Museo di Antropologia, Centro Musei Scienze Naturali e Fisiche, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

The Museo di Antropologia of the Centro Musei delle Scienze Naturali e Fisiche of the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, founded in 1881, holds a heritage of over 26,000 items, divided into osteological, archaeological, and ethnographic collections. Several archaeological materials—essentially lithic artifacts and terracotta pieces—document the prehistory of North America. These objects come from different collections and are due to the dense network of antiquarian exchanges established by Professor Giustiniano Nicolucci, the Museum’s founder, with various scholars during the later nineteenth century; between 1870 and 1877 he gathered around fifty North American artifacts, some of which probably from the collection of Franklin Peale.

Noteworthy are the “Accademia” Collection, the Ignazio Cerio Collection, as well as four mummies from Chile, Bolivia, and Peru—recently subjected to a study and conservation project—and eight deformed crania from sites in what are now Bolivia and Chile. A small group of 12 artifacts comes instead from several Latin American countries (Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, the Gran Chaco in Argentina).