CARLO DE MARCHESETTI AND THE CIVIC MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITY OF TRIESTE (NORTHEAST ITALY): A ONE-HUNDRED-YEAR-LONG RELATIONSHIP

Carlo de Marchesetti is widely recognized as the most important scholar of the beginnings of Palaethnology, in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s, in the Caput Adriae, i.e. the regions bordering on the northern Adriatic Sea, part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire until WW1. His cultural background – a degree in medicine and a European reputation as botanist –, gave him a multidisciplinary approach to field research and study. His position as director of the Museum of Natural History in Trieste for over 40 years allowed him to establish institutional and personal relationships with museums, research centres and scholars in Europe and beyond: among his contacts, L. Pigorini, O. Montelius, R. Virchow, H. Schliemann and R.F. Burton, to name a few. Moreover, the findings from his field activities were stored, and are still largely preserved in his own Museum and, after his death, in the Civic Museum of Antiquity (artefacts); notes, documents, unpublished materials are also kept in the Civic Library. Materials and documents are fundamental to re-examine the pre-protohistoric findings in caves, castellieri (hillforts) and necropolises, since Marchesetti published many articles and two books – I castellieri preistorici di Trieste e della regione Giulia; Scavi nella necropoli di S. Lucia presso Tolmino 1885-1892 – to present the results of his excavations, but not all findings were included. Moreover, later advance in scientific theory and methods allow opening new lines of research, such as the recent bio-archaeological one on the Iron Age necropolis of S. Lucia near Tolmino/Most Na Soči (now Slovenia), where Marchesetti found 3960 cremation burials. Studies on the social structure, gender differentiation, metallurgical characteristics of bronze objects and typology of all materials found in this cemetery were carried out in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and at present a complete reexamination of the necropolis is in progress.