Coming face to face with the Dama de Elche

Millennia later, physical reality still has its moments, at least in museums.

In Madrid last week for Thanksgiving, at the quite wonderful National Archeology Museum, I suddenly realized that I was looking at the Dama de Elche. I hadn’t known that this limestone bust from the 4^th or 5^th century BC was life-size. Or so haunting, so human. She stands near two full-length compatriots, the irritable Dama de Biza and the huge-eyed Dama del Cerro de los Santos. No one is smiling. Who were these women? Were there ever Señores de Elche, Biza or Cerro de los Santos?

The museum’s remarkable collection of artifacts also includes the beautiful sandals below, which look almost as wearable as when their Neolithic weaver tied the last knots 7,000 years ago. Museums clean up these ultra-rare survivors but leave almost all of their mysteries, along with the realization that they were created by people very much like us.