The Archaeological Museum of the Territory of Populonia, in Piombino, was opened in 2001 and gathers the finds from the ancient territory of Populonia, that is, the Val di Cornia, from prehistory to late antiquity. It is housed in the Palazzo Nuovo, a historic building of the old Citadel, which was the seat of the Appiani princes and then of Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon's sister: these were the stables and lodgings of the court, and before the museum they housed working-class dwellings, barracks and a vocational school. The restoration bears the signatures of Pier Luigi Cervellati, Giovanni Maffei Cardellini and Alberto Montemagni.
What to see
The route follows the thread of time: the first rooms are for prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, the central ones for the Etruscans, with the grave goods from the tombs of the necropolises of Populonia, the last for the Roman and late antique age. The theme that links them is the history of the territory and the use of its resources, above all its mineral ones. Alongside the finds are panels and models: protohistoric and Etruscan furnaces, a tomb, the cargo of a ship.
The most important piece is the silver Amphora of Baratti, found by chance in 1968 in the nets of a fishing boat in the waters of the Gulf of Baratti and then restored. It dates from the fourth century AD and is decorated with 134 medallions showing pagan myths and deities, linked to the cult of the goddess Cybele. Among the other finds are the Fish Mosaic, with a shipwreck scene, the Rimigliano Hoard, a group of Roman coins found in the sea encrusted together, the cargo of the Pozzino wreck, the Tomb of the Goldwork and a bison engraved on stone in prehistoric times.
Visiting
Times and tickets should be checked with the museum, which is part of the Parchi della Val di Cornia. A centre of experimental archaeology on the working of ceramics and stone is active at the museum.
Our editors' tip
In front of the silver amphora, keep the date in mind: it is a vessel with pagan deities made when the Roman Empire had already converted to Christianity. That is why it is not only a rare piece of late antique silverware, but also a document of how pagan culture still lasted among part of the population.
