“Antiquarium of Poggio Civitate” is the name of the Archeological Etruscan Museum of Murlo, because it displays material found in the very important Etruscan site “Poggio Civitate”.
The decision to exibit all the material found in a place near the Etruscan site, was taken in the Seventies and brought about the inauguration of the Museum in 1988 in the “Palazzone”; recently, in 2002, the Museum was renovated and widened with the acquisition of an adjacent building, the “Palazzina”, adding new finds. It is in the important chain of Musei Senesi.
The peculiarity of the Antiquarium of Poggio Civitate stems from the almost esclusive display of material and finds coming from a princely Etruscan residence of a period between the VII° and the V° century B.C.; differentely from of other Etruscan museums, where there are only finds coming from tombs.
The reconstructions, that it was possible to carry out with the excavated materials, the sculptures and the acroteria, the “sime” (terracotta reliefs), the daily tools and domestic objects in ceramic, in terracotta and bucchero, in bone and ivory, bring us precious information about the uses and habits, about the contacts and the trade of the refined Etruscan civilisation of that period.
Many finds of the Museum of Murlo are “unique”: universally wellknown the roof of the princely residence (recently added the roof of the workshop), the terracotta reliefs (sime) of the horse race and that one of the Banquet, the acrotery called “the Cappellone (big hat)” for the peculiar shape of the hat, that became the symbol and the trademark of Murlo.