An exhibition opens a new chapter for the MARQ as it presents a bold project designed to deepen our understanding of early European societies. Following the strong reception of Los Guerreros de Xi’an, the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid hosts a collaborative effort that aims to surpass previous records and redefine how visitors connect with ancient history. The new display gathers 21 museums and cultural institutions from seven countries to present a scholarly narrative built around 482 artifacts. It reveals, for the first time, how Bronze Age interactions helped shape the social structures and communities we recognize today. The show Dinastías: The First Realms of Prehistoric Europe will be on view in Alicante from March 22 to October 13.
From revolutionary shifts in how goods moved across vast distances, to the dawn of commerce and market value, and the emergence of social classes, the MARQ hopes this exhibition will serve as a powerful educational tool. It emphasizes not only the objects themselves but the way the knowledge behind them is communicated to visitors from Alicante and beyond.
To mark the launch, a delegation led by Toni Pérez, president of the Alicante Provincial Council, along with the Culture Deputy Juan de Dios Navarro, the MARQ director Manuel Olcina, and curators Fran Robert Risch and Juan Antonio López Padilla, traveled to the National Archaeological Museum. One member of the team, János Dani from the Déri Museum in Debrecen, Hungary, could not attend the premiere.
A Narrative Exhibition
The show guides visitors through prehistoric Europe, offering a compelling journey that explains how class-based societies and dynasties emerged. The centerpiece is a collection of 482 pieces framed by a strong narrative about social evolution and political organization.
These objects have never before been assembled in Spain. The display aims to give visitors not only the chance to admire Bronze Age masterpieces from continental Europe but also to understand, in clear terms, who created them, why they were made, and who benefited from them.
Among the works featured in the three MARQ galleries are several items of exceptional patrimonial value, including a gold diadem from Quinta da Água Branca, the Téglas-decorated sword and battle axe, the Leubingen tomb grave goods, Meltz depot halberds, the Schifferstadt gold hat, the Guadalajara sword with a gold hilt, and the Caravaca de la Cruz gold diadem.
Significantly, the exhibition also presents for the first time in Spain a broad selection of pieces from nineteenth-century excavations conducted by the Siret brothers between Almería and Murcia. These artifacts have resided in the Brussels Museum of Art and History for more than a century. The show will also reveal several objects never before shown in a museum setting, thanks to loans from multiple institutions.
Rectifying a Long-Standing Forgetting
Roberto Risch, a curator from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, described the exhibition as a project that “repairs a nearly century-old forgetting” about Bronze Age societies and their international significance. The fading memory of this pivotal era, obscured by the upheavals of the world wars and the subsequent Iron Curtain, is now being restored through MARQ’s presentation. The works on display will illuminate the rise of proto-m currencies, mass production of armaments marking the beginnings of industry, and the early forms of social inequality. The aim is to narrate, in a structured way, how class-based societies formed and how early kingdoms and proto-states emerged.
Borrowed Museums
The collaboration includes key lenders such as the Royal Museums of Antwerp, the National Museum of Archaeology in Lisbon, the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, the Déri Museum in Debrecen, the János Damjánich Museum in Miskolc, and several cultural authorities from across Mecklenberg-Pommerania and Slovakia. The roster also features prominent Spanish institutions along with regional museums in Villena, Lorca, Almería, Jaén, Mula, and Callosa de Segura.
Why the MARQ?
According to curator Roberto Risch, Alicante’s long-standing commitment to European-level exhibitions has helped bring this project to the MARQ. The show is not just another Bronze Age display; it provides a platform for expanding thinking, validating findings, and addressing questions with depth and precision. The aim is to offer a richer, more meaningful experience for the public rather than a simple inventory of artifacts.
Other European museums have attempted similar explorations, yet MARQ uniquely centers the experience on narrative coherence. Manuel Olcina, director of the Archaeological Provincial Museum of Alicante, emphasizes that museums are not merely display spaces but hives of conservation, research, and public education. The goal is to structure the exhibit in a way that truly benefits visitors.
Layout & Flow
Juan Antonio López Padilla, another key curator, explains the temporary galleries and their sequence. The first room covers the formation of states and the departure from the Bronze Age. The narrative then moves to the networks of exchange that functioned as social signals across communities, culminating in the third room where leaders are portrayed as heroic figures and dynastic power is personified. The arrangement is designed to make the visitor feel the arc from early social organization to the emergence of dominant elites.