Archaeology and Cuisine, April 4

 Today was a bit cloudy and windy, a perfect day to go to the Archaeology Museum in Arles.

  It was a very interesting museum as Arles was the site of a Roman settlement, although it was settled in prehistoric times as well because of its important site on the Rhone with water and transportation to the Mediterranean. Thus, it has been an important trading area throughout its history. However, its claim to fame does center around the Roman settlement.
   The museum was built on the remains of the Roman Circus, actually. There are many models inside of things like the circus, the Colosseum, a pre-historic house, and water wheels that were used at the Barbegal aquaduct outside of Arles where we walked two days ago.

   The most remarkable exhibit centers around a boat from Roman times that was discovered in the river in 2004 under 9-10 feet of sediment. It took experts 5 years to explore the wreck and the many artifacts that were there and then to work out how to bring it up without destroying it. The boat was a flat-bottomed barge filled with tons of rocks which were being transported when it sank. It is over 100 feet long. We watched a very interesting film about the technology behind restoring it. The boat was taken up in sections and quickly moved to Grenoble where it was put back in water and eventually a kind of resin was used to stop the wood from decaying. The process took approximately 18 months. It is now on display in the museum which built an extension to house it.
  Other artifacts were also discovered including what is probably a bust of Julius Caesar, although it cannot be 100% verified.

  Trinquetaille, where Jerry lives across the Rhone from Arles, was also the site of many of the Roman discovering because it was used as the docking area and the boat was actually discovered on the Trinquetaille part of the river.
   The museum also has a nice collection of statues, jewelry, tools, sarcophagi, tombstones etc as well as several large mosaic floors.
    It was a great way to spend a good portion of the day.

    In the evening we visited Juliette and Bruno at their lovely home in town and had an amazing meal....pork with tomato and mushroom sauce over pasta plus his own chocolate mousse, not to mention salad and 2 delicious cheeses. C'est magnifique.