START OF THE JOURNEY: JOURNEY OF EXPERIENCE: CONTINUATION OF THE INHERITORS OF A DESIRE A MUSEUM WITH A BEATING JOURNEY: AND A TRADITION HEART A LOOK TO THE FUTURE It is hoped to make the Museum a This is a living building. On the The Museum suggests a journey, a meeting point, a square where the surface, it is an ordered set of look to the future. When we men and women of our city can stonework, cement, concrete, metal immerse ourselves, we discover that meet to discover the heritage as we and glass. However, the reality is we, as heirs to the Iberians, look towards the future. The hope is that it is a living being, with a Romans, Muslims and Christians, that it will be a lingering memory, a heartbeat and which breathes, are the rightful owners of the legacy journey towards an archipelago of which sleeps when it is closed, but and heritage on display inside, a realities with which we should be which awakens when visitors tread tangible and undeniable familiar. The Museum of a land and its halls. manifestation of the existence of an its people. Our Museum, as well as identity united with the yours. The new building encases, embraces geographical and historical reality and protects this church, part of the of the plain of Lleida and our We are the inheritors of human former Discalced Carmelite convent. historical bishopric. action which has made it possible to Building work commenced in 1595, recover a part of our past and to then it became an Alms House The Museum is the starting point on preserve it, bold and daring following exclaustration and given a journey traversing frontiers, tracts initiatives arising at decisive over to welfare services until 1999. of land and walls, with foundations moments. We come from a long In 2003, when work began on the in history itself and which, it is museum tradition, backed up by the new site of the Museum, it was hoped, will be supportive, respectful running and maintenance of the decided that the chapel would be and democratic, in order to reach a two hundred-year-old collections of the centrepiece of the new building future which appreciates difference Lleida: the diocese collection, design. In this way, avant-garde and diversity from the demand for created by Bishop Messeguer in went hand in hand with tradition, an identity. 1893, with the intention of and modern times made their own salvaging liturgical items from his and respected the architectural A starting point is also a meeting parishes, which were not being used heritage of bygone centuries. point, where different and diverse and to use them for training people, from a wide range of seminarists, and the archaeological Inside, the archaeological and backgrounds, perhaps with collection, created in 1866 by the diocese collections, of which the opposing interests, converge, all Provincial Commission for artistry of the Cathedral Chapter united in the journey about to be Historical and Artistic Monuments forms a part, constitute a unique embarked upon. The Museum is a and, since the 1940s, conserved and piece of heritage to be enjoyed by starting point to your journey into added to by the Lleida Provincial the public. The Museum team the future. Government Institut d’Estudis Ilerdenc conserves, interprets, studies, Bon voyage! [Institute of Lleida Studies]. restores and disseminates this legacy with the certainty that we A large number of women and men need to know who we are and where have put a great deal of energy into we come from, in order to know preserving the heritage of all, which where we are going. includes our identity and explains who we are to the rest of the world. When you visit the Museum, when They have frequently done so in you tread its main corridors and difficult, precarious or risky engage with its exhibits, the situations. A thank you to all of Museum’s heart beats. It is then that them. Their work is what brought the Museum comes to life. this Museum into being. Museu de Lleida_3 Palaeolithic Neolithic Bronze Iron Ilergete State Roman Period Visigoth Period HUNTERS AND GATHERERS Ref.: 1 OUR FIRST STEPS The Laetoli footprints (Tanzania) One day, three million six hundred thousand years ago, a pair of simians and their young left their footprints in the mud. They are called Australopithecus afarensis and they walked upright, like us. Their fossilized footprints have been preserved to this day. We do not know where these Laetoli Australopithecus came from or where they were going, but their footprints demonstrate that they were indeed following a path: the path of their biological evolution. A mysterious and perhaps uncertain road that, in the end, led to the Homo species, and to us. 4 million years ago cranial capacity: between 430 and 520 cubic centimetres average height: between 130 and 135 Ref.: 