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Aeolian Islands - The Aeolian museum, the upper floor

Upper floor: Rooms XXI- XXVI – Greek and Roman burial ground from the district of Diana (Lipari). Excavations involved the exploration of about 3000 tombs and supplied a vast number of art exhibits for the Aeolian Museum, above all ceramics and painted terracotta pieces. The first tombs slightly post-date the foundation of the Greek colony (580 BC). The tombs with the richest array of funerla objects are those dating from the fourth century BC. A bowl dating from that century shows the episode from the Odissey where Maron, the priest of Apollo, gives Ulysses the flask of wine that he uses to make Polyphemus drunk. One of the bowls from the burial ground in Lipari is certainly the work of the ceramic artist called Assteas: it shows a wooden stage and a backdrop decorated with garlands and some actors performing before their god, Dionysos.

Another decorated bowl shows a scene from the story of Hyppolitus: the young men is riding a chariot drawn by four fiery steds across a beach. The horses are frightened by the sea-monsters called up by the anger of Aphrodite and begin to bolt. The chariot overturns and mangles Hyppolitus. Room XXIII contains the masks of tragedy and comedy and the painted terracotta pieces found in a small sanctuary dedicated to Demeter and Kore discovered in the District of Diana. At the far end of the same room there are some gold objects found among the burial array in the tombs from the fifth and sixth century BC in the burial ground at Diana. Room XXIV contains vases that are the work of the “Painter of Lipari” and his followers and some more gold objects found among the burial array in the tombs from the first half of the third century BC. Room XXV contains a reconstruction of a group of tombs from the burial ground. Room XXVI contains exhbits (ceramics, goold objects, lamps, glass) found among the burial array from tombs dating from the Roman period – i.e., after the destruction of Lipari in 252 BC, as well as the remains from the furnace found in the Portinenti district of Lipari, including vase fragments and, finally, mediaeval and Renaissance ceramics from the Norman cloister in the cathedral and from the excavations in the acropolis. When you are back on the ground floor, you can visit Room XXVII – the Marine Archeology area. This contains materials found during underwater exploration carried out in the past fifty years around the Aeolian archipelago. Of exceptional interest are the Capo Graziano prehistoric ceramics (ninenteenth to twenty-seventh century BC) found in the bay of Lipari. Then there is the later fragment of a Mycenaean amphora with handles from Filicudi (twenty-sixth to twenty-fifth century BC).

You can also see: amphorae from wrecks dating from the fifth-sixth century BC from Capo Graziano (Filicudi) and the Formiche (Panarea). Amphorae and grindstone from the Secca del Bagno (Lipari). Black ceramics from the Dattilo shipwreck (Panarea). Lead anchor shackles from various areas. Materials dating from various periods from Pignataro di Fuori. A large collection of amphorae and black ceramic pieces (Unit A) from the cargo of a ship that was wrecked on the shallows of Capistello off Lipari (middle of third century BC).
A large collection of amphorae and black ceramic pieces (Unit B) from the cargo of a ship that was wrecked near Capo Graziano off Filicudi (Wreck A – middle of second century BC): Imperial Roman amphorae from a wreck found off Panarea. Tin ingots, nuts and lumps of arsenic sulphate from Punta Crapazza, Lipari. Other amphorae and a millstone from Filicudi. In the Museum park you can see reconstructions of various types of stone sarcophagus found in the Greek burial ground in the Diana district. The geology-volcanology section of the Aeolian Museum has drawings, models and texts telling the geological history of the Aeolian Islands nds and the various events that led to the present conformation. It also exhibits samples of various local lava formations and minerals. Some of the introductory rooms use Aeolian materials to illustrate the principal volcanic phenomena. Finally, two rooms are dedicated to the econimic resources that the volcanic features of the islands have offered to inhabitants in various periods right through to the present dauy, the historical evidence of volcanic activity and the legends that this gave rise to in the ancient and mediaeval worlds.

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