National Archaeological Museum, Madrid
The National Archaeological Museum in Madrid is a broad Spanish collection. It connects Iberia, Celtiberians, Phoenician and Greek contacts, Roman conquest, provincial cities and Late Antiquity.
The museum is useful because it shows pre-Roman and Roman Spain in one long sequence. For this matters: a Roman province does not appear from nowhere but enters an already complex archaeological environment.
National Archaeological Museum, Madrid: (Madrid, Barrio de Salamanca) Spain, antique metal entrance door.
National Archaeological Museum, Madrid: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid (Spain).
National Archaeological Museum, Madrid: National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid (15299325957).Collection and Historical Context
As a national museum, MAN gathers material from many regions and periods. It should be used as a map of types and comparisons rather than as evidence for one archaeological context.
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. National Archaeological Museum, Madrid should therefore be read not only through its most famous objects, but through the links between galleries, collections and findspots.
Display and Main Materials
Iberian sculpture, Celtiberian material, coins, inscriptions, Roman pottery, mosaics, everyday objects and Late Antique material deserve attention. Sections showing provincial culture before and after incorporation into Rome are especially valuable.
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.
Cabeza masculina romana de Azaila (M.A.N. 32644) 01. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Cabeza masculina romana de Azaila (M.A.N. 32644) 02. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Cabeza mochica (26776254082). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.Related Topics
- Museums of Antiquity
- National Museum of Roman Art, Merida
- MNAT: National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona
- British Museum and Antiquity
- Roman Archaeological Sources
Official Pages and Catalogues
Called Lady of Elx. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche (Musée archéologique national, Madrid) (4656548153). Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Guerrero ibero de La Alcudia (M.A.N. Inv.38441) 01. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220a. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220b. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220c. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220e. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220f. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220g. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220h. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220k. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.
Dama de Elche - MAN - 20241220l. Object from the collection: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.Interested in Ancient Rome beyond reading? Join Legio X Fretensis or explore our reenactment directions.
