Museum in Apt
October 13th, 2008 by Rachel | Country: France | 2 Comments »
Today, I went to an archeology museum in Apt. Here are notes that I took for my art history course:
- The building is closed for four years for restoration. There were only a few things there. A lot of things are in storage.
- The first room that we went into, it was the prehistoric, specifically the iron age. All of the things in that room were found in Apt. They were all originated from the indiginegious people, the people who lived in Apt before the Romans came. It was mostly pottery and funery things such as tombs. The pottery were done with coil, not on the wheel.
- There was something called ex voto. It’s a roman piece that sat on the grave and it was a thank you to the gods such as Mercury. It was a freestanding sculpture.
There were color lamps which had had different designs. We could tell what period they were from due to the designs. - Roman potteries that were made with press instead of coils. They were more expensive and for the richer people.
- At the the upstairs area, there were Roman mosaics which were originally on the floor. Some of them were colored after they were put together. The original colors are usually black, brown, or beige. – The ones with the squares and various of stones such as marble are very rare.
- A room that had a lot of things from a temple in Apt. There were different kinds of oil lamps. They were left at the temple. It’s like lighting the candle. They had thousands of them. They also found lots of offerings. They found lots of perfume vases and vases for the tears.
- There was a room with lots of paintings and they were called ex voto. So, the paintings were shown of people who are healthy and sick to give some offerings and hope. It would give them a good luck or a prayer.
- There was a room that had paintings of arms to honor the donors who gave money to the hospitals. In those days, the hospitals were run from charitable gifts.
- The downstairs – the roman theater. It was the part of the theater. We saw the orchestra – the good seats. It originally held 10, 000 people. It was built in 1st century B.C.
- The first oil lamps we saw were for the house.
- There were Marseille money.
- The slave from Syria gave offerings once.
- There were three female graves that were originated at the end of Roman period to beginning of early Christian.
- The original mosaic that were displayed on the wall were on the floors in roman times. Only here and in Nimes – very rare
- Lots of paintings from 19th century
- Ceramics that were on display could have been made by anyone. Some made in mid france was exported.
- Gods: Mercury, Mars, and Sylvan chosen by people for Apt.
- Theater built in 1st century. Destroyed in 4th or 5th century by fire. It was perfectly planned and conserved. It was rebuilt and destroyed by people to get rocks.
2 Comments
Jessica
October 14, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I got Samantha’s apron!
Jessica
October 29, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I just got nominated for jrNYLC!