Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Cartagena

The Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Cartagena is the municipal archaeological museum of Cartagena, a city in the Region of Murcia in southeastern Spain. Founded in 1943, the institution is dedicated to the conservation, study, and exhibition of archaeological artifacts from the municipality, and it holds a significant place in Spanish regional museology as a member of the Regional Network of Museums of Murcia. Its collections span from the Middle Paleolithic to modern times, with particular strength in Roman material reflecting Cartagena's ancient identity as Carthago Nova. The museum is distinguished by its integration of an in situ archaeological site, the San Antón Necropolis, within its exhibition spaces.

The museum was founded on 25 October 1943, with Antonio Beltrán Martínez as its first director. Its origins lay in various earlier archaeological collections, most notably a valuable corpus of Roman inscriptions that the city of Cartagena had preserved since the late sixteenth century. The immediate predecessor was the Mineralogical and Antiquities Museum, established in 1883 by the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country, which had been gathering archaeological pieces from the Cartagena-La Unión mining district since the late nineteenth century. The new Municipal Archaeological Museum initially occupied the ground floor of the building that still houses the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country on Calle del Aire. In 1945, it moved to a building on the former Calle Baños del Carmen, now Plaza de Juan XXIII, to accommodate growing collections.

A decisive turning point came in 1967 with the discovery of the San Antón Necropolis. Museum director Pedro San Martín proposed to the city council that a new museum building be constructed around the archaeological site to ensure its in situ conservation. The city council acquired the land and financed the museographic adaptation, though the project encountered significant delays before the new building was finally inaugurated in 1982.

The museum's holdings encompass materials from the Middle Paleolithic through to the present day, organized according to a didactic exhibition criteria. The chronological arrangement on the first floor is complemented by a monographic, site-based approach on the second floor, with the San Antón Necropolis serving as the central archaeological feature visible from multiple points along the permanent exhibition route. Given Cartagena's profound Roman heritage, the most numerous and best-presented artifacts belong to the Roman period, documenting the process of romanization in detail. The collections include Latin epigraphy, ceramics, architectural elements, sculptures, construction materials, mining implements, and trade objects that reflect the successive historical phases of the ancient city. Ongoing archaeological excavations in the historic center, beneath which the ancient Carthago Nova lies, continue to yield new artifacts and historical information that enrich the museum's holdings.

The museum's signature strength is its Latin epigraphy collection, derived from Roman inscriptions preserved by the city since the late sixteenth century. This epigraphic corpus is complemented by an extensive range of Roman-period materials including ceramics, architectural and sculptural elements, construction materials, and objects related to mining and commerce. The San Antón Necropolis itself constitutes a primary exhibit, preserved in situ and observable from various vantage points within the museum. The museum also maintains annex facilities equipped with workspaces, a library, workshops, and photographic and restoration laboratories to support research and conservation.

The museum's current building was inaugurated in 1982 after protracted development. It was purposefully constructed around the San Antón Necropolis, discovered in 1967, allowing visitors to observe the archaeological site from multiple points along the permanent exhibition route. This design principle of in situ conservation, proposed by director Pedro San Martín, makes the necropolis the central spatial and conceptual feature of the museum. The building replaced earlier locations on Calle del Aire and Plaza de Juan XXIII, and its construction was financed by the Cartagena city council following the acquisition of the land.