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Italy's iconic Riace Bronzes will return to their home at the Reggio Calabria National Museum later this year after lengthy restoration work.

So now, it's almost time for them to return to their permanent home.

According to the superintendent for archaeological and cultural heritage of Calabria, Simonetta Bonomi, restoration work should be completed near the end of the year and the two warriors "will be back home again" in time for Christmas.

The celebrated bronzes were found in August 1972 off the coast of Calabria and quickly captured worldwide attention. They were so highly prized that they are rarely allowed to travel from their home, despite repeated requests.

Even former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi was turned down twice after seeking to borrow the statues for Group of Eight summits.

During the current restoration work, the Riace Bronzes, last let out in 1981 for a triumphant round-Italy tour, have been kept inside a purpose-built area with a glass front allowing visitors to watch the delicate restoration work.

Meanwhile, the Reggio Calabria museum has been undergoing restorations itself while the bronzes have been away. Approximately six million euros have been earmarked for that project, and regional authorities have released the final funds need to complete the work before year end.

The Bronzes were discovered in 1972 by a Roman holidaymaker scuba diving off the Calabrian coast and turned out to be one of Italy's most important archaeological finds in the last 100 years.

The statues are of two virile men, presumably warriors or gods, who possibly held lances and shields at one time. At around two metres, they are larger than life.

The 'older' man, known as Riace B, wears a helmet, while the 'younger' Riace A has nothing covering his rippling hair.

Both are naked.

Although the statues are cast in bronze, they feature silver lashes and teeth, copper red lips and nipples, and eyes made of ivory, limestone and a glass and amber paste.

Italy has the world's biggest trove of archeological treasures but the Riace Bronzes attracted particular attention.

This was partly due to their exceptionally realistic rendering and partly to the general rarity of ancient bronze statues, which tended to be melted down and recycled.

Stefano Mariottini, the scuba diver who first spotted one of the statues some 300 meters off the coast and eight metres underwater, said the bronze was so realistic that he initially thought he'd found the remains of a corpse.

A million people came to see them in 1981 and the pair are even featured on a commemorative postage stamp.

The statues usually pull around 130,000 visitors annually to the Reggio Calabria National Museum.

Source: AnsaIT [August 14, 2012]

Wendell Phillips, a young paleontologist and geologist, headed one of the largest archaeological expeditions to remote South Arabia (present-day Yemen) from 1949 to 1951. Accompanied by some of the leading scholars, scientists, and technicians of the day, Phillips was on a quest to uncover two ancient cities — Timna, the capital of the once-prosperous Qataban kingdom, and Marib, the reputed home of the legendary Queen of Sheba — that had flourished along the fabled incense road some 2,500 years earlier.

Through a selection of unearthed objects as well as film and photography shot by the expedition team, the exhibition highlights Phillips’s key finds, recreates his adventures (and misadventures), and conveys the thrill of discovery on this important great archaeological frontier.

The exhibition will highlight a famed pair of striding Hellenistic bronze lions surmounted by a figure of Eros, the Greek god of love. Known as the “Lions of Timna,” the skillfully cast sculptural forms — once featured on Yemeni currency — exemplify the vibrant cultural exchange between the Qataban and Greek empires, and inscriptions on its base allow researchers to reconstruct the home it came from and explore familial relationships of its affluent owners.

Other excavated objects featured include precious incense burners, delicately carved alabaster ibexes, finely articulated funerary sculpture, and a wealth of inscriptions that offer unprecedented insight into the life and times of the ancient people of Arabia.

Where: The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

When: Oct. 11, 2014 to June 7, 2015

Source: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery [August 06, 2014]

More than 300 astonishing objects made from gold and other precious materials are presented in the major exhibition “Beyond El Dorado. Power and gold in ancient Colombia”, held by the British Museum in conjunction with the Museo del Oro, Bogotá. The exhibition opens on October 17, 2013 and will run through March 23, 2014.

In ancient Colombia gold was used to fashion some of the most visually dramatic and sophisticated works of art found anywhere in the Americas before European contact. This exhibition will feature over 300 exquisite objects drawn from the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, one of the best and most extensive collections of Pre-Hispanic gold in the world, as well as from the British Museum’s own unique collections. Through these exceptional objects the exhibition will explore the complex network of societies in ancient Colombia – a hidden world of distinct and vibrant cultures spanning 1600 BC to AD 1700 – with particular focus on the Muisca, Quimbaya, Calima, Tairona, Tolima and Zenú chiefdoms. This important but little understood subject will be explored in this unique exhibition following on from shows in Room 35 such as Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind, Grayson Perry: Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World and Kingdom of Ife: sculptures from West Africa in shining a light on world cultures through their craftsmanship.

Although gold was not valued as currency in pre-Hispanic Colombia, it had great symbolic meaning. It was one way the elite could publicly assert their rank and semi-divine status, both in life and in death. The remarkable objects displayed across the exhibition reveal glimpses of these cultures’ spiritual lives including engagement with animal spirits though the use of gold objects, music, dancing, sunlight and hallucinogenic substances that all lead to a physical and spiritual transformation enabling communication with the supernatural. Animal iconography is used to express this transformation in powerful pieces demonstrating a wide range of imaginative works of art, showcasing avian pectorals, necklaces with feline claws or representations of men transforming into spectacular bats though the use of profuse body adornment.

