The museum, housed in the semi-underground walkways of the Aragonese castle built in 1470 by Pirro del Balzo, is dedicated particularly to the Latin colony of Venusia, founded in 291 BC. The oldest phases of human presence in the territory of Venosa are illustrated, evidenced by the fragment of a homo erectus femur (about 300,000 years ago), one of the oldest found in Europe. Coins, architectural decoration elements, and ceramics help define and trace the political and cultural history of the Roman city up to the later phases. In the epigraphic section, the collection of funerary and public inscriptions is exhibited; the latter document important works carried out by magistrates of Venusia. The collection of inscribed cippi in the Oscan language is interesting, as in the nearby Bantia (Banzi), during the 1st century BC, they composed an augural templum: an open, consecrated space where omens were drawn from the flight of birds. Epigraphs and figurative arcosolia testify to the settlement of an important Jewish community which, between the 4th and 9th centuries AD, buried its dead within catacombs adjacent to Christian ones.
Information about the National Archaeological Museum of Venosa
Piazza Castello – Castello Pirro del Balzo
85029 Venosa (Potenza)
097236095
sba-bas.venosamuseo@beniculturali.it
https://www.archeobasilicata.beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
