The Ministry of Culture, with its Directorate-General for Museums and Directorate-General for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, is participating in the European Archaeological Days (GEA) again this year, scheduled for June 13-15, 2025, with various initiatives throughout the country to raise public and community awareness of the protection and promotion of the national archaeological heritage.
The National Museum of Abruzzo, which acquired the Amiternum Archaeological Park in July 2024, participates in the GEA by organizing cultural events of an educational and informative nature.
The new partial layout of Room A will be presented at a press conference on June 13th at 12:00 p.m. This was made possible thanks to the recent allocation of archaeological finds from the deposits of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Chieti and Pescara. These finds are now on public display for the first time, having been unearthed during excavations conducted at Amiternum in 2014.
Four of the five stone sculpture fragments have previously been stored in the SABAP Chieti-Pescara storage facilities in Sulmona and Chieti, due to the fact that the Archaeological Park was under the jurisdiction of the aforementioned Superintendency during the year the excavations were carried out. Following subsequent ministerial reforms, the Park has been managed by SABAP AQ-TE and the Abruzzo Regional Museums Directorate.
Almost a year after the Park was formally reassigned to MuNDA, these artefacts from the city of Amiternum have returned to their original location and are finally on display, offering an interesting comparison between the Portrait of a Private Man from the Museum’s collections and the Portrait of a Private Man with a Veiled Head from the Chieti storage facility.
The presentation of the new layout of Room A will take place on the first of three European Archaeology Days, during which the Museum guarantees the widest possible access to its collections and exhibition spaces related to the disciplines of archaeology and paleontology.
The Theater and Amphitheater of the Amiternum Archaeological Park will be open continuously from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. from June 13th to 15th; on the final day, June 15th, the Theater will close at 6:00 p.m.
On Saturday, June 14th, a free guided tour of the Amphitheater led by Museum staff will be available at 11:00 a.m., subject to availability.
On Sunday, June 15th, at 5:00 PM, a free guided tour led by Museum staff will be available at the Theater, subject to availability.
The east bastion of the 16th-century Castle, which houses the fossilized mammoth skeleton, will be open on June 14th and 15th from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM (last admission at 6:30 PM). A free guided tour will also be available here on June 14th at 5:00 PM, with admission subject to the applicable fee.
The GEA initiative is coordinated by the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) under the auspices of the French Ministry of Culture and with the patronage of the Council of Europe.
In 2019, the JNA (Journées nationales de l’archéologie) opened its doors to Europe, and since 2020, the National Archaeology Days have been renamed the European Archaeology Days (Journées européennes de l’archéologie or JEA).
