The first excavation campaigns in the archaeological area of Cosa began immediately after the war, in May 1948, by the American Academy in Rome, under the direction of Frank Brown. The materials resulting from those early researches were temporarily housed in a small rural building located on the acropolis, which had sprung up near the ruins of the Capitolium, but Brown had already expressed with the Superintendency his intention to establish a museum within the area of the ancient city as soon as possible. In 1965 the suitable place was identified in a spot set back from the Forum and Arce, where there was already an old rural building, which the owner, Marquise Maria Rita Sanfelice, freely made available for this purpose. Having tackled and completed the archaeological exploration of the area where it was to be built, the Museum was finally built only in the late 1970s, thus also allowing the demolition of the modern buildings oppressing the Capitolium, which up to that time were still being used as warehouses. In 1997 the exhibition space was doubled, creating two new rooms, where materials recovered from the necropolis and port area of Cosa, near the Tagliata, and evidence of the life of the Ansedonia settlement up to the 15th century were displayed.
To be seen
The first room of the Museum was once the only room set up. Among the numerous artifacts illustrating the different explored areas of the city, of note is a beautiful bronze statuette of a naked young man, recently found inside the walls during restoration works, probably an ancient votive offering deposited in the structure at the time of its construction to propitiate divine protection over the city. On the walls and in the display cases numerous fragments of the terracotta architectural decorations of the temples of Cosa. Notable among the sculptural pieces is a portrait statue in armor, made of Carrara marble, dating to the 1st century AD, reused in a medieval wall near the Temple of Mater Matuta on the acropolis. The section on houses is also interesting, with numerous small objects made of pottery, glass, bone and bronze that tell us about daily life in the city. Near the exit from the hall, there is a reconstruction of the facade of the temple of the House of Diana, with the cult statue depicting the huntress goddess. In the second room, dedicated to the Port and necropolis, numerous amphorae, of various types, produced in Cosa itself and used to export the wine produced in the area throughout the Mediterranean. Of particular note is the reconstruction of a Capuchin tomb where the remains of a maiden who lived in the first century B.C. rested, which tests revealed to be suffering from celiac disease. In the last room, dedicated to the medieval period, interesting majolica tiles, dated between the 12th and 14th centuries, recovered from the castle cistern built on the eastern corner of the Roman-era wall circuit.
How to get there
The Archaeological Museum of Cosa is located within the Archaeological Park of the same name (see), not far from the entrance, reached from the Aurelia, for those coming from Grosseto taking the first exit for Ansedonia; for those coming from Rome the second exit for Ansedonia.
Timetables
October-March (daylight saving time): Monday-Saturday and 1st Sunday of the month 8:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; April- October (daylight saving time) Monday-Sunday 10:15 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Ticket: €2
In the same area you can also visit
Archaeological Park of Cosa; Etruscan Cut and Queen's Cleft
If you enjoyed the Archaeological Museum of What you can also visit.
Maremma Museum of Archaeology and Art in Grosseto (km 45).
Curiosity
The celiac maiden. In 1998 during work on a sewage plant on Mimosa Street, a Capuchin-style grave was found that contained the remains of an 18-19 year old girl. She had a rich trousseau consisting of three rings, two of bronze and one of gold with an engraved chalcedony bezel, a pair of earrings, also of gold, and a gold button that was meant to stop the cloak she wore. Despite the richness of the trousseau, the skeleton was found to belong to a small and puny individual with obvious signs of anemia and malnutrition. This apparent contradiction, prompted archaeologists to have the remains subjected to a DNA analysis, which revealed how the maiden was celiac: evidently it must have been this disease that was not understood and detected, which led to her constant physical deterioration and eventually death.
