Middle Ages

Relectura de los objetos litúrgicos en su contexto

Periodo estimado de realización: 2024-2027

Responsables: Paula Pagés Alonso y Beatriz Campderá Gutiérrez (Departamento de Antigüedades Medievales). Mª Jesús Rubio Visiers (Departamento de Difusión)

La gran mayoría de las veces, cuando los objetos se exponen en un museo, son despojados de su contexto y de la función para los que fueron originalmente concebidos. El caso de los elementos usados para la liturgia es especialmente notorio ya que su propio uso les otorgaba un carácter sagrado y que, al ser musealizados, también van a perder. Desde el Departamento de Antigüedades Medievales del Museo Arqueológico Nacional, se propone una relectura de estos objetos litúrgicos expuestos en nuestras salas, desde el punto de vista de su contextualización y de su función dentro del rito celebrado en cada época, teniendo en cuenta el cambio desde la liturgia hispana a la galorromana. De esta manera, se pretende aportar una mejor comprensión de nuestro pasado y de nuestras colecciones en el presente.

Estudio científico de los fondos de escultura de la Antigüedad Tardía del Museo Arqueológico Nacional

Estimated timeframe: 2023 – 2026

Lead researcher: Paula Pagés Alonso.

This internal programme aims to review, document, catalogue, contextualise and study the Late Antique sculpture collections held by the National Archaeological Museum, with the aim of creating a systematised corpus visible online for public outreach. It also aims to prepare a monographic study of their provenance, technique, iconography and uses for publication.

Estudio y catalogación de los materiales provenientes de la necrópolis visigoda de Villel de Mesa.

Período estimado de realización: 2023 – 2025

Responsable: Paula Pagés Alonso.

Este objetivo de este proyecto consiste en el estudio y la catalogación de las piezas provenientes del yacimiento visigodo de Villel de Mesa (Guadalajara) que conserva el Museo Arqueológico Nacional así como el reconocimiento y la puesta en valor del trabajo que realizaron en el año 1944 las dos arqueólogas encargadas de la excavación. Este proyecto finalizará con una publicación de un catálogo razonado.

• Publicación: El yacimiento visigodo de Villel de Mesa en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional, un estado de la cuestión (2024)
• Grabación: La necrópolis visigoda de Villel de Mesa (Guadajalara). Una relectura (2024)

Research and cataloguing of the illuminated parchments of the Middle Ages of the National Archaeological Museum.

Estimated timeframe: 2023-2025

Lead researchers: Department of Medieval Antiquities

The project aims to enhance one of the important collections housed in the museum, which today is practically unknown to the public: the collection of folios and fragments of medieval miniated parchments, gathered by Manuel Rico y Sinobas and sold to the museum by his son in 1901. The project includes their cataloguing and research, restoration, digitisation and outreach, the latter being its main objectives.

Catalogue raisonné and scientific study of metalwork in the eastern Islamic collection of the National Archaeological Museum

Estimated timeframe: 2021–2025

Lead researcher: Helena Lahoz Kopiske

The eastern Islamic collection contains a considerable number of metal pieces with a wide variety of uses, types, dates and geographical origins. Thanks to their aesthetic and utilitarian value, these items were constantly traded and transported, illustrating the intricate relations between different regions of the ummah (community of believers) since the eighth century. The research project aims to create a corpus that will reveal the richness of this collection and, as a secondary goal, study its origins, contexts and uses. The project results will eventually be published online and in a catalogue raisonné.

• Lahoz Kopiske, H. (2023): «Ecos de Oriente: aproximaciones a la colección de «Islam Oriental» del Museo Arqueológico Nacional», Boletín del Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Nº 42, 2023, págs. 705-721. Descargar pdf

Catalogue raisonné and scientific study of 15th-century painting

Estimated timeframe: 2020–2024

Lead researcher: Solène de Pablos Hamon

This internal programme aims to conduct a scientific study of the 15th-century paintings in the Medieval Antiquities Department and catalogue them.

The Pamplona Hoard from a global perspective: material culture, history of its discovery and musealization

Estimated timeframe: 2023-2024

Lead Researcher: Helena Lahoz Kopiske (Department of Medieval Antiquities)

Participants: Ana Cabrera Lafuente (Spanish Institute of Tourism/Turespaña), Ignacio Montero Ruiz (IH-CSIC), Bárbara Culubret Worms (Department of Conservation-MAN), Department of Numismatics and Medals-MAN

This research project focuses on the Pamplona Hoard as a holistic ensemble, composed by objects of the material culture – numismatic, textile and goldsmith pieces –, but that also comprises other aspects such as the urban environment in which the hoard was hidden, the history of its discovery and its life in the Spanish National Archaeological Museum of Madrid.

This study is based on artefact archaeology and material analysis to contribute to a cultural history that revisits spaces and objects of everyday use and practices of emulation and socio-cultural differentiation, portraying a fragment of medieval everyday life.

The aim is the dissemination and monographic publication of the results obtained.

Study and cataloguing of Manises and Paterna pottery at the National Archaeological Museum

Estimated timeframe: 2020–2021

Lead researcher: Beatriz Campderá Gutiérrez

The first phase of this project entails compiling a corpus of all medieval ceramic objects from the Valencian pottery workshops of Manises and Paterna at the National Archaeological Museum. In the second phase, we will catalogue and study the pieces and eventually publish the catalogue.

Eastern Islam in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum

Estimated timeframe: 2019–2022

Lead researcher: Medieval Antiquities Department

This project aims to review and organise the National Archaeological Museum's collections of eastern Islamic pieces from the medieval and early modern eras (8th–19th century), with a view to publicly exhibiting them sometime in the future.

Catalogue Raisonné and Scientific Study of Sculpture from Late Antiquity and the Visigothic Period (4th-7th century) at the National Archaeological Museum

Estimated timeframe: 2021

Lead researcher: Sergio Vidal Álvarez

Cataloguing and study of the museum’s collection of sculptures from between the fourth and seventh centuries. The pieces will be studied from an iconographic, typological, formal and material perspective, with a view to publishing the results in a monograph.

Byzantine Material Culture in the MAN Collections (5th-12th century)

Estimated timeframe: 2015-2021

Lead researcher: 2021: Sergio Vidal Álvarez

Publication of all Byzantine and Eastern European artefacts from the fifth to the 12th century managed by the Medieval Antiquities Department at the MAN.

Stone Materials used to Manufacture Sarcophagi in Late Antiquity: The MAN Specimens

Estimated timeframe: 2013-2017

Lead researcher: Sergio Vidal Álvarez

Petrological analyses of the materials used in the MAN sarcophagi from Late Antiquity, made at a workshop in Hispania, with a view to their subsequent interpretation, study and publication. The results will allow us to draw conclusions about the nature and scope of activity of Hispania’s sculpture workshops in the fourth and fifth centuries.

Study of Plundered Artefacts from the Visigothic Necropolis of Castiltierra (Segovia)

Estimated timeframe: 2013-2017

Lead researcher: Isabel Arias Sánchez

Following the drafting of the report on Camps and Navascués’s official excavations (1932-1935), prepared by members of the Medieval Antiquities Department, we will proceed to identify and study the artefacts plundered from this necropolis, which will entail archiving (National Archaeological Museum/ General Government Archive[P1] ) and comparing them with the artefacts held at the MAN.