Bardo National Museum
The Bardo National Museum in Tunis is important as a major museum of North African antiquity. It is especially known for Roman mosaics, but its value is broader: Punic, Numidian, Roman and Late Antique material show Africa as an independent centre of the ancient world.
Without the Bardo, a list of antiquity museums would be too European. North Africa provides key evidence for cities, villas, rural wealth, maritime trade, cult and visual culture in the later Roman Empire.
Bardo National Museum: Bardo Museum main entrance.
Bardo National Museum: 01996 01463 Carthage Hall (Bardo National Museum).
Bardo National Museum: Bardo National Museum, external view from inside (14675120246).Collection and Historical Context
The fame of the mosaics should not obscure the archaeological map of the region. connect the Bardo with specific North African sites and avoid reducing it to decorative art.
Work with this museum requires three levels to be kept separate: display, catalogue and archaeological context. The display shows the object's form and scale, the catalogue clarifies date, material, inventory number and collection history, while context explains whether the object came from a house, cemetery, sanctuary, fort, workshop or urban monument.
A single famous exhibit is not always typical. Series are more reliable: several vessels of one type, a group of inscriptions, a funerary assemblage, repeated military fittings or several related sculptural solutions. Bardo National Museum should therefore be read not only through its most famous objects, but through the links between galleries, collections and findspots.
Display and Main Materials
Mosaics from Tunisia and surrounding sites, sculpture, Punic material, inscriptions and objects from Carthage, Dougga, Utica and other centres are central. Mosaics should be read not only as images but as parts of houses, status and regional economy.
In the museum display it is important to look not only at individual masterpieces but at the neighbourhood of objects: sculpture, inscriptions, pottery, coins, architectural fragments and everyday items often explain one another better than an isolated photograph.
Statue of Hermes Ludovisi in Bardo National Museum. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Statue of Kore in Bardo National Museum. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Statue of the Greek Goddess Demeter in National Museum of Bardo. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.Related Topics
- Museums of Antiquity
- Museum of Ancient Arles
- National Museum of Roman Art, Merida
- Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki
- Roman Archaeological Sources
Official Pages and Catalogues
Odysseus and the Sirens Mosaic from Dougga (detail), 2nd century AD, Bardo National Museum, Tunis (54057797112). Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Virgil mosaic in the Bardo National Museum (Tunis) (12241228546). Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Triumph of Neptunus mosaic in the Bardo National Museum 26 01 2014. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Triumph of Neptunus mosaic in the Bardo National Museum 26 01 2014 (cropped). Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Statue terre cuite Bardo National Museum. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Odysseus and the Sirens, Mosaic from Dougga, 2nd century AD, Bardo National Museum, Tunis (54057797097). Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Virgil Mosaic Bardo Museum Tunis. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Statue of Demeter in Bardo Museum, inv. 3493. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
A mosaic BardoMuseum. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Neptune Roman mosaic Bardo Museum Tunis. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
A mosaic BardoMuseum (11) - mosaique des Néréides et jardin de l'épave de Mahdia. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.
Statue of Aulus Vitellius in Bardo, three-quarter view. Object from the collection: Bardo National Museum.Interested in Ancient Rome beyond reading? Join Legio X Fretensis or explore our reenactment directions.
