Housed in a neoclassical villa in the Villa Comunale park, Abruzzo's best archaeological museum displays a comprehensive collection of local finds, illuminating Chieti's three millennia of existence. While the primary focus is on the vanished worlds of the Marrucini, Aequi, Marsi, Sabini and other tribes that inhabited central Italy prior to Roman expansion, there are also plenty of Roman artefacts. Of particular note are impressive coin hoards and classical sculpture – including a colossal seated Hercules from the 1st century BC.
The museum's undoubted pride of place goes to the 6th-century-BC 'Warrior of Capestrano', considered the most important pre-Roman find in central Italy. Mystery surrounds the identity of the warrior, but there are some who reckon it to be Numa Pompilio, the second king of Rome, and successor to Romulus.