The National Archaeological Museum ( es, Museo Arqueológico Nacional; MAN) is a museum in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Spain. It is located on

Calle de Serrano The calle de Serrano, or simply Serrano, is a street in Madrid, Spain. It is noted as location for luxury flagship stores. The urbanisation took off in 1863, with the construction of the first housing in the street. Initially known as Bulevar Nar ...

beside the

Plaza de Colón Plaza de Colón (''Columbus Square'', in English) is located in the encounter of Chamberí, Centro and Salamanca districts of Madrid, Spain. This plaza and its fountain commemorate the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose name in Spanish was Cri ...

, sharing its building with the National Library of Spain.

History

The museum was founded in 1867 by a Royal Decree of

Isabella II Isabella II ( es, Isabel II; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904), was Queen of Spain from 29 September 1833 until 30 September 1868. Shortly before her birth, the King Ferdinand VII of Spain issued a Pragmatic Sanction to ensure the successi ...

as a depository for numismatic, archaeological, ethnographical and decorative art collections of the Spanish monarchs. The establishment of the museum was predated by a previous unmaterialised proposal by the

Royal Academy of History The Real Academia de la Historia (RAH, 'Royal Academy of History') is a Spanish institution in Madrid that studies history "ancient and modern, political, civil, ecclesiastical, military, scientific, of letters and arts, that is to say, the diff ...

in 1830 to create a museum of antiquities. The museum was originally located in the Embajadores district of Madrid. In 1895, it moved to a building designed specifically to house it, a neoclassical design by architect Francisco Jareño, built from 1866 to 1892. In 1968, renovation and extension works considerably increased its area. The museum closed for renovation in 2008 and reopened in April 2014. Following a restructuring of the collection in the 1940s, its former pieces relative to the section of American Ethnography were transferred to the Museum of the Americas, while other pieces from abroad were destined to the

National Museum of Ethnography The National Museum of Ethnography (Polish: ''Państwowe Muzeum Etnograficzne w Warszawie'') is a museum of ethnography in Warsaw, Poland. It was established in 1888. Collection and exhibitions The collection is made up of objects, folk art, ...

and to the

National Museum of Decorative Arts The National Museum of Decorative Arts is an art museum in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina. History The museum has its origins in a marriage in 1897 between two prominent members of turn-of-the-century Argentine high society: Matías Errazúri ...

. Its current collection is based on pieces from the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

, from

Prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

to Early-Modern Age. However, it also has different collections coming from outside of Spain, especially from

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...

, both from the metropolitan and, above all, from Magna Graecia, and, to a lesser extent, from Ancient Egypt, in addition to "a small number of pieces" from Near East.

Permanent exhibition

Forecourt

In the forecourt is a replica of the

Cave of Altamira The Cave of Altamira (; es, Cueva de Altamira ) is a cave complex, located near the historic town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. It is renowned for prehistoric cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contem ...

from the 1960s. Photogrammetry was used to reproduce the famous paintings on a mould of the original cave. The replica cave is related to an exhibit at the

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from ...

in Munich.

Main building

Visitors enter the building at basement level, and pass to the prehistory section.

Protohistory

The halls devoted to the Protohistory of the Iberian Peninsula (1st floor) exhibit pieces from a number of Pre-Roman peoples existing roughly along the 1st millennia BC, as well as from the Punic-Phoenician colonisation. The former includes items from the

Talaiotic culture The Talaiotic Culture or Talaiotic Period is the name used to describe the society that existed on the Gymnesian Islands (the easternmost Balearic Islands) during the Iron Age. Its origins date from the end of the second millennium BC, when the i ...

, Iberian, Celtic, and Tartessian artifacts. The collection of

Iberian sculpture Iberian sculpture, a subset of Iberian art, describes the various sculptural styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze Age up to the Roman conquest. For this reason it is sometimes described as Pre-Roman Iberian sculpture. Almost all ex ...

from southern and southeastern Iberia is particularly notable, including stone sculptures such as the iconic

Lady of Elche The ''Lady of Elche'' (in Spanish, ''Dama de Elche'' in Valencian, ''Dama d'Elx'') is a limestone bust that was discovered in 1897, at ''La Alcudia'', an archaeological site on a private estate two kilometers south of Elche, Spain. It is curren ...

