Archaeological Hall of the Protohistoric Settlement and Picene Necropolis

The Archaeological Room of Palazzo Cassi displays artefacts from the protohistoric settlement and the Picenum burial ground of San Costanzo, both located in contrada Rio, one close to the other, on the naturally defended hillside between the Inferno and Preti valleys.

The settlement is almost exclusively evidenced by fragments of pottery vessels, mostly collected in the ploughed fields, and judging by them it must have lasted quite a long time, almost a thousand years, from the Late Bronze Age to the 5th/4th century B.C., the latter period to which some fragments of black-glazed Attic pottery and two grey ceramic cup bottoms with Etruscan alphabetical graffiti date. The burial ground, on the other hand, is documented only for the period around the 8th century B.C. and a little later, with inhumation tombs in simple pits in the bare earth and grave goods such as are known not only from the much better known - and not far away - Picenum necropolis of Novilara, but also from the more recently explored one at Montedoro di Scapezzano, just beyond the Cesano river. The objects from the Contrada Rio necropolis on display here come partly from the excavations that the Soprintendenza conducted there in 1920 and for the rest from purchases and confiscations - carried out by the same office from 1899 onwards - of what the peasants, who made the discoveries by digging by hand mainly in the rows of vines, passed on to the owners of the land and to various collectors. They consisted almost exclusively of personal clothing items made of bronze, amber and bone, but also of a few bronze spearheads and razors (from male burials), as well as a few spindle whorls and a few terracotta spools (from female burials).