Roman Barcino

View from outside of the Roman Barcino field trip

Harp and Guitar player in the courtyard

Roman contraption outside of Roman Barcino ruins

We went on a field trip to the Roman Barcino in the Museo de la Historia de Barcelona.  We left the IES building and walked to the museum and I took some pictures of the architecture outside.  In the courtyard, there were many people standing around and there were two guys playing instruments – the harp and the violin.  I took a picture of them because they reminded of the musicians in New York who play on the streets and in the subways.  We took a tour of the museum and unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of any of the artifacts or roman architecture.

                At our first stop, we saw sculptures and pieces of foundation that were dated to the first century A.D.  They were made of sandstone and marble and I was surprised to see that they were still in such good condition after almost two thousand years.  There was also some small pottery that was dated to before the Roman Empire.  Next, we watched a video that took us through the history of Barcelona and the expansion and layout of the city.  Most of the information backed up what we had already learned in class.

                The next part of the tour was the most interesting.  We took an elevator down under the museum and saw structures and artifacts from 100 B.C.  There was a tower that was originally part of the cities wall.  Roman cities normally consisted of a similar layout, with a central market where business could be conducted and a fortified wall around the city to protect from invasions.  It was interesting to go inside the tower and imagine that Roman soldiers were standing in the same place two millennia ago.  We saw the layout of the typical roman villa for the upper class.  The most interesting part of the field trip was seeing how their life was to life today.  The women used make up that we saw in little bottles, the kids etched tic-tac-toe into the pavement and they drank wine that was similar to the wine drank today.  We also saw the remains of a Roman bath where it was typical for people to bathe in public with many people.  We learned that small children were taught about everything, including sexuality, while bathing with their professors.  This concept was hard for me to grasp but I understand that it was part of their culture and was completely normal for them.  Overall, the field trip was extremely enlightening and I learned a lot about the daily life of roman society in Barcelona.