The Tyrrhenian area is extraordinarily rich in raw materials: green stone, obsidian, marble, jasper, copper, which for over 7,000 years were sought and then transported over land and sea routes to be used to create famous works of art around the world. In this room it is possible to discover their characteristics, see them and hold them in your hands.

In the Genoa area, the first human presence is a grain of wheat cultivated between 5470 and 5220 years BC. At a depth of over 20 meters below what is now Piazza della Vittoria. In the 7th century, the city was a landing place for Etruscan ships and an important junction between the Tyrrhenian routes and the land routes controlled by the Ligurian tribes of the Genoese hinterland. The port, was the base for the Roman fleet during the wars against the Carthaginians, and remained important even after the reconstruction of Genoa, the point of passage of the legions and goods towards the Po Valley even in the late empire, when Milan had become the capital of the Roman Empire, Genoa was it’s Tyrrhenian port: numerous artefacts from Roman shipwrecks, such as those shown in the first display case of this room, offer valuable information on trade routes in the Tyrrhenian Sea.