Rumifications on the Archeological Museum

You can easily while away a lazy afternoon in this place. The National Archeological Museum of Tarragona stores a collection of Roman architectonic and ornamental pieces, epigraphy, sculpture, coinage, mosaics, ceramics and other ordinary domestic objects that is rightly considered one of the richest, if not the richest, of its sort in Spain. The finds come from Tarragona itself and from a number of rural Roman villas (Els Munts in Altafulla, La Pineda, Parets-Delgades in La Selva del Camp being the most famous).

To stand face-to-face with something created by human hands 2000 years ago or more is something amazing. Sometimes we don´t fully appreciate the amazingness of this experience. ´We´ve seen it all before´, is the response you tend to get. Normal: we have been bombarded with images of Greco-Roman gods, emperors and columns. Yet, the mere fact that these artifacts, however few and damaged they may be, have withstood the test of time is a wonder, the first of several. A wonder because there are time periods in history closer to us that have left a far poorer material record, say, the Early Middle Ages (500-1000). Seeing these authentic, genuine Roman remnants life and close up is, I feel, another source of wonderment. To find out the Who, Where, How and Why of these objects brings them to life - a life-saving antidote in an age where our idea of the Romans is usually fed by sterile, fake, fictional and televised imagery.

Stop in room 2, dedicated to Tarraco´s architecture, and take in the marble statue of the emperor in military attire that once decorated the Roman theatre. Or the large marble plate depicting the head of Jupiter-Ammon (a neat absorption of Ammon, the highest Egyptian deity, into the Jupiter figure) in relief, one of many that once hung in the attic of the upper portico of the imperial temple area.

Of the mosaics (room 3, room 10 and the adjoining hall) the two most celebrated pieces are the delicately crafted 3rd-century Medusa-mosaic - once livening up the floor of an urban villa of Tarraco - and the extraordinary, grand and avant-gardist Mosaico de los Peces which vividly depicts 47 marine species of the Mediterranean, including two dolphins!

Room 6 shows us that this museum has become far too small: the display doesn´t do justice to the beauty and grandeur of the statues and busts of gods, emperors and aristocrats. Roman cities were obsessed with images of their leaders and heroes: what is left is only a tiny slice of the multitude of statues and busts that once beautified public buildings, squares and villas. Check out the bust of Marcus Aurelius, ´the wise´, a Roman Rousseau and emperor of Hispano-Roman stock like Hadrian.

Then, in room 4, there is a lovely cross-section of the objects used day-to-day by the inhabitants of the homes and villas of Tarraco: lamps, masks, toys, crockery, rings, amphoras, jewelry, footwear, medicine boxes, small votive altars, erotica, etc. What deserves a special mention is the curious anthropomorphic bronze lamp depicting a young Ethiopian slave (locally known as ´El Negrito´). The museum has plans of expanding its exhibition rooms. This is desperately needed. The museum needs more space and needs livening up and modernizing here and there. More space will hopefuly also mean that some of the many other treasures now hidden away in the museum´s storage rooms will finally also see the light of day. Anything that can help to heighten the profile of this underexposed museum is welcome! Get stuck in and enjoy!