Regularly supplemented with artifacts unearthed during digs in the region, the museum’s archaeological collections are grouped in the underground galleries: the former convent’s wine cellar is devoted to prehistory, protohistory and the Merovingian period while the adjoining space is given over to the Roman period. The collections offer a nearly comprehensive overview of the different stages in man’s evolution, through numerous objects from everyday life or funerary rituals, most of which were unearthed in the northern half of the Upper Rhine valley.

The Neolithic era, a veritable revolution which marked the transition from roaming and hunting to an agricultural and sedentary society, constitutes a fundamental stage in the history of humanity. This period is characterised by its cord-marked pottery, used for storage as well as cooking. Ring-shaped disks, such as those uncovered at the Herrlisheim tomb, were prestigious funerary objects and are the most remarkable pieces produced at the end of this era.

In the Bronze Age, the Colmar region was populated by Mound Builders, a civilisation which covered all of Middle Europe. The burial mound of Appenwihr offers a selection of important objects from the Middle Bronze Age in the region (spiral legbands, pins, amber bead necklaces).

The Early Iron Age is well known thanks to the many regional burial mounds, where a large quantity of weapons as well as ornaments made of bronze, iron, glass, coral or gold have been discovered. Among the most remarkable pieces in the museum’s collections are a bronze pill box, an iron dagger, and above all the gold jewellery from a spectacular sepulchre for a prince.

The Gallo-Roman period is represented by seal-marked pottery, a grouping of statuettes of gods and goddesses, the Bergheim mosaic and objects from the ancient city of Horburg.

The Merovingian period is only known through its burial mounds, where a number of rare pieces have been unearthed, including a one-of-a-kind gold pill box and a horse harness with inlaid decoration, both displayed at the museum.