Romano-Germanic Central Museum (Mainz)
Encyclopedia
The Romano-Germanic Central Museum is an archaeological
and historical research institution for pre-history and early history headquartered in Mainz
. It is supported by the Federal Republic of Germany
and its states
and is a member of the Leibniz Association of German research institutions.
The institution studies the Old World
and its contact zones from the Stone Age
to the Middle Ages
. It consists of several divisions, and in addition maintains a permanent collection and through this and its numerous publications and conferences, disseminates the findings of recent research to the public.
, after the decision was taken at the 16–19 August Versammlung deutscher Geschichts- und Alterthumsforscher (Assembly of German Researchers in History and Classical Studies) in Dresden
that a "central museum for Germanic and Roman artifacts" should be founded in Mainz and a "Germanic museum" should be founded in Nuremberg
(the Germanisches Nationalmuseum
). It was no accident that the museum was established in the city of Mainz, with its high importance in the Middle Ages, and housed in the Electoral Palace
; rather these decisions symbolised the museum's national aspirations in the era of the German Confederation
.
In the early years of its existence, the museum faced considerable financial and organisational problems: the support which had been promised by the historical association failed to materialise, and instead the Nuremberg museum was promised exclusivity and the governing board of the Mainz museum were pressured to amalgamate with it. Only after the foundation of the German Empire
in 1871 did the museum receive an annual budget, which also made it possible for Lindenschmit to make his work there his primary pursuit; until then, he had also worked as a drawing teacher. After his death, his son Ludwig Lindenschmit the Younger took over the leadership.
In 1900, Karl Schumacher became the first director of the museum, a position which he would hold for 25 years. He increased its size from four to 27 rooms of exhibits, had further copies and reconstructions created in the museum's own workshop and published 297 works under his own name in addition to numerous catalogues, in particular the three-volume Siedlungs- und Kulturgeschichte der Rheinlande.
The elder Lindenschmit conceived of the museum as a research collection of copies, which would include all significant finds made in Germany, or even the whole of Europe, in order to facilitate comparative studies. The museum in Mainz still has the character of a research collection, aimed more at scholars and those interested in the field than at the public in general. In recent years, the museum has also offered "programmes for instructors" and special exhibitions devoted to current research. Although the institution has at times also taken some responsibility for heritage preservation in Rhenish Hesse, including conducting their own excavations, the restoration workshops still constitute today the foundation of their scholarly work, while field investigations are primarily conducted by the annexes in Neuwied
and Mayen
.
In early December 2007, the museum announced plans for a new building on the southern edge of Mainz, next to the Museum of Ancient Seafaring which is one of its annexes.
Some major German archaeologists have worked and work at the Romano-Germanic Central Museum, including Ludwig Lindenschmit the Younger, Paul Reinecke, Friedrich Behn, Kurt Böhner, Konrad Weidemann and Markus Egg. The current Director General is Falko Daim.
In presenting research, the museum works closely with the Volcano Park
in Mayen-Koblenz
. One emphasis is research into the use of volcanic rock as building materials and for millstone
s, particularly in the Roman period. Rock from the Eastern Eifel was used to build the Roman settlement of Colonia Ulpia Traiana at Xanten
and was exported as far as southern Scandinavia.
The museum forms part of the Research Centre for Earth System Disciplines founded in 2008 at the University of Mainz, and of Byzantine Archaeology Mainz, which takes up themes of modern interdisciplinary inquiry into the archaeological evidence on the Byzantine Empire
.
Several research areas are attached to these divisions.
In the Museum of Ancient Seafaring in Mainz:
In Castle Monrepos at Neuwied
, the Museum of Ice Age Archaeology:
In Mayen
:
The Romano-Germanic Central Museum also currently has an extension programme in China.
's equipment and the bronze boar from Soulac-sur-Mer
. They also train restorers, and a BA degree in museum restoration is offered jointly with the University of Mainz. At the request of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, the museum and the university have also jointly set up a centre for mineralogical archaeometry and conservation studies.
.
Additionally, they publish scholarly monographs and a recently instituted series for a popular readership.
In addition, the museum participates in international exhibitions, but there is rarely space to display these at Mainz.
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and historical research institution for pre-history and early history headquartered in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
. It is supported by the Federal Republic of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and its states
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
and is a member of the Leibniz Association of German research institutions.
The institution studies the Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
and its contact zones from the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
to the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. It consists of several divisions, and in addition maintains a permanent collection and through this and its numerous publications and conferences, disseminates the findings of recent research to the public.