, the Lady of Baza, the

Lady of Galera Lady of Galera is an alabaster female figurine, made in the 7th century BC, that probably represents the Near Eastern goddess Astarte. It is at the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid. The Lady of Galera is most likely of Phoenici ...

, the Dama del Cerro de los Santos, the Bicha of Balazote, the Bull of Osuna, the Sphinx of Agost, one of the two or the Mausoleum of Pozo Moro. File:Proyecto REMAN3D 18529 (44188146514).jpg, Bicha of Balazote File:Lady of Elche.jpg,

File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 1969-68-155-123A - Dama de Baza 01.jpg, Lady of Baza File:Gran Dama Oferente (M.A.N. Madrid) 02.jpg, Lady of Cerro de los Santos File:Toro ibero de Osuna - M.A.N. 01.jpg, Bull of Osuna File:Leona de Baena (40730657161).jpg, File:Madrid Pozo Moro 15.JPG, Iberian mausoleum of Pozo Moro. Aside from the set of Iberian sculpture, the area also hosts other items from different cultures, such as the Talaiotic bulls of Costitx, the torque of Ribadeo from the

Castro culture Castro culture ( gl, cultura castrexa, pt, cultura castreja, ast, cultura castriega, es, cultura castreña, meaning "culture of the hillforts") is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Pe ...

in northwestern Iberia, or the Lady of Ibiza, associated to the Punic civilization. File:Costitx M.A.N. 01.JPG, Bull heads of Costitx File:Torque de oro procedente de Ribadeo - M.A.N.jpg, Torque of Ribadeo File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 1923-60-541 - Dama de Ibiza 01.jpg, Punic Lady of Ibiza File:Rueda de carro de Toya. Yacimiento del Cerro de la Horca - M.A.N.jpg, Wheel of Toya File:Sacerdote de Cádiz - M.A.N. 02.jpg, The Priest of Cadiz.

Roman Hispania

The collection of Hispano-Roman artifacts—located in the 1st floor—comes both from diggings at specific archaeological sites as well as from punctual purchases. The collection of Roman artifacts is completed by items from the personal collection of the

Marquis of Salamanca A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...

(purchased in 1874 and comprising artifacts from the ''

Paestum Paestum ( , , ) was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia (southern Italy). The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order, dating from about 550 to 450 BC, whi ...

'' and '' Cales'' sites in the Italian Peninsula). The main room of the area is a courtyard, where the artifacts are placed creating a sort of ''forum''-like arrangement. Meanwhile, the room #27 exhibits a number of mosaics both on its floor and walls. The collection of Hispano-Roman legal bronzes includes the '' Lex Ursonensis'', comprising five pieces found in the 1870s in

Osuna Osuna () is a town and municipality in the province of Seville, southern Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. , it has a population of c. 17,800. It is the location of the Andalusian Social Economy School. Among famous people associ ...

. File:Invierno M.A.N. 01.JPG, Mosaic of Winter, from

Quintana del Marco Quintana del Marco is a municipality located in the León (province), province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), INE), the municipality has a population of 516 inhabitants ...

File:Lex Ursonensis - tabla 1 (M.A.N. 16736) 01.jpg, One the slabs part of the '' Lex Ursonensis'' File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 33185 - Reloj solar de Baelo Claudia.jpg, File:Museo Arqueológico Madrid (17227637735).jpg, File:Mosaic of Medusa and the seasons, 4th cent., National Archeological Museum, Madrid (5) (29327256296).jpg, Mosaic of Medusa and the seasons from

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...

