Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin
Berlin's Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung form a case of museum work with large architectural complexes transferred into display. Even with current access limitations, the collection remains a key point for Greek, Hellenistic and Roman archaeology.
The important issue is scale: altars, gates, facades, architectural fragments and sculptural programmes change how antiquity is read. The museum is useful for understanding how an architectural monument becomes a museum object.
Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin: Exterior view of the Pergamonmuseum.
Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin: Relief with rinceaux, probably part of a pilaster, in the Traianeum Hall of the Pergamon Museum (02).
Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin: Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Architektur 19.Collection and Historical Context
The museum view of an architectural complex is not the same as the monument in its original place. The display gives scale and detail, but loses the urban, topographic and cultic setting.
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. Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin should therefore be read not only through its most famous objects, but through the links between galleries, collections and findspots.
Display and Main Materials
The Pergamene and Asia Minor material, Greek and Roman sculpture, architectural decoration, inscriptions and the relation between the antiquities and Near Eastern galleries are central. For reconstruction this is not only about object forms but also about context, transfer and display assembly.
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.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 77. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 68. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Statue 56. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.Related Topics
- Museums of Antiquity
- The Louvre and Antiquity
- Turkish Museums and Antiquity
- Glyptothek and State Collections of Antiquities, Munich
- Roman Archaeological Sources
Official Pages and Catalogues
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Statue 58. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Statue 46. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Statue 55. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Statue 12. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 02. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 18. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 28. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 29. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 52. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 55. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 24. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.
Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Relief 59. Object from the collection: Pergamonmuseum and Antikensammlung Berlin.Interested in Ancient Rome beyond reading? Join Legio X Fretensis or explore our reenactment directions.