The exhibition will further explore the sophisticated gold working techniques, including the use of tumbaga, an alloy composed of gold and copper, used in the crafting the most spectacular masterworks of ancient Colombia. Extraordinary poporos (lime powder containers) showcase the technical skills achieved both in the casting and hammering techniques of metals by ancient Colombian artists. Other fascinating objects will include an exceptional painted Muisca textile and one of the few San Agustín stone sculptures held outside Colombia. Those, together with spectacular large scale gold masks and other materials were part of the objects that accompanied funerary rituals in ancient Colombia.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum said “Ancient Colombia has long represented a great fascination to the outside world and yet there is very little understood about these unique and varied cultures. As part of the Museum’s series of exhibitions that shine a light on little known and complex ancient societies this exhibition will give our visitors a glimpse into these fascinating cultures of pre-hispanic South America and a chance to explore the legend of El Dorado through these stunning objects.”

“American Airlines and American Airlines Cargo are thrilled to be partnering with the British Museum on Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia.” said Tristan Koch, Managing Director of Cargo Sales for EMEA – American Airlines. “American Airlines is a supporter of the arts in many cities that we serve around the world and it’s exciting to be linking the two destinations of Bogotá, Colombia and London by transporting precious passengers and cargo between them.”

Source: The British Museum [August 04, 2013]

As London hosts the 30th modern edition of the Olympic Games, Dr Craig Barker from the University's Nicholson Museum and Michelle Kiss, a Year 10 work experience student from William Carey Christian School, evoke the ancient Olympic spirit with a look at the origins of the world's oldest sporting festival that may provide parallels for the next three weeks of competition in London.

• The first Olympic Games took place in 776 BC at Olympia in Greece, a sanctuary site devoted to the Greek god Zeus. The ancient Olympics were held every four years, a tradition that remains today. However, whereas cities around the world compete to host the modern games, ancient-world athletes always competed in Olympia.

• Olympia boomed as the games increased in importance — a statue of Zeus was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world — before the games were eventually abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in 394 AD, supposedly because they were reminiscent of paganism. While there is much talk of the legacy of London 2012, Olympia and its athletic stadium is an important historical and archaeological site.

• In 2012, news surfaced that Australia's men's basketball team travelled to London in business class while their female equivalents languished in economy. However, during the first ancient games, gender equality in sport was even worse: women couldn't compete. Competitors were split into two groups, boys (12-18 years) and men (18+ years). Horses were also split into colts and fully grown age groups.

• While the composition of the crowds of spectators is less well understood, it's likely that only males and young girls were allowed to watch.

• In antiquity, a lit flame was tended throughout the celebration of the Olympics, and the idea of the fire was reintroduced in 1928 in Amsterdam. Every four years the Olympic flame is lit in front of the Temple of Hera then carried by torch to the host city. The torch relay was not an ancient practice and was introduced at the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics.

• Judges were handpicked from people living in Elis, the area surrounding Olympia. The 'Elean Judges' enforced strict rules on the competitors: fines were issued for failing to arrive on time for the training period, cheating and for cowardice.

• Events in the ancient Olympics included foot races, discus, jump, javelin, boxing, pentathlon, pankration (a blend of boxing and wrestling) and chariot races. Most events, including the races, discus and javelin, took place in the Stadium of Olympia with other events taking place in the surrounding area.

• Before the start of any Olympic Games a truce would be announced, proclaiming that all wars, disputes and death penalties be put on hold until the end of the games. This truce also guaranteed athletes a safe journey to Olympia in the month leading up to the games. The truce was written on a bronze discus and placed in Olympia. The modern International Olympic Committee has revived the tradition of the truce, and all 193 United Nations member states have, for the first time, united to co-sponsor the Olympic Truce Resolution for the 2012 London Olympics.

• the sixth-century BC wrestler Milo of Croton, who was said to have died when he was wedged against a tree during a display of strength gone wrong and subsequently devoured by wolves

• Astylos, also of Croton, who competed at Olympic Games between 488 and 480 BC, but was expelled from his home city when he agreed to compete for Syracuse, and so can lay claim to being the first free-agent in sporting history

• Roman emperor Nero, who despite being thrown from his chariot in the 10-horse race at the 67 AD games, was still proclaimed the winner on the grounds that he would have won had he been able to complete the race

A museum in Sweden will digitise its mummy collection in 3D to allow visitors to unwrap a real mummy in digital form.

The permanent exhibition is scheduled to open in the spring of 2014.

The curators hope it will help visitors gain a deeper understanding into the lives of ancient Egyptian people.

The museum will scan six mummies using a process called reality capture technology, where high-resolution 3D digital models can be made by compiling data from photos and X-ray scans.

Museum visitors will be able to explore the mummies in a way similar to what archaeologists do when they are looking for novel discoveries from ancient remains.

