Bilbao museums

4th August

I never intended to run a separate museum post but what I have just seen has caused me to change my mind

The Bilbao Archeological Museum

This museum is just 2 blocks away from current hotel. It covers the period from the Neolithic onwards. This translates into hunter-gather, Pasteral, horticultural, the Roman, christian and later periods.

Warning! Some boring bits ahead

So being me and my interest in both the Bronze Age in general and the uniqueness of the Basque, I did some quick research while I was walking around.

I found reference to a 2021 research paper from a Basque university that calls into question possible queries concerning current scientific understandings and more so local political beliefs.

A Wikipedia article mentions a 2015 paper that says "Basque people are the only Western Europeans that speak a non-Indo-European language - Euskera - without having any known contemporary European ethnic or linguistic relatives. A 2015 DNA study supports the idea that the Basques descend from Neolithic farmers who mixed with local hunters and were subsequently isolated for millennia.". This research was supported by a 2017 paper that analysed mitochondrial DNA.

However a 2021 paper has thrown doubts on earlier results. A study by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country reveals that the Y (male) DNA did not come from the Palaeolithic but from the Bronze Age population.

After that boring stuff relax with some nice pictures.

5th August

Went to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

There was an interesting collection dating from the 16th century to the late 20th century. My general rule is not to spread Nazarene doctrine so I rarely take photos of religious paintings. A few however get through.