The representation of women in the new National Archaeological Museum: beginning with Prehistory

Abstract

As in previous works done, we feel the need that in archaeological museums the selection of the gender of the people who are represented in the social scenes should be done very carefully, balancing both the number and the attitudes, what they do, their roles and their significance. To this end, we have analyzed the representation of women in the museum scenes, considering as such, any reproduction in which two or more persons are interacting. The work performed in the new exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) of Madrid, regarding only to the rooms of Prehistory and Protohistory, show the presence of 25.1% of women in these scenes, including in many cases the participation in construction or mining works, and the presence of women occupying close-ups. This, places this museum in the highest positions including women’s presence in the scenes, among all the museums studied until now. The new archaeological museum has taken six years to reorganize and reshape the collection, and is now presented as a renovated Museum but preserving at the same its essence. This renewal has included, to a great extent, a detailed care in the representation of women in the past.