Finding the archaeological museum is surprisingly easy as it is pink, again, similar to the Collegiate Basilica with a large sign on the building. But the entrance is more difficult to find as it is on the opposite side, has no clear sign it is the entrance to the museum and looks like it is closed forever. But pushing the imposing door opens it and soon we are inside, almost the only people visiting today. With all the rain we were expecting more people but we were wrong which is good for us.
After paying the entrance we start with the temporary exhibit on the ground floor. Its focus is on a settlement in the bronze age created by settlers from the south on a major trade route between the amber of the Baltic and the south.
The exhibits are surprisingly informative and we learn a lot about the settlement and the trade routes that were running through the area and the goods that were moved south to north and viceversa.
There were multiple layers in which the settlement was built and the exhibits are pointing all of them out including the heyday when they built stone walls of Cyclopean proportions similar to what we have seen in Malta.
Of course there are sections dedicated to the day to day tools that were found here, many out of bones of nearby animals.
There are also exhibits about jewelry and weapons and overall we are quite impressed and are looking forward to the permanent exhibits.
To get there we must climb to the first floor past an interesting Egyptian obelisk in the covered interior courtyard. Here we notice that it rains seriously outside, we made a great decision to visit the museum.
There are no signs on the first floor directing you to visit a specific section so we decide to go one way first and then the other one. Our choice leads us first to the medieval section which is quite nicely exhibited also with lots of dioramas and photos trying to explain how the people in the middle ages were living, both rich and poor.
There are quite a few objects on exhibit and many of them are swords and axes and other war related implements. War was a major business even then it seems.
The women were placated with jewelry or at least so it seems from these exhibits, weapons for men and jewelry for women. Or maybe we do not understand what is exhibited, everything is in Polish only here :).
We are impressed by a huge wooden door, our assumption is that it is from a church that was demolished. That is especially due to the carvings on it. We also enjoy the interactive exhibits, mostly they are focused on dressing up as knights or medieval peasants.
In fact there is a section dedicated to the peasants with some interesting photos and utensils.
There is also a treasure section, unfortunately we weren’t the ones that found it, we wouldn’t have minded it.
And then we move to the second section of the permanent exhibition and it seems that maybe this is where we should have started if we wanted to go chronologically as it starts with mammoths so quite a bit farther back than the previous exhibit. But then it switches almost immediately to Egypt/Sudan so not sure on the order of visit.
We soon understand that the museum took part in multiple expeditions to Egypt/Sudan and this is the section that exhibits the finds starting with some nicely done petroglyphs.
We continue to be surprised that besides us there are only two other people visiting the museum, it is nice to have it to yourself but still it seems it is quite underrated.
We continue exploring what was found during their Africa expeditions. The explanations are quite good and we enjoy understanding the history of this far away place and how Christianity first came here.
In fact the exhibit ends with Early Christianity and how this area was taken over by Muslims but still there is a lot of information about the different Christianity branches in the area that we were not aware about. Overall it was quite enjoyable and there is one more section left to explore.
The last section seems to be focused on early inhabitants of the area, Stone Age to the migration that destroyed the Roman Empire. It starts in the Stone Age with some good dioramas and showing burial rituals and objects and then continues on through the various ages.
Stone Age and Bronze Age are quite well represented with lots of tools or weapons depending on how you view the many axes on display.
And then is the iron age with iron swords, spears and jewelry as well as some gold artifacts from the famous Vettersfelde Treasure. As we find out when we look closer they are all copies, unfortunately the actual ones are in Berlin as the Scythian treasure was found while this area was German.
The description end with the time of migrations as multiple groups passed through the area pushed by the Mongols including some that ultimately settled and led to the creation of the Polish state with the native inhabitants. And then we are done and with the rain also finished it is time for one more round of sightseeing and souvenir buying in the Central Square before returning to the train station for our train to Berlin.
