The Museo Guarnacci, one of the oldest Italian archaeological museums, was founded in the middle of the 18th century thanks to the donation of Mario Guarnacci, a priest from Volterra, to all of the inhabitants of the city. Over the course of more than two centuries the collection has been continuously enriched by new objects found in Volterra and its territory.

A substantial part of the display is dedicated to cinerary urns in alabaster and tufo (with a few made of terracotta) produced at Volterra from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C. Visitors looking for scientific evidence will be interested in the laboratory set up on the museum's second floor. It is, in fact, a replica of the interior of an ancient workshop for the production of funerary urns. The implements used for processing alabaster are those of the modern craftsmen, who continue to follow an age-old tradition using tools very similar to the ancient ones.

A group of bronze surgical instruments (scalpels, spatulas, forceps), probably dating from the time of Imperial Rome, is also of interest.