Following the architectural intervention, the installation of the new permanent exhibition, which traces the history of funerary rites in the city of Ibiza over fourteen centuries, from the Phoenician period to Byzantine rule, was completed in 2012. The exhibition also includes part of the necropolis, where a new itinerary was created to highlight the importance of this magnificent archaeological site that gained UNESCO world heritage status in 1999.
The simple, monochrome design of the museum architecture is deliberately understated to cede all prominence to the collections—libation vessels, baetyli and memorial stones from the Phoenician period; ostrich eggs with engraved or painted decorations, scarabs and amulets, unguentaria and clay figures and reliefs from the Punic period; and thin-walled ware, much of it made locally, terra sigillata vessels and unguentaria from the Roman period—and highlight the varying attitudes to death through the materials that families and loved ones deposited as burial offerings at the different types of graves found at the site.
The pieces are exhibited in perimeter showcases and display tables, while the explanations are presented on opaline glass walls onto which audiovisual and interactive screens and the information sheet dispensers are mounted. The materiality of the displays on Bateig limestone contrasts with the luminescent quality of the explanatory devices, clearly differentiating the collections from the elements used to explain and contextualise them.
