Archeology Museum in Seville

Seville has been described as the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of Southern Spain; it's been around for 2,000 years so it's had time to practice! 

Seville sits on the plain of the Guadalquivir River- remember Cordoba? Location is everything! People have inhabited this region for millions of years. We saw their tools, weapons and art. The age that these early peoples were alive is known as the Palaeolithic Age. The name comes from Greek. The word means, 'old stone' or what we might think of as, the Stone Age.

Here is their art:

This is what to look for:

Oops! Here's Baby-O plopped a bit too close to another (priceless) piece of art eating her raisins! Do you see the circle pattern on the other side this time?

The people during this time created and used simple stone tools. We evolved from them into Homo Sapien Sapiens (Latin for "wise man" or "knowing man"). You'll see a picture of our earlier ancestors in J's post coming up--- he'll also show you how stones could be lethal. Simple tools? Not so fast. Stones could be weapons that were made to be deadly. How? A flint knapper! Click back there to find out how.  J's got a great story about an arrowhead stuck in the neck of one of these people and the picture to go with it!

If you get interested in Stone Age Tools, follow this cool blog to learn more and keep up with new discoveries.

Next came the Copper and Bronze Age. Pottery began around 6000 B.C. By the beginning of the Bronze Age (3,000 B.C) these folks began using a 'slow' potter's wheel.

New kinds of weapons came too.

Here are the kids looking at tools for melting metals together. They were learning about the difference between copper, bronze and iron and what happens when you mix metals together.

Here's what the process was about. Look at the long rods you see in the image below. Now scroll back up to the previous picture. Do you see the pile in front of J. and Gigi? That's them!

Here is how they made axe heads; there was a big pile of them next to this mold. Can you see where they would pour the metal into the mold?

Next we entered a dark room full of sacred objects and GOLD. It felt like the Pink Panther might not be too far away. . .

These objects were devoted to Tartessian treasures. The name didn't mean much to me but Aristotle himself wrote about the Tartessos as a river that flowed out to the pillars of Hercules or, what we call the Straits of Gibraltar. Turns out the tale is a great bit 'Indiana Jones-esque' because people have hunted for the capital city and no one knows exactly where it lies. 

Some believe it may be lost and buried, some say it's another Atlantis or the Atlantis- the one Plato wrote about! Why do people care? Gold and silver and lots of it, and of course, understanding the culture better.

Baby-O was getting tired right about now so I couldn't take pictures of all the silver and gold jewelry laid upon velvet under blinding lights. I was shocked to learn later that Tartessian language is classified as a Celtic language. Even that idea is contested though. Looks like the mysteries about this wealthy civilization remain to be solved, maybe by YOU?

HOLD THE PRESSES! You won't believe it but on January 19th (the day we saw the archeology sites in Orce) an article entitled, 'Lost City of Atlantis 'could be buried in southern Spain' was published in the United Kingdom's Telegraph newspaper! Scientists have figured out that a tsunami might have wiped away the capital of this wealthy civilization! Keep an eye on this one, it looks like it might unfold during your lifetime.

If this interests you I found a fabulous blog that links ancient history to today. The author's latest posts are on "Mysteriously Missing Persian Army Believed Found" and "Irish Monks in Iceland Even Before Vikings?" Great stuff! You can subscribe to 'follow' the blog like you can to ours, that way you'll receive an email every time there is a new post.


You can see how exciting this all gets. . .here are some OSTRICH EGGS!

Belt buckles!

These ingenius looking things are called 'ex-votos' Baby-O called them 'dolls'. They were made by relatives of the Tartessian's called the Turdetanians. Try saying that out loud. That name would have a PROBLEM in English!

All that gold and silver attracted Phoenician traders---here's a trove of coins. There were horses and other figures clearly visible on this money. Did you know thePhoenician's invented metal money in 1500 B.C. when they discovered a way to carry their cattle along to trade? 

We reached the Roman sculptures and were wowed all over again. The scale of Roman sculpture is astounding.