File:Statue of Hypnos, god of sleep, 2nd century AD, from Illici (Elche, Spain), National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid (15540840737).jpg, Hypnos from Algorós File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 2691 - Puteal de la Moncloa 03.jpg,

Late Antiquity

The halls corresponding to the

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

(1st floor) host pieces related to the period of time corresponding to the Lower Roman Empire in the Iberian Peninsula—the Diocesis Hispaniarum (3rd–5th centuries AD)—, the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo (6th-8th centuries AD), the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

(5th to 12th centuries AD), as well as some artifacts of other peoples from the Migration Period. Standout artifacts from this area include the , the Visigothic hoard of Guarrazar, including the

votive crown A votive crown is a votive offering in the form of a crown, normally in precious metals and often adorned with jewels. Especially in the Early Middle Ages, they are of a special form, designed to be suspended by chains at an altar, shrine or im ...

Recceswinth Recceswinth (died 1 September 672) was the Visigothic King of Hispania, and Septimania in 649–672. He ruled jointly with his father Chindaswinth until his father's death in 653. Name His Gothic name is believed to have been *𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌺 ...

, or the . File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 50310 - Sarcófago de Astorga.jpg, Paleochristian File:Corona de (29049230050).jpg, Votive crown of

File:Alovera M.A.N..JPG,

Medieval World, al-Andalus

The area dedicated to

al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

is located in the 1st floor. Iconic pieces from al-Andalus include the pyxis of Zamora (actually made in Medina Azahara), the or the marble font for ablutions of

Almanzor Abu ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Abi ʿĀmir al-Maʿafiri ( ar, أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر المعافري), nicknamed al-Manṣūr ( ar, المنصور, "the Victorious"), which is often Latiniz ...

. A Jewish bilingual chapitel from Toledo is also exhibited. Two items of the so-called stand out within the collection of . File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 52113 - Bote de Zamora 05.jpg, Pyxis of Zamora File:Cierva (40707126722).jpg, The , a bronze fountain File:M.A.N. Pila Madinat 01.JPG, Ablution font of Medina Alzahira File:Astrolabio (16787706916).jpg, , made in 1067 in Toledo by Ibrahim ibn Said al-Sahli File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 50419 - Jarrones de la Alhambra 01.jpg, One of the Alhambra vases

Medieval World, Christian kingdoms

The area dedicated to the medieval Christian Kingdoms (roughly ranging from the 8th to the 15th century) is located in the 2nd floor. Iconic pieces of Romanesque ivory craftsmanship include the ' and the

Crucifix of Ferdinand and Sancha The crucifix of Ferdinand and Sancha ( es, crucifijo de don Fernando y doña Sancha) is an ivory carving from ''circa'' 1063, today in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid. It was part of an offering by King Ferdinand I of Leó ...

. The medieval collection features the , made in

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...

and moved from the former to the National Archaeological Museum in 1868. It also displays a number of items of Levantine pottery. File:Crucifijo de don Fernando y doña Sancha.jpg,

File:ArquetaDeLasBienaventuranzas.jpg, File:M.A.N. - Estatua orante de Pedro I.jpg, File:M.A.N. Manises s. XV.JPG, Pottery from

Manises Manises (, ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Horta Oest in the Valencian Community, Spain. Located in the province of Valencia, it had 30,693 inhabitants in 2018 (NSI) and is famous for its pottery and being the location of Valencia Airp ...

Near East

The topic area devoted to the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

(conventionally excluding Ancient Egypt) is located at the 2nd floor. One of the most important sets of the MAN's Near East collection is that of pottery from Iran. The museum displays a

diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-sili ...

head from Mesopotamia donated to the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

in the 1940s by the Mexican collector

Marius de Zayas Marius de Zayas Enriquez y Calmet (March 13, 1880 – January 10, 1961), was an early 20th-century Mexican artist, writer and art gallery owner who was influential in the New York arts circles of the 1910s and 1920s. Life De Zayas was born to we ...

(later deposited in the MAN). 21st century purchases include that of the bought at Christie's in 2001. File:Jarra de pico (23790212323).jpg, Pottery from

Tepe Sialk Tepe Sialk ( fa, تپه سیلک) is a large ancient archeological site (a ''tepe'', "hill, tell") in a suburb of the city of Kashan, Isfahan Province, in central Iran, close to Fin Garden. The culture that inhabited this area has been linked t ...

