National Museum of Archaeology

Today was a gray, dreary day in Madrid... a good day for visiting a museum.  I had not been to the National Museum of Archaeology since my first trip to Spain way back in the 1970s.  The museum was closed in 2008 for renovations, and did not reopen earlier this year.  I wanted to see what is was like now, because, quite frankly, back in the 70s it struck me as a rather fusty, old place.  I am happy to report that the new and improved museum is spectacular!  Foreign tourists coming to Madrid usually concentrate on its art museums, but the Archaeology Museum is a gem which should be high on a visitor's list.  The collection on display is larger, the displays are more appealing, and the explanations (written in Spanish and English) provide visitors with a much better appreciation for what they are viewing.

 Only the Victorian exterior of the museum remains the same.

I personally thought that the two most impressive parts of the museum were the sections dealing with the Iberians and Romans.

The Iberians were the earliest historical inhabitants of Spain.  Their culture was influenced by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians who built trading colonies along the coast.

In the museum courtyard is a reconstructed Iberian burial monument.  Using the surviving pieces from the monument,  archaeologists have put together what it must have looked like.

 

There is a large collection of Iberian carvings.  Most of these pieces were found in grave sites, and most of them portray women.  Women held an important place in Iberian society, and family ancestry was traced through the female line.

The largest of these Iberian sculptures is a piece known as the "La Dama de Baza" (the Lady of Baza).  It dates from around 400 B.C. and represents an Iberian queen or noblewoman.  Traces of the original paint can still be seen.  A hole in the side of the statue would seem to indicate that it was used as a receptacle for the cremated remains of the woman.

The star of the museum is this Iberian bust known as "La Dama de Elche".  The enigmatic lady also dates from around 400 B.C.
  

I have long been fascinated with the Lady of Elche.  When I was in college I wrote a short story in Spanish about the statue and submitted it to a literary contest held by Sigma Delta Pi, the national Spanish honorary society.  In my story the lady is an Iberian queen, and she falls in love with a Greek sculptor who was taken prisoner by the Iberians.  She has the Greek sculpt her likeness.

I was reading the descriptive information about the bust, and I was quite surprised to learn that archaeologists now consider it quite likely that "La Dama de Elche" was carved by a Greek sculptor!

Since Spain was one of the most important provinces of the Roman Empire, it is not surprising that the museum has a large collection of Roman artifacts from Hispania.  You will find everything from everyday household objects to impressive pieces of sculpture and mosaic floors.

The museum also has a sizable collection of Romanesque and Gothic religious art from medieval Spanish churches and monasteries.

The renovated Archeological Museum is a new jewel in Madrid's crown of museums.