Old Roman City Field Trip

The first field trip we took for our Barcelona Past & Present class was to the location of the old Roman city of Barcelona.  I thought this was a very appropriate first field trip because it allowed me to see the foundation of where the city I am studying in was started.  We saw ruins in the museum that were over 2000 years old! That was very cool to see that such structures (or remainders of structures) were still standing after being built so long ago.  It was astounding to see the original pillars to one of the main gates to the city were still standing as well.  This is an attribute to the Roman culture; their physical structures are just as strong as the strength of their culture.

It was also very fascinating to see how the Romans lived in their day-to-day lives in Barcelona.  The museum displayed the pots and utensils that were used for cooking back then.  It was interesting to find out that clay pottery and similar utensils that the Romans once used are still commonly used in present day Barcelona.  I thought it was also fascinating seeing the sewage and fresh water systems in these ruins and also the way they would preserve food such as fish--who knew that such a simple preservation tactic was putting fish underground!  The public bathing area interested me because I learned that these were the most common areas to talk about politics and other community events.  I also learned that the assassination of Caesar was thought to have been planned in a public bathing area such as the one we saw.  The one thing that grossed me out about this field trip was learning about how the Romans washed their clothes during this time: by mixing coal and urine.  Never in my life would I think that these two components would clean my clothes.

All in all, this was a great way to start my experience in Barcelona and learn about ancient past times in this old and historic city.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the museum so I could only snap a few.