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| The beginning of the first gallery |
Yesterday I visited the Museo Archeologico Nazionale "Mario Torelli" in Venosa for the first time. I'd heard good things about it, and it lived up to the hype.
I usually don't go in much for interactives, touch screens, and the like, but as I'd been advised that they were well done here, I gave them a go. I don't know how they fare with the general public (I saw no one else in the museum during the three or so hours I spent there on a Saturday morning), but I did find them useful in communicating information in more depth than was presented in the wall panels, and the occasional animations were interesting (I was surprised to see that the fellow holding the survey rod for the Roman gromaticus was wearing a Samnite tunic and belt, though on further reflection maybe I shouldn't be surprised; the Grand Bargain was played out also at this scale... While we're on the subject of screens and Samnites, I did notice an image of the famous tomb painting of returning warriors from Nola misattributed to Paestum). There were subtle noises from the screens, but fortunately nothing overly grating.
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| Samnite on the left |
The museum in Venosa is conceived as a unit with the archaeological museum of Melfi, with the latter concentrating on the pre-Roman archaeology of the area, while the former begins just prior to the arrival of the Romans and continues through to the early modern period.
One aspect of the wall panels that I found peculiar was the frequent inclusion of a photograph of an artifact that was displayed in a case immediately beside it. I suppose this could aid accessibility?
There are some stand-out artifacts for the student of Roman Italy, such as the inscribed stones from Bantia interpreted by the museum's honorand Mario Torelli as a templum augurale, and the small fragment of the Tabula Bantina that isn't in Naples (in Venosa the Oscan side of the tablet is given pride of place, though the Latin side can be observed, albeit very partially hidden by the supports; this contrasts with the principal fragment's installation in Naples, which displays the—from my point of view—less interesting Latin side, with the Oscan side totally unobservable against the wall).
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| Tabula Bantina, Venosa fragment, Latin side |
The whole historic center of Venosa is dotted with Roman-period spolia, and the castle that houses the museum is no exception. At one point in the Imperial gallery, a couple of bits of spolia, totally unmentioned, can be seen in the wall behind a musealized and labeled inscription. This seems like a missed opportunity to draw connections between the exhibit and its host structure, as well as to talk about the process of spoliation and reuse so locally evident:
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| Silent spolia |
It's refreshing to see the exhibit continue through to the early modern period. At least here, there's some connection with the castle, two cannon barrels punctuating the end of the exhibit. A lot more I could say, but I have to get up early tomorrow morning; back to fieldwork at Rossano di Vaglio.
