning of the 6th century B.C.), is documented by lavish funerary artefacts coming from necropolises unearthed at Cavalieri, Brecce and Crocifisso. In that period of new cultural inputs and social changes, during which a new ruling aristocracy emerged, noble figures wanted to celebrate themselves after the death as they used to do in their life; so they began to build monumental tombs surrounded by ditches and covered with earthen burial mounds, where magnificent funerary sets were placed.
Amongst the oldest graves, we find the Tomb n. 126, unearthed at Crocifisso and belonging to a young woman who was embellished with metal and amber jewels, when her mortal remains were buried.
Inside the Tomb n. 20 at Cavalieri, archaeologists found, amongst a collection of vases, a jar decorated with painted geometric patterns, coming from the region known Daunia (the present northern Apulia), which testifies the existence of trade exchanges between this area and other regions of the Italia peninsula.
Besides the amber jewels, the use of precious material is documented by the Tomb n. 93 at Crocifisso, where archaeologists discovered a carved ivory pyxis, which is a cylindrical vase used by women of those times in order to put away beauty products and ornaments.
Amongst the tombs of the warrior princes, there are: the Tomb n. 1, which was found at Villa Clara with numerous terracotta vases, metal artefacts, such as a helmet and long spears, as well as symbols of power represented by sceptres covered with bronze leaf; the Tomb n. 53, which is discovered at Brecce with a bronze helmet splendidly decorated and a monumental vase enriched with figures of birds on the top; the Tomb n. 172 with a chariot and an armour made up of an helmet and bronze greaves.
The first phases of the Roman conquest are distinguished by the spread of black painted pottery, which were used in this territory at least since the 3rd century A.C., and some roman coins.
The Roman city is mostly characterized by mosaics; some of them are exposed at Matelica’s Civic Archaeological Museum, whilst others can be seen in the archaeological sites placed in the old town centre. These geometric and figurative mosaics, which were made with fine marbles and bright colour vitreous paste, decorated, with busts of deities and mythological figures, real and imaginary animals, the floors of the rich urban residences dating back to the 1st -2nd century A.D.
From the heart of the Roman city comes the famous "globo di Matelica", a kind of ancient solar clock found in the historic centre. It is an exceptional instrument belonging to the Hellenistic-Roman period, unique all over the world, which, through the boundary line between lights and shadows traced out on its marble surface, showed the hours of the day, the seasons and the constellations.