La Dama de Elche

Bueno... no sé hacer esto para que sea un diario para mi, pero que también puede ser algo que mi familia y mis amigos pueden leer. Vale. Esta vez en el inglés.

I have to figure this out, for those of you who attempted that first posting. But as this is also a memory of my trip, writing it in Spanish is how I want to do it. Until I can figure something out, this one is in English. :)

Today, after my DELE class and my individual class, in which I learned one of the most astonishing things in my life (you won't care unless you teach Spanish and are not a native speaker), I had my culture class - History of Spain. What was so cool about it was our visit to the Museo Arqueológico de Madrid. There, we were able to see objects, statues, coffins, weapons, pottery, etc. from all periods of Spain's history. Well... almost all periods. The room with the reproduction of the Cuevas de Altamira was closed. Eh... it's only a reproduction anyway. So, imagine my excitement at what I got to see. (Btw... those who know me well, will know how I reacted upon seeing they also had two Egyptian sarcophogi and figurines.) The main event, by the way, is the Dama de Elche. Her:

If you don't know anything about her, it's very interesting. Especially because historians believe that this bust was actually part of a whole statue. She was discovered, purely by happenstance, in 1897. She is an Iberian sculpture from somewhere between V-IV B.C. It is a funerary figure, as is almost, if not every item in this Museo. She has her shoulders hunched forward, as she is probably going to be carrying offerings for the dead. Though you may not understand Spanish, I recommend looking her up as "Dama de Elche" on wikipedia in Spanish to see an artist's rendering of what she looked like fully painted. The best you can see now is some red left on her lips (kind of hard to see here).

Another very cool object of Spanish history is found in the same room. A very important piece of the treasure of Guarrazar also resides here. This comes from the Byzantine period, and for now, I only have a close up, not of the whole thing. Here it is:

This is the votive crown of the King Recesvinto. And all that blue you see.... sapphires. It dates to around the Seventh Century A.D. It was given to the Roman Catholic Church as a gesture of the orthodoxy of the Visigoths' faith. (I'll have better pictures later, these two are from my phone. And through glass for both of these.)

Well... I'm up early tomorrow. Going to be celebrating San Isidro all day!!!