Guiding principles
Focus on visitors
Each person visits and enjoys the Museum in their own way. We want to respect this diversity of experience and understand our visitors as individuals with various interests, needs and aptitudes. Visitors bring a wealth of experience and knowledge with them, and their perspective is just as important as our own.
Contact, dialog, encounters
We see the Museum as a place of encounters: with ourselves, with the world around us, and with the artefacts. We want to help visitors enjoy new ways of experiencing the artefacts, to ask questions, to form opinions and to compare various points of view and experiences. Dialog is an integral part of the learning and experience process in the Museum.
A leisurely experience
In these times of ever greater and standardized sensory input and performance demands, we want to slow down the tempo and have the courage to appreciate silence, inspiration and emotion. We want to create a place where we can think about and develop ideas through experience, the body and the senses, a flexible place where the quality of what we experience is more important than the quantity of information conveyed.
Individual freedom and responsibility
Each and every one of us is important. Each visitor gets something different from the Museum, depending on what they absorb, what they want and their individual experience.
Artefacts from the past and present
The Museum is unique in giving visitors the opportunity to familiarize themselves with original finds, the stories behind them, the collective memories associated with them and how they are related to the present day. We believe that the Museum reflects real life, in which the past merges with our everyday life. Our work centers around the archeologic artefacts: they are valuable not just because of the “truths” they reveal about the past but also because of their relationship to all our lives.
Long-lasting knowledge
Experiences we take away with us from a museum visit should be long-lasting. The thoughts and images a visit evokes accompany us beyond the museum’s threshold and resurface in our daily lives if we can relate them to our own experiences. We want to create the conditions for a living museum, convey topics that visitors can relate to, find out where they come from and learn about the world in which they apply the experience gained in the museum.
Autonomous round tours for schools
Travel planning for teaching staff
A guide for Ötzi's world
The travel guide leads the students to Ötzi and his objects and allows them to explore the museum on an individual basis. The travel guide was produced by the educational team of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.Our aim is to promote the students’ understanding of archaeological topics. Specific activity sheets encourage them to explore topics relating to Ötzi.
Target group: 13–17 years. Teaching staff can choose between several options in advance depending on the group and the time available.
Round tours
Short tour
Route section A: Introduction (PDF) + Highlights (PDF)duration about 60 minutes
Longer tour
Route section B: Introduction (PDF) + Highlights (PDF) + Raw materials procurement (PDF) + Menhirs (PDF) + Stag Hunt (PDF)duration about 75 minutes
Route section C: Introduction (PDF) + Highlights (PDF) + Food and drink (PDF)
duration about 90 minutes
Route section D: Introduction (PDF) + Highlights (PDF) + Ötzi as a patient (PDF) + Murder case (PDF)
duration about 90 minutes
The complete guide book (27 pages, PDF)
Further links
Who Killed the Iceman? Clues Emerge in a Very Cold Case (The New York Times, 8 minutes read)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/26/world/europe/bolzano-italy-iceman-south-tyrol-museum-of-archaeology.html
Ötzi...how to pronounce (Video 0:54 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHd6-17wsrM
5,300 Years Ago, Ötzi the Iceman Died. Now We Know His Last Meal (National Geographic, 4 minutes read) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/07/news-otzi-iceman-food-DNA-diet-meat-fat/
First Technology – crops. How the Neolithic revolution changed the course of mankind's future (Radio show, 23 minutes)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03jry31
Practical information on visiting the museum
The original objects that can be researched are located on the 1st and 2nd floors of the museum.
Quiet places are marked on the museum map (PDF).
Teaching staff must supervise and are responsible for their classes throughout the visit. Please be considerate of other museum visitors.
We recommend that you make a reservation for your visit. Registered groups are guaranteed admission to the museum for the time reserved.
For registration you can also reach us by email at [email protected] or by phone T +39 0471 320 100 (Mon–Fri: 9.00 am to 1.00 pm)
The museum is barrier-free.
Guided tours – 50 minutes
- All
- Primary schools
- Secondary school I grade
- Secondary school II grade
