The archaeological park and open-air museum at the Middle Bronze Age site of Montale (Modena- Italy)

The idea of opening an archaeological park and open-air museum dedicated to the terramare civilization, which developed in the Middlle and Recent bronze Age /1650 - 1150 B.C.) in the Po River Plain, came as response by the Modena Civic Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to an increasing demand for new methodsof exhibitions past cultures, capable to combine a sound scientific approach with a high level of iteraactivity. From this point of view, the existence a Montale of a still partially preserved terramara, where the Modena Museum has been conducting fruitful research excavation since the 19th century and which was the source of most of the museum's terramare exhbits, offered an excellent opportunity. Thanks to the support of the EU programme Archeolive, a project was launched that starting from archaeological investigation at Montale site could lead to a museographic presentation using methods typically employed in the archaeological open-air museums of Central and Northern Europe, where archaeological setting are reconstructed with a highly evocative approach.