Location: Italian Building in the New Palace (Neues Schloss)
Tel. +49 0 921/ 65307
Open: Apr- Oct, 1st Sunday of every month 10am- 12pm
Sat 10am- 3pm
Entry:
€1.00/ €0.50 (reduced)
The Archaeological Museum is the only special museum for prehistoric
and early historical finds in Upper Franconia. It can look back on a
long history. The foundation stone for the collection of the historical
association was laid when the association was founded in 1827. Our own
excavations in the last and this century, as well as numerous gifts and
loans, have allowed it to grow into one of the largest collections of
prehistoric and early historical exhibits in Upper Franconia. Since the
1950s it has been housed in the Italian building of the New Palace in
Bayreuth, which was built between 1759 and 1762. In 1993 the exhibition
was redesigned. Numerous text and display boards now offer visitors
extensive information.
Finds from the Paleolithic to the Middle
Ages are shown in eight rooms. They mainly come from eastern Upper
Franconia, with Franconian Switzerland and the Bayreuth area forming the
regional focus.
The exhibition begins with a look at the club’s
history and a general introduction to the topic of “archaeology”. There
is a rare work of art from the Mesolithic period.
It is a bone
fragment with a fine, net-like engraving from the Hohlstein in the
Klumpertal near Pottenstein.
A highlight of the exhibition are
finds from the Neolithic period - stone axes from Dressendorf, Bindlach
and glassworks, a jadeite ax from Haßlach and a flint dagger from
Tröbersdorf.
In the adjoining stairwell you can grind your own
grain or experience the technical possibilities of the Neolithic age
using a replica of a stone drill. Richly decorated eyeglass spirals and
leg jewelry from the Bronze Age have been in the collection since 1827.
They were found two years earlier in Bayreuth/Saas.
Spindle
whorls and loom weights testify to textile production at the end of the
Bronze Age. The wealth of the Hallstatt period is conveyed by a display
wall with over 80 clay vessels, including from burial mounds near
Mistelgau, Kasendorf and Drosendorf. Vessels created on the turntable
show the technical progress of the Celts in the early Latent period.
Excellently crafted bronze jewelry is available from Drosendorf near
Hollfeld. They are robe brooches that depict stylized water birds and
are known as bird head brooches.
A pair of bronze rings with highly
stylized pairs of animal heads mark a highlight of Celtic craftsmanship
in Upper Franconia.