To Host Archaeological Findings and the
Mummy
The… Desire for a Museum for Torricella
Many archaeological discoveries have been made in
the zone around Torricella. At the National Museum in Chieti, a helmet,
called
“The Torricellan Helmet”[1]
is one of its “star attractions” and it is often sent to be exhibited
elsewhere, outside of Italy too.
A
lot of other material is currently preserved in the village. There are
pieces of pottery, weapons, fancy goods, all found either in Juvanum or
in the countryside around Torricella. They have been collected with
loving care by the Parish Priest,
Don
Ignazio Cocco, who has undertaken to
clean them, catalogue them and photograph them. He has also had to
protect his small treasure from the Superintendent of Antiquities who
would have liked to remove it all. To do what with it?
Probably just to put it all into storage and
abandon it there. Don Ignazio, supported by the Mayor and all the
citizens, said no, the findings shall not leave Torricella. He was such
a hard, strongman that in the end the Torricellans won. The findings
will stay in the village provided that the Town Hall will provide a
place in which they can be displayed to the public. This undertaking has
been agreed upon and soon will become a reality. There will be space of
about two hundred square feet in which all the zone’s findings will be
on display - and there will also be asylum for the Mummy[2]
which was found during restoration works at the Church of San Giacomo. A
perfectly preserved mummified body was discovered together with some
skeletons when they were digging beneath the floor. At the moment this
Mummy can be found in a room set aside for it by the Town Hall under
supervision of the Superintendent but its definitive place will be in
the small Museum[3]
that will be set up.
see
-The
Ostrogoth Helmet of Torricella Peligna
**Additional
Translator’s note:
A fascinating by-product of my searching
the internet for details about the Museum at Torricella Peligna, in an
attempt to find out more about it – was that I came across this:-
In America there is a manufacturer of reproduction armour
and they copy the plated helmet, basing it on the famous Torricellan
one!!
Spangenhelm
$660
+ $30 shipping and handling
This type of Spangenhelm (so called since it is constructed of
“spangen” or plates, riveted together by means of connecting bands) was
in use throughout Europe for hundreds of years from the beginning of the
Migration Period until the early Viking age. The few remaining examples,
from graves of Frankish chieftains, are decoratively embossed and
gilded. Our version eliminates the embossing and gilding, in an attempt
to reproduce the type worn by the common soldier. The body of the helmet
is 16 gauge steel, with a 14 gauge nasal.
Original: Circa 6th Century Germanic, Find place: Torricella Peligna in
the Abruzzi, Ancona Museum
[2]
This article, above, was written in 1994. For more about the Mummy
see preceding articles in Amici di Torricella –
Also see a recent scientific
article describing the mummy :
The Mummy From Torricella Peligna
[3]
Regarding the long story of non-provision of the much desired
Museum, under the modern-day page, (written in the last couple of
years, approx. 2004-2006), headed
“Places to See”
we have the evidence that finally the Museum has indeed been set up –
even though it has taken so many years to fulfill.
The town preserves, in the territorial
Museo (Museum
) recently opened, an interesting collection of archaeological
objects found in the zone of JUVANUM. In the museum, in a glass
case* and climatized, is a mummy of the eighteenth century, found under
the parish church during restoration work.
* in a “vacuum
reliquary”
