Centre for Iberian Culture in Lower Aragon (CIBA)
CIBA - Centre for Iberian Culture in Lower Aragon
The Museum
The Centre for Iberian Culture in Lower Aragon – with the Spanish acronym CIBA – in Alcañiz was established to explain the history of the Ancient Iberian civilisation and culture and research about it in the Lower Aragon region. Planned for its contents is the explanation of such aspects as the general characteristics of the Iberian peoples and their distribution around the Iberian Peninsula, the Iberians in what is now Aragon and their relationships with neighbouring peoples (Celtiberians and Basques), the different stages and time line of the Iberian culture in Lower Aragon, the Iberians in Aragon and the ethnicity of the Ausetani of the Ebro Valley, the role of Lower Aragon as a stage for major wars in Ancient times, and the organisation of the land and the hierarchy of its settlements. A different part of the museum is devoted to information on the history of archaeological research into the Ancient Iberian civilisation in the Lower Aragon region, which was particularly intense in the early decades of the 20th century. All of these topics will be explained through the use of different interpretive resources such as audiovisuals, interactive displays, scale models, photographs, illustrations, explanatory panels, replicas, etc., which are still pending definition.
Next to the Visitors' Centre a permanent exhibition of Iberian archaeology in the Lower Aragon region has been set up to exhibit a selection of artefacts collected in recent decades by institutions such as the Archaeology Workshop of Alcañiz and the Alcañiz City Council, the collection owed by the Piarist Fathers and those found in recent excavations and research projects carried out in different localities in the region. The lower ground floor of the building has been earmarked for a storage facility, laboratory and library for the Archaeology Workshop of Alcañiz and the creation of a small interpretive centre for the old flour mill of Alcañiz, its operation and evolution throughout its eight-century history.