Presentation of the Notebooks of the National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia

On Feb. 28, 2025 at 5 p.m. at the Chapel of the Condemned of the National Museum of Castel S. Angelo in Rome, will be presented the first two volumes of the publishing series Notebooks of the Museum National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, dedicated to studies and research cononnected with the history of ancient Civitavecchia and its territory.

The National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, Civ, an institute of the Lazio National Museums Regional Directorate headed by Elisabetta Scungio, launched this publishing initiative with the support of the annual call of the Banking Foundation Cassa di Risparmio di Civitavecchia (Cariciv) and the publishing house Antiqua Res, with the intention of publishing in-depth studies dedicated both to artifacts in the custody of the museum and to archaeological contexts pertaining to Civitavecchia and its territory.

The volume The Apollo Helios of Civitavecchia and the Colossus of Rhodes by Lara Anniboletti, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, published in early 2024, and the recent The Etruscan Necropolis Cava della Scaglia a Civitavecchia under the curatorship of Barbara de Paolis, reflect the museum's cross-cutting approach, oriented toward research and dissemination in the area of reference, and having the goal of fostering the cultural development of the relation communities through synergy with local stakeholders such as Cariciv.

The scientific committee of the series Notebooks of the Museum National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia consists, among others, of Francesco di Gennaro, former archaeological superintendent in Abruzzo, Sardinia and at the National Prehistoric Ethnographic Museum "Luigi Pigorini." and by Alessandro Mandolesi archaeologist former professor of Etruscology at the University of Turin.

The first volume in the series is devoted to one of the main works on display at the museum, a splendid larger-than-life marble statue of Apollo, carved in the Hadrianic period and found near a luxurious maritime villa planted near present-day Santa Marinella on the coast north of Rome. The Apollo, holding a flashlight with his raised arm, is inspired by the model of the famous Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, erected by the Rhodians following a terrible siege in 304 B.C. that ended happily. The commission for the gigantic bronze statue, some 30 meters high and dedicated to the sun god Helios, later synthesized as Apollo, was given to Carete di Lindo, the pupil of the famous Lysippus, Alexander the Great's favorite sculptor. The Colossus, whose base rested on one of the piers of the port, fell after about sixty years due to an earthquake, depriving us, in spite of its great fame, of its real iconography, echoed precisely by the statue from the Apollo of Civitavecchia. The elegance and lightness of this masterpiece of ancient art convey deep emotion today, as then. A brief guide to the current layout of the National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, with the Lapidary Hall, the gallery in which the archaeological contexts of the neighboring territory, the Taurine Baths, to which an in-depth discussion is devoted, and the Hall of the Etruscan sanctuary of Punta della Vipera, enrich the contents of the volume.

The second volume is devoted to. The Etruscan Necropolis Cava della Scaglia in Civitavecchia. New Data and Documentation., and features contributions by various authors edited by Barbara de Paolis, head of the Ulpia section of the Roman Archaeological Group and G.A.R. national advisor. The book delves into the Etruscan necropolis of Cava della Scaglia, located near the northern coast of Civitavecchia. This archaeological complex, under the responsibility of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and southern Etruria, which has been working with GAR since 2019, through its vast repertoire of burials, offers an original window on the evolution of the coastal Etruscan community, probably linked to Tarquinia, between the 7th century and the 4th-3rd century BC. The volume is divided into two main sections: the first analyzes the necropolis from a historical, geological and architectural point of view, supplemented with a detailed examination of the materials found; the second section includes the surveys and the catalog of the tombs, enriched by an interesting archaeo-astronomical approach, which proposes an unconventional reading of the site. The book is also accompanied by QR codes, which allow a virtual tour of the necropolis, offering an immersive experience.

The publishing initiative of the Quaderni del Museo National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia is characterized as a best practice that espouses the objectives of the Lazio National Museums Regional Directorate, a point of connection between the center and the periphery, which works to foster dialogue between state and local authorities, between public and private museum realities, for the construction of the regional museum system, supporting the emergence of local networks involving different actors for the development of cultural itineraries and the growth of the territories in which it operates.

PROGRAM

Friday, February 28, 2025 - 5:00 p.m.

National Museum of Castel Sant'Angelo - Chapel of the Condemned - Lungotevere Castello, 50, 00193 Rome

Presentation Notebooks of the Museum National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia

Speakers:

Luca Mercuri, Deputy Director of the Pantheon and Castel Sant'Angelo Institute - National Museums Directorate of the City of Rome.

Elisabetta Scungio, Regional Director National Museums Lazio

Gabriella Sarracco, President of the Cassa di Risparmio di Civitavecchia Banking Foundation

Charles Casi, Antiqua Res Publishing House

Lara Anniboletti, Director of the National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia - Responsible for the series Notebooks of the National National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia

Alessandro Mandolesi, Scientific Committee Notebooks of the Museum National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia

MODE:

Andreas Steiner editor of journal Archeo. Topicality of the Past