News on the cat mummy at Archaeology Museum of Parma
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at the National Archaeological Museum of Parma (Palace of Pillotta) will hold a conference to present the public with interesting news emerged from the study of the cat mummy kept at the same museum.
The conference was attended by Giacomo Gnudi, the veterinarian radiologist at the University of Parma who carried out the examination and Roberta Conversi, the archaeologist in charge of the museum’s Egyptian section.
While waiting to find the necessary funds for the restoration, the precious relic will be exhibited for the first time to the public.
Following is the text taken from the in-depth press release edited by Carla Conti (english translation by Google Translate from italian text).
A mummy of “first” quality, not a fetish or a product of low alloy. X-rays on the cat mummy kept at the National Archaeological Museum of Parma have found that inside the wrapping is the entire animal, a young specimen of the age of 4 or 5 months, dating back some 2000 years ago. While not a rarity, it is a finding of great importance, connected with the cult of the cat goddess Bastet, the Egyptian god pledge of fertility, health and earthly pleasures. Read more
Extraordinary archaeological discovery in Trent
A residential centre and a cult area dated 4.000 years ago were brought to light by the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of the independent province of Trent (Italy).
The small village of Gardolo di Mezzo, just few kilometres north from Trent, is going to become one of the most important locations for the archeology in the italian Alps.
The in-depth inquiries brought on by the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of the independent province of Trent since 2003 are revealing one of the most important archaeological sites dated back to Bronze Age in the south of the Alps. It is considered as the most important archaeological discovery which was ever made in the Trentin territory in the latest years.
Till August 2003, Gardolo di Mezzo was not so well known for its archaeological sites but for the ruins of the wall of an ancient castle dated to the Middle Ages, located to the top of the “Doss de Luna”.
In occasion of the archaeological pre-checks of the excavation which were made during a parcelling out of a building site project, this area became very interesting for what concerns the archaeological discoveries of the land.
Exceptional ruins of a huge scientific and archaeological value were found during the excavation campaign; in particular, tumulus structure, indicators of the presence of a sacred location, with funerary purposes and, later on in the centuries, dedicated to the ancestors cult.
Moreover, the tumuli in Gardolo Di Mezzo have been compared and relationed to a residential area nearby, which was built in the same period, and which has to be still explored by the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage.
New discoveries presented in Riva del Garda
The results of the latest archaeological researches in Riva del Garda (Trent – Italy), has been presented to public Wednesday, the 17th October 2007, in Sas “Spazio archeologico Sotterraneo” in Trent, as part of the periodical meetings between archaeologists organized by Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of the Province of Trent.
The conference has been attended in co-operation with the Trentin section of the Italian Archaeoclub, and presented by Cristina Bassi, an archaeologist of the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of the province of Trent. She has showed an overview of the excavations which took place in Pilati street, in Riva del Garda, between the years 2005 and 2006.
Archaeological researches in Riva have given the light to a complex building date back to the Roman epoch. It is about 750 squared meters wide and it was meant as public thermae.
The building consists of a big central courtyard surrounded by areas with pavement heating, which have been considered as: tepidarium, caldarium, laconicum as the usual thermal sequence required.
A big open area was located outside the building, probably used as a garden and originally fenced by outer walls.
Archaeological excavations on Monte S.Martino
Since a few days, the archaeological inquiry on the top of “San Martino” mount in Trentin, in the mountain range between Lomaso and Altogarda, undertaken by the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of the Independent Province of Trent, concerning the ancient fortress which was brought to light 4 years ago has restarted.
It is reachable by just one hour and a half on foot from Lundo, and it is bringing back to life a barbarian fortress, the last, isolated bulwark of the ancient Garda system and of the rich towns in the Po plain: Verona and Brescia.
The excavation campaign, which has reached its fourth year, will go on up to the end of August. The excavation site has reached an extreme importance: this is why the experts all around Europe are already promoting and studying this case.
In particular the “Kommission zur vergleichenden Archäologie römischer Alpen und Donauländer der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften” which will come under partnership with the Independent Province of Trent and the municipal district of Lomaso, in order to co-operate in archaeological researches and studies in the particular Trentin archaeological environment.
The partnership programme has been approved this morning, during the meeting in Malga Stabio, by the provincial council.
The interest of the “Bayerische Akademie” for the barbarian fortress on Monte San Martino is so important because the Bavarian cultural center focuses its researches on research and scientific divulgation of sites, settlements, necropolis, and cultural events of all the populations which gave birth to the Roman-barbarian kingdoms, which put an end to the ancient civilization and represent the modern Europe’s roots.
The Province interest in starting the co-operation is grounded by the need to promote the consolidation process of the internationalization and enhancement of the research system in Trentin, basing it on reciprocity and co-operation with other scientific and technological research authorities, and on the quality of its members, a fundamental resource for the growth and development of the whole Trentin community.
The archaeological site in Monte San Martino hosts very important elements which bear witness to the hard years going back to Goths, Byzantines, Lombards and Frankish in the Trentin territory.
The Cave of Archaeology in Villa Doria (Genoa – Italy)
Saturday, the 16th June 2007, the Cave of Archaeology, an area of experimental archaeology has been introduced and opened to the public, realized inside the anti-aerial shelter of Villa Doria in Genoa (Italy) and it’s targeting people interested in re-living the prehistory of Liguria.
Among the trees at “Parco di Villa Doria”, behind Piazza Bonavino di Pegli, the entrance of an anti-aerial shelter is situated, dug on a side of the hill. Its appearance is similar to that of a cave, also thanks to the setting in which it’s placed, safe and distant from the city noise.
The refuge, dug during the Second World War to protect the citizens of Pegli from the bombardments, now welcomes this underground space inspired by the caves of Liguria, in which the public may enter, discover and test tools, instruments, daily objects, monuments, difficulties and experiences of the daily life during the prehistoric era.
This is a new way of discovering and understanding the prehistoric era and the historic roots of the European continent, thanks to which the visitors can test the daily problems and situations, from the ignition of fire to the preparation of food, from the manufacturing of instruments made of rock to the creation of ornaments, to the paintings made with ochre and natural pigments.
The Cave of Archaeology has been designed starting from the attestations and findings present in the collections of the Museum and from the results of the archaeological researches. It will be possible inside it to find some of the life conditions of a cave during the prehistoric age. In this space, materials reconstructed by the international scientific team coordinated by the Museum will be introduced. The research done by the team included archaeological tests intended to confirm the hypothesis developed by the scientists on specific subjects.
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