June 24, 2023 - Germany
Trier Archeological Museum
The only museum we toured in Trier was the Archaeological Museum.  The Museum's collection mostly covers Trier's Roman period.
   
Let's hit it!
   
Farming as a way of life gradually spread from the Rhine to the Mosel , beginning around 5200 BC.  These are pieces from some of the earliest wells in the area.
   
The inhabitants of central Europe around 600 BC were called Celts.  Below are some bronze artifacts from the period.
   
Wealthy Romans erected big memorials to their own lives and accomplishments along the road leading into Trier.  A few have survived like the one pictured below.
   
Originally, these memorials would have been painted in vibrant colors.  Some faced color still exists on this one.
   
Between 58 and 50 BC, the Roman military commander Gaius Julius Caesar subjected all of Gaul and thus the tribal territory of the Celtic Trevari as well.
   
Alas, father time diminishes all.  No one knows who these people were or anything about them, other than they had money.
   
A Neumagen wine ship carved from stone.
   

The museum has an impressive collection of Roman mosaics.  Mosaic floors were big in Roman times.

Here are the tools and materials used in making a mosaic floor or wall.
   
And the finished result.
   
A detailed floor.
   
Some of these floors had underfloor heating!
   
Them museum owns the largest and most important collection of Roman mosaics north of the Alps.  The frequency of findings proves the extraordinary rank and wealth of Roman Trier.
   
Looking down at a mosaic floor from a balcony.
   
 
   

The museum featured an interesting Roman coin exhibit.

In 1993 some Trier construction workers dug up a bag holding 2,600 Roman gold coins which became known as the Trier gold hoard of 196 AD.  Trier was under siege around that time so burying a hoard makes sense.  The Emperor's face is on each coin.  Over 150 years of coinage were in circulation when this bag was lost.
   
The different Emperors represented by the gold coins.
   
Roman silver coins.
   
 
   

Emperor Septimius Severus (193 to 211). 
 
   
The first Roman bridge went across the Mosel River at Trier in 18/17 BC.  Later the bridge was improved.
   
Roman busts.  Important people.  Who were they?  Lost to time.
   
A model of a Roman winery.
   
Roman monument.
   
 
   
This map shows Trier's -- then called Augusta Treverorum -- position in the vast Roman empire.  As you can see, it is on the main road that runs north-south all the way to the French Mediterranean coast.
   
Golden bust of Caesar Augustus who eventually emerged as the first Roman Emperor after Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.  Augustus reigned from 27 BC to 14 AD.
   
Roman tablets.
   

I loved this huge model of Roman Trier which had a population of 80,000 back in the day.

Here, I'm looking south across the Roman city of Augusta Treverorum from which modern Trier emerged.  The Mosel River is on the right.  The Roman Amphitheater is at far left.  The Porta Nigra (northern gate) is at bottom, left of center.  The Basilica is left of center.
   
Looking south down the Mosel River.
   
Zooming in on the Basilica just left of center.
   
Close-up of the Amphitheater and Circus -- where chariot races were held.
   
Now looking north from the south.
   
A good shot of the Basilica at center.
   
The southern gate was a massive structure.
   
A painting of Medieval Trier looking east starting at the Mosel River.  You can see how the Cathedral has its own wall.  The Roman Basilica is still standing, to the right of the Cathedral.
   
A drawing of Medieval Trier, also looking east.
   
A painting of Medieval Trier along the Mosel River.
   
 
   
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