File:Ladrillo de Gudea (M.A.N. 1973-58-PO-1) 01.jpg, Brick from

Girsu Girsu ( Sumerian ; cuneiform ) was a city of ancient Sumer, situated some northwest of Lagash, at the site of modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. History Girsu was possibly inhabited in the Ubaid period (5300-4800 BC), but sig ...

displaying

cuneiform writing Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

File:Estatuilla sumeria (23788534534).jpg, Praying Sumerian figure File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 1978-71-3 - Cabeza de Gudea 01.jpg, Head of Gudea ( Lagash period)

Egypt and Nubia

The collections of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

are made up mainly of funerary funds (amulets,

mummies A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

, steles, sculpture of divinities,

ushabti The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The Egyptological term is derived from , which replaced earlier , perhaps the nisba of "' ...

...) ranging from prehistory to Roman and medieval times. Many of the pieces come from purchases such as the one made from the collection of the Spanish Egyptologist Eduardo Toda y Güell and also from various excavations such as the ones carried in Egypt and Sudan as a result of the agreements with the Egyptian government for the construction of the Aswan Dam or the systematic excavations in

Heracleopolis Magna Heracleopolis Magna ( grc-gre, Μεγάλη Ἡρακλέους πόλις, ''Megálē Herakléous pólis'') and Heracleopolis (, ''Herakleópolis'') and Herakleoupolis (), is the Roman name of the capital of the 20th nome of ancient Upper Eg ...

. File:EstelaDeSeanJipta.jpg, Stele of Nebsumenu from the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 b ...

(1650–1550 BC) File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 2014 - Estatua de Harsomtus em hat 01.jpg, Basalt sculpture of Harsomtus em hat from th

twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) dynasty was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although others followed). The dynasty's reign (664–525 ...

. File:Sarcófago de Taremetchenbastet, hija de Ptahirdis. Periodo tardío de Egipto 01.jpg, Late period sarcophagus. File:Momia de cocodrilo, animal en el que se manifestaba el dios Sobek. Periodo tardío de Egipto.jpg, Cocodrile baby mummy. File:Horus (24337495031).jpg, Black basalt sculpture of horus. File:Nectanebo I (24419799605).jpg, Ptolemaic period sculpture.

Greece

The Greek collection is made up of works from continental Greece, Ionia, Magna Graecia and Sicily, where the collection of bronzes, terracottas, goldsmiths, sculptures and to a greater extent

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

come from; pieces that ranging from the Mycenaean to the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

period. In its beginnings, the collection had funds from the Royal Cabinet of Natural History and the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant wo ...

, the collection was later enriched with works brought from the expeditions of the frigate Arapiles to the East in addition to the purchase of private funds such as those of the

or those of Tomás Asensi. File:Archaic period.jpg, Archaic period hoplite armor set. File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 11094 - Crátera de la locura de Heracles 01.jpg, Crater of the Madness of Herakles. File:RitónConPerroDeApulia.jpg, Dog-headed

rhyton A rhyton (plural rhytons or, following the Greek plural, rhyta) is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table. A rhyton is typically formed in t ...

. File:Estatua romana de Heracles - MAN 01.jpg, Roman copy of a Lyssippus original.

Notable artifacts

;Prehistoric and Iberian *

* Lady of Baza *

* Dama del Cerro de los Santos * Biche of Balazote * Bull of Osuna * Magacela stele * Mausoleum of Pozo Moro * Sphinx of Agost ;Roman * Bear of Porcuna * Lex Ursonensis ;Medieval *

;

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

* Pyxis of Zamora *One of the

Alhambra vases Hispano-Moresque ware is a style of initially Islamic pottery created in Al-Andalus, which continued to be produced under Christian rule in styles blending Islamic and European elements. It was the most elaborate and luxurious pottery being pr ...

References

External links

National Archaeological Museum of Spain - MuseliaOfficial list of museums in SpainNational Archaeological Museum (Madrid)
within Google Arts & Culture * {{Authority control Archaeological Museums in Madrid Archaeological museums in Spain Museums established in 1867 Neoclassical architecture in Spain Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in Madrid Caves of Spain Replica caves 1867 establishments in Spain *