The Archaeological Museum is one of the exhibition venues of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, an institute of the Ministry of Culture with special autonomy.

It is located in the ancient Castello district, inside the Cittadella dei Musei built between 1956 and 1979 with the recovery of the royal Arsenal and the medieval walls designed by architects Libero Cecchini and Piero Gazzola.

It is the most important archaeological museum in Sardinia with over 4000 objects that tell a story almost 7000 years long, from Prehistory to the Early Middle Ages, from Neolithic mother goddesses to Nuragic bronzes, from Phoenician and Punic jewels to Roman statuary and finally to cult objects from the Byzantine era.

The birth of the archaeological museum of Cagliari dates back to 1800, when the Viceroy Carlo Felice, accepting the proposal of Cavalier Baylle, had the Cabinet of Archeology and Natural History set up in a room of the Viceregal Palace, like a wunderkammer, or a room of wonders where putting together unique, highly valuable and particular objects.

In 1904, in the space previously occupied by the Royal Mint in Piazza Indipendenza, the Royal Archaeological Museum was built based on a design by Dionigi Scano. Then moved in 1993 to the “Cittadella dei Musei” complex.

The museum's collections are housed on four floors which correspond to different exhibition themes.

The ground floor offers a chronological-educational itinerary that crosses the history of human presence in Sardinia from the ancient Neolithic to the Middle Ages. The materials on display come both from the first private collections that formed the original nucleus of the museum heritage and from the various archaeological excavations that have affected and continue to affect the territory.

The first and second floors follow a topographical arrangement. Some of the most important archaeological sites in Sardinia are represented: Cagliari and its neighboring centres, Monte Sirai, Sant'Antioco, Bithia, Nora, as well as the main Nuragic centres.