The Museo Civico Archeologico is located in the heart of the historic center, just a few steps from Piazza Maggiore. Open since 1881, it houses the collections from the ancient University Museum, from the collection of the painter Pelagio Palagi, and the artifacts from the excavations carried out in Bologna and its territory between the late 19th century and the early 20th century. It is among the most important Italian archaeological collections, especially regarding Etruscan history, and its Egyptian collection is one of the most important in Europe.

The visit can be structured following two main itineraries: the HISTORY OF BOLOGNA from prehistory to the Roman era, and the path of the HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS, which includes Egyptian, prehistoric, Greek, Roman, and Etrusco-Italic antiquities.

Among the historical collections of the Museum stands out the Egyptian collection, which preserves the precious reliefs from the tomb of Horemheb in Saqqara and the beautiful funerary statuette ("ushabti") of Pharaoh Sety I. Also noteworthy are the Etrusco-Italic collection, the Roman collection, and the Greek collection: the latter preserves the marble head of the Lemnian Athena, an Augustan copy of the bronze statue by Phidias placed at the entrance of the Acropolis of Athens in the 5th century BC. 

Within the rich archaeological documentation of Bologna, which illustrates the oldest history of the city and the surrounding territory from the Paleolithic to the Roman era, the materials of the Etruscan civilization, including the Benacci askos, the Certosa situla, and the imposing sandstone steles, constitute the most important nucleus of the Museum and document the development of Felsina (the Etruscan name of Bologna) from the 9th century BC to the early 4th century BC. The Gallic section documents the presence of the Celts in the city between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, as well as the well-documented life of the Roman city of Bononia, founded in 189 BC. The beautiful headless statue of Nero that welcomes visitors in the Museum's atrium is attributed to the decoration of the Roman theater, unearthed in the current city center.