The Museo della steatite a Groppallo (Soapstone Museum) offers visitors a unique experience: a fascinating journey through time spanning over 30,000 years of history, from the earliest traces of Neanderthals to the Middle Ages.
Situated in an area of extraordinary historical significance, the museum recounts the human presence on Monte Lama, where Neanderthals once lived, through artefacts and reconstructions that shed light on the evolution of communities in the region.
Among the museum’s main attractions is the extraordinary discovery of the ‘chain’ of soapstone bead-making, unearthed during excavations on Mount Castellaro. This find is of national significance: with around 90,000 catalogued artefacts, it is in fact one of the most important Italian sites linked to the working of this material, also known as talc.
Another item of great historical value is a very rare medieval coin: the Piacenza mezzo denaro, dated around 1140, from the time of Frederick Barbarossa. It is the only example of its kind in Italy, discovered during the archaeological excavations of 2006. For conservation reasons, the museum displays a faithful reproduction or an image of the original, which is kept at Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza.
The exhibition is further enriched by artefacts unearthed during the 2011 excavations, including thousands of charred seeds from an ancient granary. These finds provide valuable insight into the agricultural and dietary practices of the past, with crops such as einkorn and emmer wheat (spelt) being fundamental to the diet of local communities.