The Mainz State Museum makes an amazing discovery in its own depot.
Severed heads, torsos without limbs, fragments and shards – the ancient splendor that museums are able to exhibit gives little indication of the former splendor. The Venus de Milo is also famous without arms, or precisely because of that, and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke sings impressively about Apollo’s headless torso (“We didn’t know his outrageous head…”).
The Mainzer Landesmuseum – “we have one of the largest Roman stone collections north of the Alps,” says curator Ellen Riemer proudly – probably has tons of fragments of antiquities. Now one of the museum depots has to move, and that turned out to be an enormous stroke of luck. Because this is how a Roman soldier gets his long-lost head back. “A discovery like this is very, very rare,” enthuses Riemer.
However, the head was not lost in ancient times, but in the turmoil of the Second World War. “Many ancient tombstones were buried in the courtyard of the museum to protect them from bombing raids,” reports curator Riemer. “After the war, the rubble was salvaged, but smaller fragments were probably just swept together.”
Public restoration
The headless warrior ended up on loan in the Pohl Limes Museum, the head lay in a box in the depot for decades – until the archaeologist Jens Dolata proved to have a keen eye and a good memory while cleaning up for the move. “He just knows his way around Roman stones very, very well,” says his colleague appreciatively.
Yes, the top and bottom actually fit together and belong to the almost 2000-year-old tombstone discovered in Mainz-Weisenau in 1906, as Ellen Riemer and a historical photo confirm. On Thursday and Friday of this week, the Matthias Steyer restoration workshop wants to clean both parts of the almost 2000-year-old figure and put it back together again after 77 years, in public.
“He’s very funny, I think, as grumpy as he looks,” says Riemer. Unfortunately, we will probably never learn more about the unknown person, as the inscription was missing when it was discovered. But the museum still has many boxes…
During the public restoration, visitors are also allowed to ask questions, which is expressly encouraged. “If you only want to watch the restoration, you don’t even have to pay admission if you only want to see that,” says Riemer – which would be a shame, because the rest of the museum on the Große Bleiche is also worthwhile.
The museum hopes that the campaign will promote an idea that wants to put the collection in a new light. In the future it will be possible to take over stone sponsorships. Then, next to the antiques restored thanks to patronage, there will be a QR code with which short films can be called up. Private individuals, school classes or companies should explain why they are raising money for ancient heritage.
