Prehistory and Early History

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History presents its expansive collection together with objects from the Collection of Classical Antiquities on three floors of the Neues Museum.

Visitors are greeted on the ground floor by the room entitled Odin, Urns, Looted Art, which presents the 180 year old history of the museum, with preserved wall paintings depicting scenes from Nordic mythology. The following room is dedicated to Heinrich Schliemann, who bequeathed his collection of Trojan antiquities to the museum "for their eternal preservation". The room beyond that reveals how various influences in the art and culture of Cyprus conflated in a unique way on the Island.

The first thing to greet visitors on the first floor, the museum’s piano nobile, are the Treasures from the Rhine – the Xanten Boy and the Barbarian Treasure of Neupotz, one of the largest metals hoards from the Roman period north of the Alps. From here, the way leads on to the Roman Provinces. From there, the visitor has access to the Pantheon - Chipperfield's new South Dome Room, in which two colossal statues of divinities from the 2nd century AD originating from the Egyptian city of Lycopolis await visitors. The next room, Rome's Northern Neighbours is dedicated to the tensions between Rome and the Germanic peoples, while Migration Period and Middle Ages provides an insight into the time from the Migration Period to the Carolingian Renaissance.