The National Archaeological Museum (; MAN) is a archaeology museum in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain. It is located on Calle de Serrano beside the Plaza de Colón, sharing its building with the National Library of Spain. It is one of the National Museums of Spain and it is attached to the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...

History

The museum was founded in 1867 by a Royal Decree of

Isabella II Isabella II (, María Isabel Luisa de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904) was Queen of Spain from 1833 until her deposition in 1868. She is the only queen regnant in the history of unified Spain. Isabella wa ...

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 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 and to the National Museum of Decorative Arts. Its current collection is based on pieces from 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 ...

, from

Prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins 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 () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

, both from the metropolitan and, above all, from

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

, and, to a lesser extent, from

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

, in addition to "a small number of pieces" from

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

Permanent exhibition

Forecourt

File:Reproduction of the Altamira Cave.jpg, Replica of Altamira Cave paintings In the forecourt is a replica of the

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

from the 1960s.

Photogrammetry Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant ima ...

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 museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...

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 from southern and southeastern Iberia is particularly notable, including stone sculptures such as the iconic Lady of Elche, the Lady of Baza, the Lady of Galera, the Dama del Cerro de los Santos, the Bicha of Balazote, the Bull of Osuna, the

Sphinx of Agost The Sphinx of Agost is a Greeks, Greek-influenced Iberians, Iberian limestone sculpture,''Greeks in Iberia:Colonialism without Colonization'', Adolfo J. Dominguez, The Archaeology of Colonialism, ed. Claire L. Lyons, John K. Papadopoulos, (Getty ...

, one of the two or the Mausoleum of Pozo Moro. File:Proyecto REMAN3D 18529 (44188146514).jpg, Bicha of Balazote File:Lady of Elche.jpg, Lady of Elche 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. File:Wild_boar_sculpture-National_Archeology_Museum_Madrid.jpg, Iberian wild boar 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 (, , , , meaning "culture of the hillforts") is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Peninsula (present-day northern and central Portugal together with the Spanish regions of ...

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. File:Estela de Villaricos - M.A.N.jpg, Villaricos Phoenician stele

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 (purchased in 1874 and comprising artifacts from the ''

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

'' and ''

Cales Cales was an ancient city of Campania, in today's ''comune'' of Calvi Risorta in southern Italy, belonging originally to the Aurunci/ Ausoni, on the Via Latina. The Romans captured it in 335 BC and established a colony with Latin rights of ...

'' 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. File:Invierno M.A.N. 01.JPG, Mosaic of Winter, from Quintana del Marco 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, Bacchus of Aldaia 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 of ...

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 marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

(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 The Visigothic Kingdom, Visigothic Spain or Kingdom of the Goths () was a barbarian kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to the ...

(6th-8th centuries AD), the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

(5th to 12th centuries AD), as well as some artifacts of other peoples from the

Migration Period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

. Standout artifacts from this area include the , the Visigothic hoard of Guarrazar, including the votive crown of Recceswinth, or the . File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 50310 - Sarcófago de Astorga.jpg, Paleochristian File:Corona de (29049230050).jpg, Votive crown of Recceswinth File:Alovera M.A.N..JPG,

Medieval World, al-Andalus

The area dedicated to

al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

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 (), nicknamed al-Manṣūr (, "the Victorious"), which is often Latinized as Almanzor in Spanish, Almansor in Catalan language, Catalan and Almançor in Portuguese ( 938 – 8 A ...

. 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 medieval collection features the , made in

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft Rock (geology), rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word ''alabaster''. In archaeology, the term ''alab ...

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, Crucifix of Ferdinand and Sancha 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 home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Nea ...

(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 rock, 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 composition, inter ...

head from Mesopotamia donated to the Prado Museum in the 1940s by the Mexican collector Marius de Zayas (later deposited in the MAN). 21st century purchases include that of the bought at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in 2001. File:Jarra de pico (23790212323).jpg, Pottery from Tepe Sialk File:Ladrillo de Gudea (M.A.N. 1973-58-PO-1) 01.jpg, Brick from Girsu displaying

cuneiform writing Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

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 ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

are made up mainly of funerary funds (amulets,

mummies A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

s, sculpture of divinities, ushabti...) 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 (, ''Megálē Herakléous pólis''), Heracleopolis (, ''Herakleópolis'') or Herakleoupolis () is the Roman Empire, Roman name of the capital of the 20th nome (Egypt), nome of ancient Egypt, ancient Upper Egypt, known in Anci ...

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

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period dates from 1700 to 1550 BC. It marks a period when ancient Egypt was divided into smaller dynasties for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a Secon ...

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

twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) was the last native dynasty of ancient Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although other brief periods of rule by Egyptians followed). T ...

. 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 Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...

. 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 raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

come from; pieces that ranging from the Mycenaean to the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

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 library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, ...

, 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 Marquis of Salamanca 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'' (: ''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; in other words, a cup. A ...

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

Notable artifacts

Entrance_of_National_Archaeology_Museum_Madrid

;Prehistoric and Iberian * Lady of Elche * Lady of Baza * Lady of Galera * Dama del Cerro de los Santos * Biche of Balazote * Bull of Osuna * Magacela stele * Mausoleum of Pozo Moro *

;Roman * Bear of Porcuna * Lex Ursonensis ;Medieval * Crucifix of Ferdinand and Sancha ;

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

* Pyxis of Zamora *One of the Alhambra vases

References

External links

National Archaeological Museum of Spain - MuseliaOfficial list of museums in SpainNational Archaeological Museum (Madrid)
within

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

* {{Authority control

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

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 *