The Regional Archaeological Museum (; MARPA) is an archaeological museum in

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the right (north) bank of the Henares River, Henares. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municip ...

, Spain, dependent on the regional administration of the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

History

Following the creation of the Community of Madrid in 1983 and the transfer to the former of the powers in cultural policies in 1985, a project to create a new regional museum was lined up, as the province of Madrid (already enjoying the National Archaeological Museum) had lacked until that point a provincial museum. The old convent of La Madre de Dios in

was chosen as location of the future museum in 1985 and, following works started in 1987, the museum was eventually opened on 25 May 1999.

Collection

The museum exhibits some paleontological findings such as a skull of

cave bear The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word ''cave'' and the scientific name '' ...

found in Patones in 1971, the biggest ever found in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

. The part of the museum devoted to the Roman period includes a number of

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

pieces and an important collection of Roman mosaics from Complutum, the Roman-era Alcalá de Henares. File:Machairodus aphanistus - Cerro de los Batallones - Museo Arqueológico Regional CAM.JPG, Skull of a '' Machairodus'' saber-toothed cat from the Cerro de los Batallones in Torrejón de Velasco File:Pátera de Titulcia.JPG, Carpetan File:Mosaico de Baco (Alcalá de Henares).jpg, Roman mosaic of

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...

from Complutum File:Olla (19826485532).jpg, 11th-century pot from the Cava Baja in Madrid

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * {{authority control Buildings and structures in Alcalá de Henares Museums in the Community of Madrid Archaeological museums in Spain Administration of the Community of Madrid