2 centimetres HOMINIDS Physically, Australopithecus africanus was quite One of the oldest known hominid species, similar to afarensis. Even the volume of its brain Australopithecus anamensis, lived four million seems to have increased very little. years ago and already had a bipedal anatomical Recently, two more species of this genus have shape very much like ours. been identified: an Australopithecus skeleton In the steppe environment, bipedalism and from over three and a half million years ago called having free hands with an opposing thumb to Little Foot and Australopithecus garhi, which grasp things provided new capabilities and lived about two and a half million years ago. The lat- made it possible to have access to a wider range ter, with anatomical features that are relatively of resources and new food sources. But it also in- evolved, is a firm candidate in the evolutionary volved disadvantages, such as the transforma- line of the Homo genus. tion of the pelvis, which made giving birth more difficult for females. In the evolutionary chain, anamensis led to Ref.: 5 two new lines: on the one hand, a graceful form Adapt or die which is believed to be at the base of the hu- man evolutionary tree and, on the other, a Paranthropus aethiopicus more robust form, known as Paranthropus, dates from between 2.5 and 2.2 million years which became extinct a million years ago. ago cranial capacity: 410 cubic centimetres average height: 150 centimetres Ref.: 3 There are three known species in the Paranthropus From australopithecus to the Beatles genus. Two, aethiopicus and boisei, were found in eastern Africa and the third, robustus, was found Australopithecus afarensis dates from between 4 and 2.9 million years ago in southern Africa. cranial capacity: between 380 and 480 cubic Their most characteristic anatomical features centimetres are, above all, their highly developed chewing average height: between 105 and 135 systems and a pronounced sexual dimorphism centimetres (anatomically differentiated appearance be- tween males and females). This species lived between three and four million The cranial robustness of Paranthropus indi- years ago. It is believed to have lived in both dry for- cates an extreme level of specialisation based on an est areas and mixed forest and grassland environ- herbivorous diet, which means it had a very specif- ments. It was a little taller than present day chim- ic adaptive link to a certain habitat. But in the panzees. It had longer arms than legs and a slight long run, this strict dependence led to its extinc- stagger to its bipedal walk. The size difference be- tion. tween males and females was considerable. The most famous of all the Australopithecus afarensis fossils is the female found in 1974, Ref.: 6 which palaeontologists called Lucy. They decided Dear boy this name suited her because, while they were celebrating the discovery, the Beatles song, Lucy in Paranthropus boisei the Sky with Diamonds, came on the radio. dates from between 2.3 and 1 million years ago cranial capacity: between 500 and 545 cubic centimetres Ref.: 4 average height: between 130 and 140 The tracks of a little foot centimetres Australopithecus africanus In 1956, cranium OH5, initially called Dear Boy, dates from between 3.5 and 2.5 million years was found at the Olduvai site and later classified as ago Paranthropus boisei. 6_Museu de Lleida This species evolved from Paranthropus aethiopi- Other fossil remains that are very similar to cus. Its height, weight and proportions were al- habilis have been considered as a different species most identical to those of Australopithecus, but its identified under the name of Homo rudolfensis, cranial volume is considerably greater. with a brain that is a little larger and a powerful jaw It lived in a dry, open grassland type of habi- like that of Paranthropus. tat, and it is believed that it probably made tools. Dear Boy. Dear Boy. It sounds like the opening line of an impossible letter to prehistory. Ref.: 9 Lost sounds Mode 1 tools Ref.: 7 These early sets of tools, known as Mode 1 tools, are charac- THE GENUS ‘HOMO’ terised by blades cut on just one side (choppers) or on two sides (chopping tools) and by the resulting flakes, which Two and a half million years ago, coinciding were used as cleavers and scrapers. with a series of large-scale climate changes, Considerable skill and manual abilities, as well as a re- the evolutionary tree of the hominid group markably complex brain, were needed to carry out this op- branched off into the genus Homo. eration. If we can imagine the sound of the stones being struck, The oldest known exponents of this new we will hear the true soundtrack of this decisive stage in our genus are Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis.