The Museum of Origins was founded in 1942 by Ugo Rellini , professor of Paleontology at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" .

Born from an initial nucleus of collections donated by Rellini himself, the heritage of the Museum of Origins has grown over time thanks to the research activities of the then existing Institute of Paleontology, the exchanges carried out with other Italian and foreign museums and loans granted by various Italian Superintendencies.

Most of the finds in the Museum of Origins come from surface research and archaeological excavations carried out mainly in central-southern Italy and the islands.

In over seventy years of existence, the layout of the Museum of Origins was renovated for the first time by S. Puglisi in 1962 on the occasion of the VI International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences and, subsequently, in 1992. proceeded to a complete reorganization of the structure, which included a more functional set-up project and specific spaces dedicated to teaching.

The purpose of the exhibition itinerary of the Museum of Origins is to frame the different materials from a chronological and cultural point of view, reconstructing the ways of production and use and illustrating the different aspects of archaeological research. The archaeological artefacts are accompanied by a rich explanatory and iconographic apparatus.

Starting from the first attestations of human cultures at the beginning of the Paleolithic, a long journey takes place through the history of man up to the first Iron Age, that is, at the threshold of the historical age. Thematic insights related to social organization, subsistence activities, funeral rituals, technology allow to know in greater detail the ways of life and the ideological world of the communities of the past. The material on display is for the most part original , supplemented by some casts and reconstructions.