History
The Romano-Germanic Central Museum was founded in 1852 by Ludwig Lindenschmit the ElderLudwig Lindenschmit the Elder
Ludwig Lindenschmit was a German history painter, prehistorian and art instructor who was a native of Mainz. He studied art in Vienna and Munich, and beginning in 1831 was a high school art teacher in Mainz...
, after the decision was taken at the 16–19 August Versammlung deutscher Geschichts- und Alterthumsforscher (Assembly of German Researchers in History and Classical Studies) in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
that a "central museum for Germanic and Roman artifacts" should be founded in Mainz and a "Germanic museum" should be founded in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
(the Germanisches Nationalmuseum
Germanisches Nationalmuseum
The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day...
). It was no accident that the museum was established in the city of Mainz, with its high importance in the Middle Ages, and housed in the Electoral Palace
Electoral Palace Mainz
250 px|thumb|The Electoral Palace, from the southThe Electoral Palace in Mainz is the former city Residenz of the Archbishop of Mainz, who was also Prince-Elector of his electoral state within the Holy Roman Empire...
; rather these decisions symbolised the museum's national aspirations in the era of the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
.
In the early years of its existence, the museum faced considerable financial and organisational problems: the support which had been promised by the historical association failed to materialise, and instead the Nuremberg museum was promised exclusivity and the governing board of the Mainz museum were pressured to amalgamate with it. Only after the foundation of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
in 1871 did the museum receive an annual budget, which also made it possible for Lindenschmit to make his work there his primary pursuit; until then, he had also worked as a drawing teacher. After his death, his son Ludwig Lindenschmit the Younger took over the leadership.
In 1900, Karl Schumacher became the first director of the museum, a position which he would hold for 25 years. He increased its size from four to 27 rooms of exhibits, had further copies and reconstructions created in the museum's own workshop and published 297 works under his own name in addition to numerous catalogues, in particular the three-volume Siedlungs- und Kulturgeschichte der Rheinlande.
The elder Lindenschmit conceived of the museum as a research collection of copies, which would include all significant finds made in Germany, or even the whole of Europe, in order to facilitate comparative studies. The museum in Mainz still has the character of a research collection, aimed more at scholars and those interested in the field than at the public in general. In recent years, the museum has also offered "programmes for instructors" and special exhibitions devoted to current research. Although the institution has at times also taken some responsibility for heritage preservation in Rhenish Hesse, including conducting their own excavations, the restoration workshops still constitute today the foundation of their scholarly work, while field investigations are primarily conducted by the annexes in Neuwied
Neuwied
Neuwied is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the right bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne...
and Mayen
Mayen
Mayen is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, there are five further settlements which are part of Mayen, they are: Alzheim, Kürrenberg, Hausen-Betzing, Hausen and Nitztal...
.
In early December 2007, the museum announced plans for a new building on the southern edge of Mainz, next to the Museum of Ancient Seafaring which is one of its annexes.
Some major German archaeologists have worked and work at the Romano-Germanic Central Museum, including Ludwig Lindenschmit the Younger, Paul Reinecke, Friedrich Behn, Kurt Böhner, Konrad Weidemann and Markus Egg. The current Director General is Falko Daim.
Research emphases
Researchers from different divisions work together on emphasised themes which cross boundaries between divisions and periods:- Early hominid expansions and the colonisation of western Eurasia (e.g., excavation of the find of homo georgicusHomo georgicusHomo georgicus is a species of Homo that was suggested in 2002 to describe fossil skulls and jaws found in Dmanisi, Georgia in 1999 and 2001, which seem intermediate between Homo habilis and H. erectus. A partial skeleton was discovered in 2001. The fossils are about 1.8 million years old...
at DmanisiDmanisiDmanisi is a townlet and archaeological site in Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera.- History :...
in GeorgiaGeorgia (country)Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
) - Studies on the emergence and development of big-game hunting
- Systems of settlement and internal organisation of settlements in the PaleolithicPaleolithicThe Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
and MesolithicMesolithicThe Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic.... - Mediterranean traditions in shipbuilding in Western, Central and Northern Europe
- Forms of Romanisation in the northern border provinces of the Roman EmpireRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, from Britannia to the Black SeaBlack SeaThe Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean... - Studies in the structure and genesis of elites in prehistoric and early societies
- Prehistoric and early historical hoardHoardIn archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
s - The development of an industrial landscape
- The ancient quarrying and mining region between the EifelEifelThe Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
and the Rhine - Transformation and cultural exchange on the fringes of the Mediterranean world
In presenting research, the museum works closely with the Volcano Park
Volcano Park, Mayen-Koblenz
The Volcano Park in Mayen-Koblenz is a geopark in the rural district of Mayen-Koblenz in the eastern Vulkan Eifel, Germany. It was founded in 1996 and wraps around the Laacher See...
in Mayen-Koblenz
Mayen-Koblenz
Mayen-Koblenz is a district in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Ahrweiler, Neuwied, Westerwaldkreis, district-free Koblenz, Rhein-Lahn, Rhein-Hunsrück, Cochem-Zell, and Vulkaneifel....
