The Archaeological Museum is one of the exhibition sites for the Cagliari National Archaeological Museum and Institute of the Culture Ministry which acquired special autonomy status in 2019.
It is situated in the ancient Castello neighbourhood, as part of the Museum Citadel created between 1956 and 1979 by restoring the Royal Armoury and the Medieval walls, from a project by the architects, Libero Cecchini and Piero Gazzola.
It is the most important archaeological museum in Sardinia with more than 4,000 pieces documenting a long history spanning almost 7,000 years, from the Prehistoric Times to the Early Middle Ages, from the Neolithic Mother Goddesses to Nuragic bronzes, from Phoenician and Punic jewellery to Roman statues right up to items of worship from the Byzantine period.
The establishment of Cagliari’s archaeological museum dates back to 1800, when the Viceroy Carlo Felice, welcoming a proposal from the knight, Lodovico Baylle, had a room prepared in the Viceregal Palace, to house the Archaeological and Natural History Office, arranged like a wunderkammer, or rather, a room of wonders where unique items could be displayed that were both of exceptional quality and unusual.
In 1904, in the space previously occupied by the Royal Mint in Piazza Indipendenza, the Royal Archaeological Museum was built from a project by Dionigi Scano. In 1993, it moved to the “Museum Citadel” complex.
The museum’s collections are arranged over four floors with different corresponding exhibition themes.
The ground floor offers a chronological-educational itinerary that covers the history of human presence in Sardinia from ancient Neolithic times to the Middle Ages. The materials on display come from both the early private collections that made up the crux of the museum’s original heritage and the different archaeological excavations that have concerned and continue to concern the area.
The first floor is arranged into two thematic itineraries, the first one dedicated mainly to Cagliari and its neighbouring centres. The exhibition itinerary shows the evolution of the city and the stratigraphy of some of its key sites Tuvixeddu, Santa Gilla and Monte Claro. Another room on the exhibition floor is set aside for the main Nuragic centres.
The second floor follows a topographic arrangement. Some of the most important archaeological sites in Sardinia are represented: Monte Sirai, Sant’Antioco, Bithia and Nora. Important contexts alternate with less important findings in an exhibition that matches and brings together prehistorical finds and Roman and Late-Antiquity finds.
The third exhibition floor set aside for temporary exhibitions, currently hosts the Nuragic statues of Mont’e Prama. The itinerary is supported by a multimedia app that illustrates the different kinds of statues.
