The museum, housed in the semi-underground walkways of the Aragonese castle built in 1470 by Pirro del Balzo, is especially dedicated to the Latin colony of Venusia, founded in 291 BC. It illustrates the earliest phases of human presence in the territory of Venosa, evidenced by the femur fragment of Homo erectus (about 300,000 years ago), one of the oldest found in Europe. Coins, architectural decoration elements, and ceramics allow the political and cultural history of the Roman city to be defined and followed up to the later stages.
In the epigraphic section, a collection of funerary and public inscriptions is displayed; the latter document important works carried out by magistrates of Venusia. Of interest is the collection of cippi inscribed in the Oscan language, which in nearby Bantia (Banzi), during the 1st century BC, formed an augural templum: an open, consecrated space where omens were drawn from the flight of birds.
Inscriptions and decorated arcosolia testify to the settlement of an important Jewish community that, between the 4th and 9th centuries AD, buried its dead within catacombs adjacent to those of the Christians.
Information about National Archaeological Museum of Venosa
Piazza Castello – Pirro del Balzo Castle
85029 Venosa (Potenza)
097236095
sba-bas.venosamuseo@beniculturali.it
https://www.archeobasilicata.beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
