Paris - 1

The Museum of Archeology

Gold from the Celts.

When one thinks of Paris, lots of different images might come to mind. The Eiffel tower, The Louvre, The Left Bank, the metro, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and so many others might start the wheels turning. I started my Paris adventure at the National Museum of Archeology. In some ways like others I have seen, in others so very different. To get to it, one takes an RER train - not a metro. It is located in an outlying suburb and so requires more than just a metro pass to get to it.  These trains stop inside the city center, but are a separate system with much heavier trains. On the bright side, exiting the station plops one across the street from the museum. They had a rigid security check, for just me. No line of people streaming in and out.

Bronze age chest armor. Six exquisite pieces in one cabinet.

The amazing part of this national museum is the wide variety of items they can choose to display and the depth of selection of items means what one does see is some of the the most excellent of it's kind. They have the ability to pull from finds all over France and even had some things from Hallstatt in Austria and Hochdorf in Germany.

Bronze age arm and neck rings.

Iron Age wrist and arm bands.

What became really clear in this museum was the relative wealth and influence of the Celts in the Bronze and iron ages.  The iron age brought greater prosperity to the Celts and they traded more widely with the help of the new technology. The tribes organized into bigger units to support leaders who could pile up more wealth. This made the group more effective at holding off the Germanic tribes to the north and east and the Romans to the south.

What an interesting assortment of Bronze art. It seems like every surface had some sort of dimpling, stippling or striping.

There were a few really unique pieces from the Bronze age on display too. There was a cone that I could not suss out its purpose apart from decoration and a display of wealth/power. As interesting as the bronze was, the iron stole the show. Anything you can imagine a blacksmith making, they were already hard at work making in those days.  Most curious to me were the 6 foot tall iron hoops that were the rims on chariot wheels. Rims in this context being the outside edges of the wheel, not the hub the tire is mounted on.

I'm in the picture to give perspective on just how tall these wheels were.

Everything the bronze smiths managed earlier, the iron smiths did even more intensely. There was a single exception that I found however. It is difficult for me to even imagine this, but apparently 600 years before Christ, there were people who had figured our how to polish bronze well enough to have - a mirror!

Not as shiny as it once was, but what an item!

Some clever types had also worked out needles of many types and sizes. Not surprising since neolithic man had worked out needles using bone way back in the day. But still awfully cool to see in bronze or iron.

Bronze needles of various types.

Then I went father back in time to the neolithic. There was such a gigantic variety of stone knives, spear tips, cutting and scraping tools, and arrow tips that were displayed to show off the progression in technique for making the objects. The stone objects got smaller, more refined and more effective as time went on. But then there was the neolithic art. Apparently wide hips were appreciated back in the day. Probably because it meant the risk of dying in childbirth went down.

Various neolithic art pieces.

There were examples of cave art made in a number of ways. But the object from neolithic times that impressed me the most was also the feature photo for the museum's advertising. It is about 25,000 years old. An amazing piece of art today.  From then, it just boggles my mind. It is about 1.5 inches tall. It is called - Venus of Brassempouy.

Venus.

Because I had a chance to return to the city before Notre Dame had closed, I stopped to see her as well.  It is looking much better inside. Lighting improvements and restorations are continuing and showing off what they own to greater effect. Notre-Dame de Paris translates to Our Lady of Paris. There is a lot of what can be shown of the Cathedral, but I'm going to limit myself to just two objects to see. These are statues of the patrons saints of France.

Joan of Arc.

You might recognize the above as Joan of Arc. She has such a well know look about her.  The sign next to her proclaims she was burned as a witch and a heretic, but later the decision to rehabilitate her was made in this Cathedral. I'm always amazed at the judgments we pass on each other. In the superstitious frightened world of 1431, I understand how she was betrayed and convicted wrongly. But gee golly, she was "rehabilitated"? The men who killed her were wrong and the men who rehabilitated her don't impress me much either. I'm skeptical of anyone proclaiming that in the name of God someone else is good, or bad or deserving punishment or murder. The sins of the ancient church still echo to us today.

Will you be able to pick out my all time favorite saint over my shoulder?

Denis is the fellow with his head in his hands, not the person texting.

If you guessed St. Denis (pronounced Sanct Den-Knee).  You are correct. He preceded Joan by a very long time. Denis was sent to the area of Paris back in the early 200's. When he was beheaded, it is said he picked his head up and carried it about 6 miles, preaching the whole way. My favorite bit about this particular statue is how the halo remains above his neck indicating a belief that the sacred soul resides in the person, not the brain or head.