Marsala's finest treasure is the partially reconstructed remains of a Carthaginian liburna (warship) sunk off the Egadi Islands during the First Punic War. Displayed alongside objects from its cargo, the ship's bare bones provide the only remaining physical evidence of the Phoenicians' seafaring superiority in the 3rd century BC, offering a glimpse of a civilisation extinguished by the Romans.
Among the objects found on board the ship and displayed here are ropes, cooking pots, corks from amphorae, a brush, olive stones, a sailor's wooden button and even a stash of cannabis. In an adjacent room, the impressive wreck of a Roman merchant vessel dating to the 3rd or 4th century AD is displayed. A third room displays other regional archaeological artefacts including a marble statue known as La venere di lilybaeum (The Venus of Lilybaeum) and some mosaics from the 3rd and 5th centuries AD.
Post-museum, don't miss an explorative stroll in the museum gardens, aka the Insula Romana, a vast archaeological site encompassing the remains of a 3rd-century Roman villa and a well-preserved Decumanus Maximus (Roman ceremonial road) paved with giant stones.
