Museo Archeologico Nazionale

The Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Campli is an archaeology museum located in Campli, a town in the Province of Teramo within Italy's Abruzzo region. Housed in the convent of San Francesco, the museum was inaugurated in June 1988 and serves as the principal repository for archaeological finds from the nearby necropolis of Campovalano. Its collections are of particular significance for understanding Iron Age and Romanisation burial practices in central Italy, spanning from the 9th to the 3rd century BC.

The museum opened in June 1988, occupying four rooms of the convent of San Francesco in Campli. Its establishment was directly tied to approximately forty years of archaeological research at the necropolis of Campovalano, which yielded 610 burials dating from the Iron Age through the period of Romanisation. Since December 2014, the museum has been managed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage through the Polo museale dell'Abruzzo, which became the Direzione regionale Musei in December 2019.

The exhibition path is organised across three main rooms containing more than 30 display cases and showcases. The collections derive from funerary furnishings recovered from the Campovalano necropolis burials. An educational path traces the evolution of funeral rites across centuries. The oldest funerary monuments featured large mounds with circles of stones. Male burials from this period included weapons, bronze utensils, and war or parade chariots, while female burials contained bronze fibulae and jewellery in amber and glass paste. The display documents a gradual decrease in grave goods over time, reflecting the transition to classical Roman culture.

The museum's holdings consist primarily of objects from the 610 excavated burials at Campovalano. Notable categories include weapons and bronze vessels from male burials, bronze fibulae, and amber and glass paste jewellery from female burials. The collection also includes war and parade chariots, among the most distinctive artefacts from the early phase of the necropolis. These materials collectively illustrate changing social structures and cultural contacts from the Iron Age through Romanisation.

The museum occupies four rooms within the convent of San Francesco in Campli. This religious building provides the architectural setting for the exhibition spaces, which are organised to guide visitors through the chronological and thematic development of the Campovalano necropolis materials.

The Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Campli is located in Campli, Province of Teramo, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The museum's official website is http://www.archeoabruzzo.beniculturali.it/campli1.html. It operates under the management of Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage, specifically through the regional museum directorate system established for Abruzzo.