Archaeological Museum in Zagreb

Archaeological Museum in Zagreb
Arheološki muzej u Zagrebu
Museum building, located in Zagreb city centre
Map
Established1836 (1836)
Location19 Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square,
Zagreb, Croatia
Coordinates45°48′40″N 15°58′38″E / 45.81111°N 15.97722°E / 45.81111; 15.97722
TypeArchaeology museum
Key holdingsLiber Linteus Zagrabiensis
Lumbarda Psephisma
Visitors78,739 (2017)[1]
Websiteamz.hr

The Archaeological Museum (Croatian: Arheološki muzej u Zagrebu) in Zagreb, Croatia is an archaeological museum with over 450,000 varied artifacts and monuments, gathered from various sources but mostly from Croatia and in particular from the surroundings of Zagreb.[2]

Its predecessor institution was the "National Museum" (German: Kroatisches Nationalmuseum Agram) in the Austrian Empire, open to the public since 1846. It was renamed to "State Institute of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia" in 1866. In 1878, the Archaeological Department became an independent institution within the State Institute, and the umbrella institute was dissolved in 1939, leaving the Archaeological Museum as a standalone institution. The archaeological collection of the State Institute had been kept in the Academy mansion at Zrinski Square from the 1880s and remained there until 1945, when the museum moved to its current location at the 19th-century Vranyczany-Hafner mansion, 19 Zrinski Square.

The museum consists of five main sections: Prehistory, Egypt, Antiquity, Middle Ages, Coins and Medals.

The section "Prehistory" contains 78,000 objects, ranging from the Paleolithic to the Late Iron Age. The section "Egypt" displays about 600 objects in the permanent exhibition. The section "Antiquity" contains an important collection of Greek vases (about 1,500 vessels) and stones with inscriptions. The Roman Antiquity is represented by many statues, military equipment, metal objects, Roman religion and art and objects from everyday life, acquired through systematic archaeological excavations in various Croatian regions in many Croatian cities founded during the Roman Empire. The numismatic section is among the largest collections of this type in Europe.

Some of the famous artifacts include:

The museum is home to the mummified remains of a young Egyptian man who according to carbon dating died at some time between 900BC and 790BC.[3]

As of April 2024, the museum's permanent exhibition is closed to the public because of building repairs due to the damage from the 2020 Zagreb earthquake. Temporary exhibitions are accessible, though, on the 1st floor of the museum.[4]

  1. ^ "Posjećenost hrvatskih muzeja u 2017. godini" (PDF). mdc.hr (in Croatian). Zagreb: Museum Documentation Center. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  2. ^ "The History and the Activities of the Museum". Zagreb: Archaeological Museum. Archived from the original on 2011-11-27. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  3. ^ Cavka, Mislav; Petaros, Anja; Ivanac, Gordana; Aganović, Lejla; Janković, Ivor; Reiter, Gert; Speier, Peter; Nielles-Vallespin, Sonja; Brkljacić, Boris (2012). "A probable case of Hand-Schueller-Christian's disease in an Egyptian mummy revealed by CT and MR investigation of a dry mummy". Collegium Antropologicum. 36 (1): 281–286. ISSN 0350-6134. PMID 22816232.
  4. ^ "Visit" (in Croatian). Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. Retrieved 24 April 2024.