Roman Barcino Field Trip

The city museum in Barcelona allows you to see Roman ruins underneath walkways of glass. It was amazing to see this crumbling stone, because hundreds of years ago, they were part of the infrastructure of a powerful city. There were also exhibits that introduced us to an aspect of ancient Roman culture. Through the exhibit I found out that since Romans did not have the laundry detergent we use today, they used urine and ashes to clean their clothes. The urine was used to sanititize the clothing, while the ashes scrubbed away stains. Another thing I found interesting was that the architecture was designed so that buildings had large windows on the first floor and and smaller windows on the second level. Roman's homes, interestingly, also had central heating. Throughout the museum there were references to both Athena the hunter  and Minerva, among other gods and goddesses. In Roman art, women tend to be some of the most famous goddesses. Athena was an important goddess who was an inspiration for many women, as well as a protector at the time, and Minerva was the goddess of intelligence.
Baths played a major role at the time. They were not only used as a place to clean oneself but were  also places where members of society would gather.
   This is also the time period where eating becomes a social activity, where people will throw extravagant parties and orchestrate grand feists to laugh and be merry over. At the time, people drank wine more like the way we drink water. It was not quite as strong as the wine we have today, and most likely more sanitary than the water at the time. Since the refrigerator was not available, Romans covered yesterday's meat in a coating of salt, this allowed the food to be edible the next day, otherwise it would rot. It was fascinating to see Roman artifacts that have lasted throughout the centuries and see foundations of what was once one of the world's largest  empires.

Rudimentary sketch of Roman columns.