National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia
The Aquileia museum is important as a museum of north-eastern Italy, the Adriatic and a Late Antique city. It presents Aquileia as a port, trade node, military and religious centre between Italy, the Balkans and the Danube.
Aquileia gives important material for a region often lost between Rome, Pompeii and the Danube frontier. The museum is important for glass, amber, inscriptions, mosaics, funerary monuments and trade.
Collection and Historical Context
Aquileia is especially strong as a contact node and should not be reduced to an Italian urban museum. emphasize its frontier and transit position.
Work with this museum requires three levels to be kept separate: display, catalogue and archaeological context. The display shows the object's form and scale, the catalogue clarifies date, material, inventory number and collection history, while context explains whether the object came from a house, cemetery, sanctuary, fort, workshop or urban monument.
A single famous exhibit is not always typical. Series are more reliable: several vessels of one type, a group of inscriptions, a funerary assemblage, repeated military fittings or several related sculptural solutions. National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia should therefore be read not only through its most famous objects, but through the links between galleries, collections and findspots.
Display and Main Materials
Inscriptions, glass vessels, jewellery, coins, funerary reliefs, mosaics and port material deserve attention. The objects should be read through roads, the sea and connections with northern provinces.
In the museum display it is important to look not only at individual masterpieces but at the neighbourhood of objects: sculpture, inscriptions, pottery, coins, architectural fragments and everyday items often explain one another better than an isolated photograph.
Phoenix mosaic in the Archaeological Museum of Aquileia. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Aberford 11. Roman coin; nummus of house of Theodosius, prob aquileia mint. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman Coin: Bronze nummus of the Emperor Constantine Mint: Aquileia, (341-346). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.Related Topics
- Museums of Antiquity
- Carnuntum and Museum Carnuntinum
- National Roman Museum
- Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier
- Roman Archaeological Sources
Official Pages and Catalogues
Roman coin: nummus of Valens, GLORIA ROMANORVM, Aquileia, obv. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman coin: nummus of Valens, GLORIA ROMANORVM, Aquileia, rev. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman coin; Valens nummus, SECVRITAS REI PVBLICAE reverse, Aquileia mint. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
BUC-D3C2C1 COIN (FindID 425888). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman Coin: Valens; bronze, Aquileia. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman Coin Hoard.Treasure case no. 2012 T288. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman coin hoard : vessel. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Statue of Augustus 01 (49345991703). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Statue of Augustus 02 (49346453641). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Statue of Augustus 03 (49346666412). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman Bronze Coin (FindID 273906). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.
Roman Coin : Nummus of Gratian. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia.Interested in Ancient Rome beyond reading? Join Legio X Fretensis or explore our reenactment directions.
