If you have always wanted to know – without ever daring to ask – about the life led by archæological objects (it is often an eventful one), this exhibition is for you and for all those who would like to know what an archæological museum is like behind the scenes.

How do we enrich the collections? How do we restore objects? What use are they? How do we make them 'talk'? Who contributes to their arrival at the museum and their conservation? And what threats to their survival may there be? From the excavation site to the museum, archaeological objects are indeed involved in a long journey that leads them from their their underground hiding places to the bright lights of museum display cabinets ... or, in some cases, to solid cardboard boxes and a welcoming storeroom specially designed for them and, indeed, for the greater satisfaction of researchers. The exhibition invites you to follow all these objects along the different stages of their new lives, emerging from the earth where they have slept for centuries if not millennia. They tell you not only their own story and the ups and downs of their long existence, but also about the people who, through the ages, have created them, used them and even thrown them away or kept them in their graves. Some of these objects have become the possessions of collectors who have acquired, cherished and admired them before bequeathing them to a public collection to ensure their appreciation by all. Others have passed into the hands of researchers and entered laboratories and universities to add to our knowledge of past civilizations. They are thus evidence of a very long history, one that is also ours

Exhibition Curator:Bernadette Schnitzler, Head Curator of Musée Archéologique; Sylvie Bucher, Education Department, Musées de Strasbourg