Archaeological

collections

The Archaeological collection hall is located beside the Paolo Paschetto showroom, on the first floor of the Foundation's building. In more than a century of history, three groupings of archaeological finds have come to compose the collection.

The first set was acquired by the museum in the first half of the 20 th century from the Valleys and the Pinerolo environs. It includes prehistoric finds such as engraved stones, carved flint stones and moulds of stone inscriptions, as well as Gallic and Roman finds such as spearheads, amber necklaces, rings and terracotta vases.
The second set is a small collection of Phoenician objects coming from the island of Mozia on the West coast of Sicily. These pieces were found by the English consul of Marsala W. Gray and in 1937 they were donated to the museum.
The larger and most recently acquired part of the collection was donated to the Tavola Valdese in 1995 by the Marquis Eduardo Oreste Giovanni Ippolito. The Waldensian Cultural Centre Foundation was entrusted with the preservation and care of the objects.
Over 200 archaeological finds compose the collection, mainly from Mediterranean lands but also from other continents. The largest group of objects is a set of ceramics from Greece and Magna Graecia, with red and black figures, dating to the 7 th and 3 rd centuries BC. Also included are Italic and Roman ceramics; Etruscan oil-lamps; Greek, Roman and Italic bronzes and jewellery; several Greek, Roman and Magna Graecia statues; a rather extensive collection of statuettes and scarabs from Ancient Egypt; finds from the ancient Near-East; and a small set of prehistoric, mediaeval and pre-Columbian civilization finds can also be viewed.

opening times

• collections
• Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
  3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
  July and August:
  every day 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
  Annual closure:
  December and January