It's. . .likeness well. . .enough to make you grin! Gigi was laughing about taking this shot but I told her people would want to see it!

The next picture is a sculpture of the Roman Emperor, Trajan. He was known as 'the kind-hearted soldier'   because he created funds to look after the poor and for children. Trajan was famously wise and humble but he was also a military giant. He conquered north of the river Danube and grew the Roman Empire to its largest extent. This sculpture of him was mammoth in size (we had to crane up) but what was mesmerizing about it was his face. 

It looked so real I thought he might turn and say something. 

The mosaics were as fresh and vivid as if conceived of today.

It felt like we were peeking into a Roman life. 

Here's a doctor's kit (the metal box) and the medical tools.

A Roman key.

A Roman mirror.

Roman jewelry:

I wish we could speak Latin (we are going to study it this second part of the trip, we start tomorrow). What do you think this says?

The Romans might have lived 2,000 years ago but their light shines on. . .literally. 

First kid-friend to send a short essay on how Roman civilization still impacts us today wins a souvenir from Morocco. J has Evan's sensational answers to the last challenge, I will post them as soon as I can. 

We leave on a plane tomorrow for Marrakech- farewell until Africa! 

Orce bones and battles

We’ve seen bones from over a million years ago, slept in a cave, hiked to a 12th Century Moorish watchtower and witnessed an entire village re-enact a battle that took place more than 600 years ago---all in a week. What we haven’t seen much of is wi-fi; sorry for our absence.

We traveled from the foothills of the snowy Sierra Nevadas to a moon-scape land full of caves, bones and dust. It was only two hours by car but millions of years in geology away. We had arrived in what had been a pre-historic massive lake. Today there is little water to be seen;  rocky, dry soil holds small olive and almond trees straining out an existence and hundreds of caves are hollowed out of what used to be the sides of the lake basin. 

We were lucky to be shown the Archeology Museum and dig sites by the knowledgable MariCarmen-- a woman whose family has lived in Orce as far back as anyone can remember. We would see her later in the week dressed as a dancer to celebrate a major town fiesta and then again dressed as a Moorish woman re-enacting a great battle.

 That would be the way it went in Orce. We would see the baker/grocer when we went to eat lunch; run into the vegetable grocer at the fiesta and even bump into the mayor on the street. It reminded me of what Walnut Grove from Laura Ingall’s books might be like to visit if we could go back in time.

MariCarmen showed us saber-tooth tigers.

We saw the fossils of a giant prehistoric elephant, hyena, a giant deer (Olivia’s Dad we’re sure would want to claim its rack- that's a piece of it above!) that measured six feet high, hippopotamus, wooly mammoth remains and a piece of what they believe is the oldest human remains in Europe---1.5 Million years old.

We learned that these peoples didn’t yet know fire and scavenged the remains of what the hyena would kill. They sucked marrow from bones and extracted the brains from skulls- essentially the leftovers! What really struck us was that the humans were the carrions (First kid-friend to answer wins a Spanish souvenir! You guys are doing great at these quizzes!). 

MariCarmen told us a tremendous story when we went to visit one of the dig-sites. She explained that a sheep-herder would always speak of finding bones where he grazed his sheep. The town thought he was crazy and even had a nickname for him. In the ‘70s archeologists used computer modeling to decide that this region would yield a trove of remains. They went to one town, Guadix and came up with nothing.

The archeologists continued up the ancient basin until they stumbled upon locals that said they should see the shepherd. The archeologists would go on to find 7,000 bones at the site just above his cave house. Here’s a picture of his chimney- can you see it? You can spy where the cave houses are by spotting the chimneys; there are zillions. 

The shepherd died at 96, happy that scientists from all over the world had affirmed what he'd said all along- there were bones everywhere! The archeologists dug at the site until 1992 when a politician refused to grant a permit. It's remained embroiled in a 'political' battle ever since. The famous site sits open, exposed to the elements. The archeologist who found the skull shard died two years ago never being able to dig there again- his ashes were scattered at the site. Whenever we'd ask what the 'political' problem was people would shake their heads in disgust and say, 'it's complicated.'

