Just local history

I hadn't realised thee extent of Cologne's past history on my previous visit. I'd come across the Roman road and a few remaining Roman remains but The Roemisch-Germanisches Museum had been closed, presumably for restoration and I could only look down on a massive mosaic and famed from a floor level glass window. This time we discovered the collection was relocated to the Belgian House, just metres from our unit, so the visit. The display was not vast (as I like it) although the collection is. One panel spoke of 2m items being dug up in one tunnel build. These could be just glass shards or discarded oyster shells or broken tools, but historical and it speaks to the history in this place. And we discovered the history reached back to Neanderthals through stone and bronze ages through the Roman empire to the Franks. We first visited the Romans with their stone memorials, a lengthy run of busts and memorials and a road marker, through tools for various purposes, decorations and jewellery and stunning glassware, and the incredible road map for the Roman Empire, the Tabula Peutingeriana (held in the Austrian National Library in Vienna). A naval base was located just near Koln so their tools and various discards in the waters. Then on to the Franks after the rout of Rome by the Germanic peoples, again personal fineries, more glass, and through burial remains from the Paleo- and Neolithic and to two cutting stones, one in process of preparation, perhaps 60k years old. And the stunner is that these collections are locally sourced, from the city and surroundings. The website lists a string of larger items which may reside with the mosaic, and crowns and more that weren't at the Belgian House, but what was was a wonder none-the-less. A long history and much change and a stunner to think that it's still just local!

The Roemisch-Germanisches Museum is located in the Belgian House in Cologne.