National Archeological Museum

The various guide books indicated this was a good museum choice in Madrid, and I"m glad we chose this option for our rainy morning in the city!  It began with the Paleolithic period and moved all the way to 'modern' era (1800s) with nearly all of the artifacts coming from Spain itself.  The entire museum was very well done, with lots of video screens with short (5 min) clips of different eras and the way of life for those living during that time.

All of the displays had Spanish and English descriptions, making it easy to learn more about the exhibits.  The videos were in Spanish with Englis subtitles.

This was a mock burial site that was under a dwelling's main floor, indicating that the living felt very connected to the dead.  The displays in this section noted how class hierarchies began to be recognized based on different burial traditions and goods, with some taking lots of riches to the grave, and others not.

This is actual mummified remains from the Canary Islands.  They persevered it with oils and wrapped it in hides.

They had a whole section on coins and money.  This was a mold used in the orient for coins with holes in them.  They also had stamps that marked coins, and a wide range of different coins from different eras.

Several displays were "hoarders". - stashes of coins that were buried in walls or under foundations that were found decades or centuries later.  This is one that was gifted to the king when found and placed in this fancy case.

Some sections were arranged based on the emerging technologies that developed, bronze, iron work, etc.  I found this case of glass works dating back over 1000 years.  I found it hard to believe these pieces could have survived in tact for so long.

This temple piece with semi precious stones and gold was pretty.

Lots of burial items, including these small bottles that were symbolic (I don't think they contained anything, but I could be wrong).

The museum building itself was quite attractive, with a large atrium in the center with some of the larger sculpture pieces, and three floors of exhibits.

I always appreciate mosaics and they had quite a display.  This were obviously large floor segments that were brought to the museum.  I asked the docent how they got them there.  She said they brought them in pieces and reassembled them in the museum.  

This wall sized work had incredibly small pieces,  The figure below is found in the bottom left quadrant. This gives you some idea of the piece sizes.  Mostly about the size of my pinky nail.

In the 'modern' section, there were a lot of church friezes and wooden sculptures.  I was very surprised by how close you could get to these works.  They were not behind ropes, or glass cases.  I could get nose to nose with them and see the work close up.  There were docents in every room keeping watch, but not oppressively so.  

These were metal etched playing cards.  Very cool.

This was a "dessert" - meaning a fancy center piece put in the center of the table that contained desserts for fancy (i.e. Noble) meals with guests.  The marble work was exquisite. 

One of the very fun things about the museum were all the school kids that were there.  I have to say they were quite well behaved and seemed quite engaged with the exhibits.  Several members of our group actually struck up a conversation with some of the middle schoolers.  Their English was good and they even did at "USA" cheer at the end.