The Prehistory Museum stands out in the regional museography scene for the originality of its content and for the deep connections it establishes with an unparalleled territory in terms of naturalistic and archaeological heritage. It is divided into three major exhibition sections, each dedicated to themes related to the development of prehistory, where naturalistic collections are accompanied by paleontological, pre-protostoric, and archaeological collections: “Origin of the Territory” (geology, paleontology, and karst of the Bolognese Gypsum), “Origin and Evolution of Man” (from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age), “The Villanovan Civilization” (Giovanni Gozzadini and the discovery of the Caselle necropolis) – which alternate uninterruptedly between original artifacts and life-size 3D reconstructions created to bring visitors closer, with communicative effectiveness and immediacy, to men and environments long gone. Complementing the exhibition, since 2008 the Preistopark has been operating in the park adjacent to the museum, an educational trail focused on the great extinct faunas that populated the Apennines during the last Glacial period.
Dedicated to the memory of Luigi Donini, a Bolognese speleologist awarded a gold medal for civil valor, the Museum represents the natural expression of a geographical area that since the last century has been the subject of research by distinguished paleontology and prehistory scholars, and is well known in literature for some famous sites such as the Farneto Cave or the Caselle necropolis near Villanova, the locality that gave its name to the main Italian culture of the early Iron Age. On the ground floor hall, the “history” of the territory is narrated through fossils, minerals, and rocks coming from geological formations shaping the current landscape of the Bolognese Apennines, highlighting its natural peculiarities. The life-size reconstruction of a cave environment allows close observation of the different aspects that make the cavities of the Bolognese Gypsum unique. The imposing life-size 3D models of the large extinct herbivores of the last glacial, placed in their natural steppe-grassland habitat, dominate the scene at the center and back of the large hall: the steppe bison, the giant deer, the spotted hyena. A key deposit for revisiting this vanished environment is the Cava Filo (Croara), which returned the bones of various animals that lived during the second part of the last glaciation (25,000-11,500 years ago). Of particular importance are those of the bison which, collectively, represent the richest batch found in Italy. The theme of the origin and evolution of humans is addressed in the Hall of Man through large scenographies that project visitors into distant moments and places in space and time. In the imposing Gallery of Ancestors, embedded in a savanna environment are some figures of hominids of the Australopithecus type. At the center of the hall, visitors can relive a day 200,000 years ago in the company of a group of Homo erectus represented in their usual subsistence activities. Two other reconstructions frame the section gathering archaeological evidence from the territory dating between 120,000 and 6,500 years ago, revisiting the figures of Neanderthal Man and modern Man. Finally, a section of a Villanovan hut introduces visitors to the Iron Age section in the first small room on the ground floor. To document the development of this important cultural aspect, precursor of the Etruscan civilization, several burials with complete funerary goods from different locations in the plains and hills of Bologna are displayed. A notable group of graves excavated in Caselle (San Lazzaro) represents the remaining edge of the necropolis uncovered in 1853 by Giovanni Gozzadini behind the Church of St. Mary of Caselle, relating to a culture previously unknown in Italy, which he decided to name Villanovan after his country estate. In the Preistopark, the core around which the outdoor museum route revolves, life-size 3D reconstructions of Mammuthus primigenius (Mammoth), Coelodonta antiquitatis (Woolly Rhinoceros), Panthera leo (Cave Lion), and Ursus speleo (Cave Bear), majestically positioned, convey an extraordinary message about these extinct life forms.
Information about the Luigi Donini Prehistory Museum
Via F.lli Canova, 49,
40068 San Lazzaro di Savena (Bologna)
051465132
museodonini@libero.it
Source: MIBACT
