‘I hope it’s a girl. She might have more children and we’ll be able to add to the tribe,’ says a kneeling figure, part of a group clustered around a woman giving birth. This tableau of wire sculptures is upstairs in Almeria Museum, encircled by grave goods like shell necklaces from this south-east corner of Spain in the 3rd millennium BC.
This is one of the ways the museum has enlivened collections
of pots, buckles and shells excavated in the area. Other ways are pictures,
maps and well-lit and arranged displays – objects which stood out for me were an
intricately carved bone knife handle, a small comb with tiny delicate teeth and
a charming crumbling sculpture of an ‘hombre de caballos’ (pictured), a man
with two horses kneeling each side of him looking like they are eating out of
his hands.
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| Man with horses, 5th or 6th century BC |
As in many Spanish museums, the library is just as accessible
as the displays, its open door immediately opposite the reception desk.
It’s a shame the leaflet isn’t as user-friendly: ‘the ground
floor, where your tour begins, has one of the most interesting museographic resources
to be found in the museum and one of enormous educational value.’ Groan. This stuffy
abstract generalising language does no favours to what it is describing, a vertical
column rising up through the stairs showing in 3-D form the strata where the
artefacts were found – another creative way of representing archaeology to people
who, like me, have no expertise in it.
