Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle

Description

The State Museum of Prehistory in Halle (Saale) is part of the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt and represents the federal state’s archaeological collection. Its holdings rank among the most extensive and scientifically significant collections in Germany; the total inventory comprises more than 15 million finds. Objects of international note include, among others, the Himmelsscheibe von Nebra (in the museum’s possession since 2002, on permanent display since 23 May 2008), the Reiterstein von Hornhausen, the Familiengräber von Eulau, the Waldelefant von Gröbern and the Schamanin von Bad Dürrenberg.

The roots of the collection go back to the collection founded in 1819 by the Thüringisch-Sächsischen Verein für Erforschung des vaterländischen Alterthums und Erhaltung seiner Denkmale in Naumburg. This collection was moved to Halle in 1823 and housed in 1825 in the Old Princely State Hall of the New Residence. At the end of the 19th century, state authorities decided to establish a provincial museum; in 1883 the society’s collection passed into the ownership of the new museum, and in 1886 official archaeological monument conservation began in the province.

The building used by the museum today was erected on municipal land between 1911 and 1913; its architectural design drew on the Porta Nigra in Trier. It was inaugurated on 9 October 1918. In the years that followed there were several renamings and institutional reassignments, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s and after the Second World War. The museum and its specialist library survived the war without significant losses; the permanent exhibition was able to reopen as early as March 1946. From the 1950s to the 1980s exhibits were supplemented and the building was placed under monument protection; in 1984 the millionth visitor was recorded.

After German reunification the museum underwent several organizational reorganizations and between 1991 and 1997 received its present institutional designations. Since the formation of the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt on 1 January 2004 the Landesmuseum has been one of several departments.

The museum is part of the tourist route “Himmelswege” and, together with the Kreisgrabenanlage von Goseck, the Kreisgrabenanlage von Pömmelte and the Großsteingrab Langeneichstädt, forms a stop. After extensive renovation work the permanent exhibition was reopened on 23 May 2008 and addresses the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age; in 2010 a media room for about 40 people was added, and at the end of 2012 the Middle and Late Bronze Age as well as the Early Iron Age were integrated into the permanent exhibition.