We Were Running Low On Energy & Shortchanged The National Museum of Roman Art

Right across the plaza from the Roman Theatre/Amphitheatre complex is the National Museum of Roman Art.

It's modestly misnamed as it should be called the National Museum of Roman Archaeology and Art, but nobody asked me.

We were kind of tired, so we breezed through the first floor, which is the main the floor, but skipped the smaller second and third floor.

I bought us tickets for the entire Merida Monumental Complex, which is great -- it got us into all of the Roman sites in Merida (some are outdoors and free, but most of them have an entry fee), but the museum is free.

As you can imagine in a small city of approximately 60,000, there have been quite a lot of material that's been found.  The building the museum is currently in (the museum was founded by royal decree in 1836!) was built from 1981-86.  It was not at all crowded/busy when we went in the late afternoon.

It is full of Roman statues, reliefs, amphoras, mosaics, and more.  Because of the impressive collection, the museum is also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

(There is also a Visigoth Museum in Merida, but we did not go.)

It's possible the head

is somewhere else in

the museum.

Augustus as Pontifex

Maximus.

A fine, full on

Roman mosaic.

Jupiter Ammon, a syncretic

deity in both Greek and

Roman mythology,

representing a combination

of the Roman god Jupiter

and the Egyptian god

Amun.

Syncretism is where religious

traditions blend together.

See, this blog IS educational

on occasion.

Jupiter Ammon is also

an ancestor of our

neighbors, the Ammons.

They are really nice people,

but if they have any powers

of a god, they haven't

shown them to me, yet.