Collections

The collections originated from the findings unearthed in excavations made in the caves of the Apuan Alps and Mount Pisano by the local physician Carlo Regnoli near the end of the 19th century. The importance of these discoveries was such that the findings were displayed at the "Galerie du Travail" in the Universal Exposition of Paris held in 1867. The Regnoli collection includes artefacts in ceramics, in dressed stone, in bone and in metal from the period ranging from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. The original nucleus has been enriched over the years by material coming from excavations and research carried out in various parts of Italy by the professors and students of the University of Pisa. To these core collections, deriving from the activity of such personages as Antonio Mario Radmilli and Ezio Tongiorgi, have been added objects and plaster casts donated by scholars and private individuals. Of special interest are the naturalist collection and the palaeontological one (composed of the remains of mammals, microfauna and malacofauna) which were studied by Tongiorgi and by Radmilli in their investigation of environmental changes and types of economy in prehistoric times. Also noteworthy is what remains of the Graziani collection, formed by the famous expert in prehistoric times: over forty cartons on which are inserted stone and ceramic artifacts accompanied by Graziani's own captions.