. One emphasis is research into the use of volcanic rock as building materials and for millstone
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...
s, particularly in the Roman period. Rock from the Eastern Eifel was used to build the Roman settlement of Colonia Ulpia Traiana at Xanten
Xanten
Xanten is a historic town in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany, located in the district of Wesel.Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park or archaeological open air museum , its medieval picturesque city centre with Xanten Cathedral and many museums, its large man-made lake for...
and was exported as far as southern Scandinavia.
The museum forms part of the Research Centre for Earth System Disciplines founded in 2008 at the University of Mainz, and of Byzantine Archaeology Mainz, which takes up themes of modern interdisciplinary inquiry into the archaeological evidence on the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
.
Research divisions
The Romano-Germanic Central Museum has several divisions and annexes. The Electoral Palace in Mainz houses three divisions:- Prehistory
- Roman provincial archaeology
- Early Middle Ages
Several research areas are attached to these divisions.
In the Museum of Ancient Seafaring in Mainz:
- Research area: ancient seafaring
In Castle Monrepos at Neuwied
Neuwied
Neuwied is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the right bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne...
, the Museum of Ice Age Archaeology:
- Research area: Old Stone Age
In Mayen
Mayen
Mayen is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, there are five further settlements which are part of Mayen, they are: Alzheim, Kürrenberg, Hausen-Betzing, Hausen and Nitztal...
:
- Research area: VolcanologyVolcanologyVolcanology is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma, and related geological, geophysical and geochemical phenomena. The term volcanology is derived from the Latin word vulcan. Vulcan was the ancient Roman god of fire....
, Archaeology, History of Technology
The Romano-Germanic Central Museum also currently has an extension programme in China.
Restoration workshops
The work of the Romano-Germanic Central Museum is focussed more on artifacts than on conducting field research. This has come to be so because of the museum's rich tradition and important work in restoration workshops; amongst others, they have worked on Ötzi the IcemanÖtzi the Iceman
Ötzi the Iceman , Similaun Man, and Man from Hauslabjoch are modern names for a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived about 5,300 years ago. The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from the...
's equipment and the bronze boar from Soulac-sur-Mer
Soulac-sur-Mer
Soulac-sur-Mer is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
. They also train restorers, and a BA degree in museum restoration is offered jointly with the University of Mainz. At the request of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, the museum and the university have also jointly set up a centre for mineralogical archaeometry and conservation studies.
Publications
The museum's history of publications in the field of archaeology goes back to 1852. They publish several scholarly journals, since 2006 in cooperation with Schnell und Steiner in RegensburgRegensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
.
- Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt
- Jahrbuch des RGZM (yearbook)
- Kataloge Vor- und Frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer (catalogues of pre-historic and early antiquities; volume 40 published in 2007; part 2 of volume 30 published in 2009)
- Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani (first published 1964)
- Tagungen des RGZM (symposia)
- Exhibition catalogues
- Restaurierung und Archäologie (journal, first published 2008)
- Museum guide (first published 2008)
Additionally, they publish scholarly monographs and a recently instituted series for a popular readership.
Exhibits
- Prehistoric, Roman and early mediaeval exhibits are on display in the Electoral Palace in Mainz. These consist for the most part of replicas rather than originals, enabling the museum to present a good overview of the prehistoric and early mediaeval cultures of early Europe.
- Museum of Ice Age Archaeology
- Museum of Ancient Seafaring
- Volcano Park, Mayen-KoblenzVolcano Park, Mayen-KoblenzThe Volcano Park in Mayen-Koblenz is a geopark in the rural district of Mayen-Koblenz in the eastern Vulkan Eifel, Germany. It was founded in 1996 and wraps around the Laacher See...
In addition, the museum participates in international exhibitions, but there is rarely space to display these at Mainz.
External links
- Official website (English version)
- Works on and about the museum at the German National LibraryGerman National LibraryThe German National Library is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany...