Narrate and communicate History in the absence of written sources in museums

Abstract

The experience of the MUV – Museo della civiltà Villanoviana di Castenaso (BO) is an example of teaching history in an archaeological museum. It's complex because there aren't written sources, but archaeological, material, iconographic and architectural sources. An archaeological museum needs to explain immersively how people lived in the past, through objects, words, images and sounds. The visit to the museum must be configured as a storytelling, an experience that shows how history is deeply linked to the present: in museum the visitor "touches" the archaeological artifacts, which are the product of what history left us. Two different effects result: resonance, for which the exhibited object becomes the index fossil of a civilization; wonder, for which the evidence instills a feeling of uniqueness and amazement.