Archaeological Civic Museum "C. Cellini" of Ripatransone

Ripatransone

The territory of Ripatransone has been the site of human activity since prehistoric times because of its strategic position on the ridge to the north of the Tesino valley, just a few kilometers from the Adriatic coast. The Civic Archaeological Museum of Ripatransone, built around the collection of parish priest Don Cesare Cellini, gathers the traces of this activity from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. The extremely rich collection of the museum is set up in four sections: the prehistoric, the protohistoric, the Roman and the Medieval. There are several finds dating from Neolithic and Chalcolithic; very interesting are those which document the activity related to the Bronze Age, particularly the famous " ripostiglio di Ripatransone", a trove consisting of a series of fifteen daggers dating to the early Bronze Age found in the territory and now kept at the Ancona National Archaeological Museum of the Marche . The richness and peculiarity of the testimonies that document the Picene presence, along with the aforementioned Bronze Age finds, make the collection one of the most interesting in the area for the pre-Roman period. As for the Roman period, when Ripatransone's territory passed under the administrative control of the city of Cupra Maritima, there are also many finds of the highest quality, especially as regards statuary and epigraphic material. Lastly, and most recently exhibited, is the section dedicated to the Early Middle Ages, which brings together finds from the territory.