Castillo de Gibralfaro- castle begun in 1040!

Don't some things just sound better in Spanish?! Castillo de Gibralfaro is a Moorish fortress that was in action from the 15th-20th Century. We saw stone cannon balls, really HIP 16th Century Italian boots, dungeon cells, the Mediterranean Sea, slits in stone that were made for arrows (can you spy those in the pictures above? They will look like windows from the outside).

BUT a quick history lesson since we've been absolutely pummeled with having to understand the Moros and Cristianos--- a huge fight between two royal and religious factions that took place more than a 1000 years ago. It starts with Arabs who came up from Africa in the 8th Century.

TEST. When was the 8th Century? The first kid friend to answer in the comments will receive a keychain from Spain.

UPDATE: CONGRATULATIONS GRACE!! YES, 700's.

The Arabs were Muslim now as so many of them are today. They worshiped the Koran and thought geometric shapes, gardens, water (remember, the Arabian peninsula was a  desert then as it is today) arches and special keyhole shaped designs were considered beautiful. We can see all of this even today. The Christians worshiped Jesus and especially Mary, just as they do today; they loved tiles too but instead of geometric shapes they liked to put symbols that represented something in their history like acorns (remember the famous pig and what he eats??) and oak leaves, castles, shields, coats of arms, and people (in the Muslim belief system it was forbidden to represent the human face or form in art- that's why they perfected their ability to express themselves in architecture, painting and design). The Moors built Mosques as their place of worship; the Christians built churches.

Just like Baby-O says, 'NO! MINE!' so did the Moors and Christians when they fought over disputed territory. Today we saw a Christian church that was built out of the rubble of a Moorish Mosque- the Christians destroyed it and rebuilt to represent what they believed in.

Can you tell which of these pictures represent the Moors and which represent the Christians? Guess what? These are both from the patio garden at the Hotel Monte Victoria--- they were right under our feet. Tata said one day-- "Look! Spanish history spelled out in tiles!"

The Moors word for ruling power was Caliphate and the one built in what is now Spain would become the most powerful kingdom in the West (we'll get to visit the ancient capital city in Cordoba soon- the palace was so beautiful they say that the Christians kept it instead of destroying it). The Moors and Christians spent 800 years fighting back and forth so we've seen ruins of 5 fortresses in less than a week and there are castles everywhere! These structures were built like watchtowers over their kingdom to see when the enemy was coming.

The story will continue in another post.

Here are pictures of the fortress in Malaga:

Ancient Cannonballs:

16th Century Italian soldier helmet-- what was an Italian uniform doing in a Malaga, Spain fortress?? Because, Malaga has been changing hands for 1000's of years. It was established before Jesus Christ was born by the Phoenicians who were great sailors and salted fish here. Malaga means salting place. Then, the Romans came and took it over (there is a Roman theater in Malaga to prove it!). After the Romans came the Arabs, then the Christians---the Italians fought as mercenaries for the Spanish crown. Extra credit: What is the Swiss Guard doing guarding the Vatican to this day???

The Italians have been hip forever! I want these boots!!

Looking out over the Mediterranean from along a watchtower causeway

This is what J has to say about visiting the fortress, "It was interesting to be there. To feel it. It was magical. Everything was so old. It was amazing that it was still there and that I could see it. The arrow turrets were dusty and rocky but I could still feel the spirit inside the cylinder where the archers and turret men used to stand."

An arrow turret.

The light peeking out  behind baby-O's head is the slit for the arrows.

We had a great lunch at the parador (they are all over Spain and the word means a place to 'stop over or rest' for a traveler or pilgrim)-- this was our view from the cafe:

This was my delicious sandwich:

Lo and behold- when we looked out over a wall to see the city below we saw Malaga's bullring! It's like an American city's 'dome' for sports like football or baseball.

Here is what it looked like when we returned back to the Hotel Monte Victoria- we try to keep our special routines like 'reading time' sacred. Tata reads on his new 'Kringle' can anyone guess what that is??