353 - A museum visit

Anyone who knows me well enough, knows that archaeology fascinates me and that I had even wished to make it a career, which never happened. I love to learn about our past through reading books, articles (and blogs if I find any), watching documentaries and going to museums, specifically to see exhibits about it. 

Yesterday, we went to one, which presented results from recent digs further north from here, when the region was still a capital - during the gallo-roman period. 

This was my very first visit to this particular museum. It was founded in 1903, in a neoclassical building, which is sadly guilty of ableism, because access to it from the street is done by 2 sets of stairs and once inside, there are more, even to get to the permanent archaeological collection at the ground level, because it is sunk down by a couple steps, in comparison to the entrance. 
The next 2 levels are reached only by stairs as well. 

The ground-level (rather pseudo) presenting this permanent archaeological  collection, traces prehistory to the gallo-roman period of our city and its immediate surroundings. We didn't visit this one yet, and I just read that one of its rooms is closed until next year anyway. 

In the floors above, there is usually the department of textile art, inviting the guest to a trip through a supposedly unique collection in France, tracing "extra-European" collections from the 18th through our current 21st centuries. Apparently, some of these collections are particularly fragile and cannot be exposed on permanent basis and therefore are alternated with temporary exhibits. 

This brings us to yesterday's visit, to the 3rd floor's temp exhibit. The website had announced that it corresponds to recent findings of digs conducted in 2015, and to objects dating from the gallo-roman period - which spans, in this region, form -800 to -52 ish for the Gaul part, and -52 to +476 for the roman one. 

However, this exhibit also displayed other objects found in 2015, and which date from the neolithic and high-neolithic periods, as far back as  -6000 if am not mistaken. 

The exhibit was a bit underwhelming, presenting 110 or so different objects found in several places in the entire dug area, mostly broken ceramic vases and dishware. 
During this digging campaign, the site had been vandalized, and some of the broken pieces are the direct result of this act. 

I didn't like that I had to constantly refer to the exhibit's pamphlet for details about these pieces, nor that they showed a few pieces at the entrance to it but not appearing anywhere in said guide. 

These pieces were probably some of the most remarkable ones from the entire temp exhibit: it showed a small woman's skull, with a wound on its back - she had been hit once or twice with a small hatchet, and a piece of that hatchet may have been the one shown in another glass cube next to it, alongside other small objects. 

The other remarkable  displayed object was a set of bones of a 60 year old man, maybe older, who had 8 missing teeth, arthritis set in many joints, and since his bones were around the same size as my own hand, his hand must have been as big or bigger than mine. We discussed it among ourselves and theorize that he was some kind of farmer, laborer or handyman. 

As I said, most of the objects displayed were ceramics, but we also saw very well crafted glass dishes from the Roman period, which was a first for us, and the archaeologist team as well.

They unearthed several tombs, showing either a shift or co-existence of belief systems about death, as some bodies were buried - most often with animals such as pigs, oxen, but also occasionally roosters, in what appears to be ritualistic - and some had been cremated. 

Most bodies they showed were of people about 30 or so of age, unearthing even a section of tombs for newborns, and further away, there were remains of 23 dogs, buried between the end of the 2nd century BC and early 2nd century AD ; but at present, no one knows if this was ritualistic sacrifice or maybe the dogs had been sick or something. Further, there were also horses. 

Most of the findings of this dig show that this was a small village with agricultural activities, as the objects show wine-making, grindstones, crafting utensils and everyday objects for the home, or religious rites have been discovered alongside or not far from funerary sites.  
There are traces of the Roman paths, as well as a subterranean aqueduct which seems to have been collecting ground waters and not any original source, and this aqueduct had such a large capacity that it may have served either a spa treatment center (for which this region is quite known), a temple or a craftsmanship center, and only additional digging in another site, further east and  discovered in 2007, may confirm this theory, as it seemed to have lodged bath development. 

All in all, this exhibit was interesting but underwhelming. It wasn't a big challenging exposure for my social interactions either, as the museum was mostly deserted.