Prehistoric discoveries preserved in the Scarabelli museum

The municipal museum Giuseppe Scarabelli in Imola, is an important element in the history of science, because it still maintains the original layout of a 19th century scientific museum. Most of the exhibits are the results of the researches conducted by Giuseppe Scarabelli (1820-1905), considered by many the founder of prehistoric scientific studies in Italy as well as a distinguished scholar of geology of the Apennine Hills.

In the museum there are numerous interesting geological and prehistoric collections, many which still today represent a fundamental testimony for the reconstruction of the prehistoric past of the territory of Imola.

Numerous fossils illustrate the various forms of life of the past that occupied the seas (which eventually dried out about 6 million years ago).

The most recent traces of the sea, which covered the flatlands, are the so-called sabbie gialle (yellow sands). These layers of sand, mud, and clay that deposited here about 7-800.000 years ago in the low waters or on the beaches, preserved animal skeletons that lived in the nearby lands such as rhinoceroses, elephants and other large mammals like hippopotamuses, deer and bison.

In the museum there are also prehistoric handcrafts and stone arrows dating back to about two hundred thousand years ago - the early Palaeolithic period - which were found by Giuseppe Cerchiari and Giuseppe Scarabelli. Other objects such as flint-stone arrows and stone axe blades date back to a period between 8 thousand and 3 thousand years ago i.e. Neolithic period and of the metal age.

The important archaeological discovery of Scarabelli on the hill of Monte Castellaccio has permitted us to reconstruct rather well how a village of the bronze age of about 3500 years ago was organised: the huts, probably not more than 15, were all built around a clearing; nearby they reared animals, cultivated the land and made handicrafts.

The bones found by Scarabelli indicated the presence of dogs, cows, sheep, goats, pigs and horses as well as many wild animals which today have disappeared from the area such as wolves, bears, deer and beavers. The villagers created ornaments, weapons, and utensils such as axes and scythes with the bronze and a large quantity of pottery.

Archaeology