"We aim to set a new standard for how museums work with 3D digitisation and interactive visualisation to make collections more accessible to other museums, researchers and museum visitors," said Thomas Rydell of the Swedish Interactive Institute.

"In this project we are working with mummies, but the same methods could of course be used on large variety of objects, such as natural history objects and other historical artefacts."

The museum visitors will be able to zoom into very high resolution to see details like carving marks on a sarcophagus. They will also be able to "unwrap" a mummy by peeling off virtual layers of the wrapping to explore the artefacts buried with the body.

"We can literately create a virtual copy of the mummy. This version could be shared with other museums, be used for research or be part of an interactive visitor experience," added Mr Rydell.

The work is a collaboration between Swedish visualisation researchers, Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm and two technology companies, Autodesk and Faro.

"The technology will enable our visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the men and women inside the mummy wrappings," said Elna Nord, producer of the exhibition.

"Layer by layer, the visitor can unwrap the mummy and gain knowledge of the individual's sex, age, living conditions and beliefs. With help from the technology, the mummies become so much stronger mediators of knowledge of our past."

Source: BBC News Website [June 28, 2013]

All around the hull of the longest Viking warship ever found there are swords and battle axes, many bearing the scars of long and bloody use, in an exhibition opening in Copenhagen that will smash decades of good public relations for the Vikings as mild-mannered traders and farmers.

The exhibition, simply called Viking, which will be opened at the National Museum by Queen Margrethe of Denmark on Thursday, and to the public on Saturday, will sail on to to London next year to launch the British Museum's new exhibition space.

In contrast to recent exhibitions, which have concentrated on the Vikings as brilliant seafarers, highly gifted wood- and metal-workers, and builders of towns including York and Dublin, this returns to the more traditional image of ferocious raiders, spreading terror wherever the shallow keels of the best and fastest ships in Europe could reach, armed with magnificent swords, spears, battleaxes and lozenge-shaped arrows. "The arrow shape did more damage," Pedersen explained, "the wounds were bigger and more difficult to heal than a straight-edged slit."

Other powers employed the fearless warriors as mercenaries, including Byzantium and Jerusalem, but some were anxious to keep weapons of mass destruction out of their hands: a Frankish law forbade selling swords to Vikings. They got them anyway, as the exhibits prove.

A skull from a grave in Gotland bears the marks of many healed sword cuts, but also decorative parallel lines filed into the warrior's teeth, like those recently found on teeth from a pit of decapitated bodies in Dorset, in what must have been an excruciating display of macho bravado.

"Probably only a small percentage of the Vikings ever went to sea on raiding parties, but I think those who stayed home would have told stories of great warriors, great ships and great swords they had known," Pedersen said. "It was very much part of the culture."

Some of the objects assembled from collections in 12 countries, such as a heap of walnut-sized pieces of amber, or jewellery made to incorporate Islamic and Byzantine coins, probably did come through trade. Others, such as a pair of brooches from the grave of a Viking woman made from gold intricately twisted into tiny animals, originally panels chopped up from a shrine made in Ireland to hold the relics of a saint, certainly were not.

One magnificent silver collar found in Norway has an inscription in runes saying the Vikings came to Frisia and "exchanged war garments with them" – but that may be a black joke. Iron slave collars from Dublin confirm that the wealth they sought wasn't always gold and silver.

This is the largest Viking exhibition in more than 20 years, bringing together loans from across Europe, including hoards from Yorkshire, Norway and Russia, a silver cross and a diminutive figure of a Valkyrie, a mythological battlefield figure, both found in Denmark only a few months ago. Loans from Britain include some of the famous Lewis chessmen carved as fierce Viking warriors, biting on the edge of their shields in an ecstasy of rage.

The most spectacular object, fitting into the gallery with just 1.7 metres (5ft6in) to spare – the new space in Bloomsbury has already been measured carefully – is the sleek, narrow hull of the longest Viking warship ever found, specially conserved for the exhibition and on display for the first time. Just over 36m in length, it was built to hold at least 100 men on 39 pairs of oars.

The ship was found by accident at Roskilde, home of the famous Viking ship museum. The museum was built 50 years ago to hold a small fleet of Viking boats that were deliberately sunk 1,000 years ago to narrow and protect the approach to the harbour. In the 1990s, workers building an extension chopped through the massive timbers of what turned out to be nine more ships, including the awesome length of the warship, estimated to have taken around 30,000 hours of skilled labour to build: only a king could have afforded such a vessel.

Recent scientific tests show it was built from oak felled in 1025 near Oslo, probably for King Cnut the Great – the sea-defying Canute to the English – who conquered England in 1016, and Norway in 1028. Only a quarter of the timbers survived, but they included the entire length of the keel.

Although the exhibition includes sections on Viking politics, strategic alliances through marriage and trade, and beliefs including the contents of the grave of a sorceress with her iron magic wand and little pots of narcotic drugs, the warlike tone was dictated by the ship, which was itself a weapon of war. Vikings sang about ships – one refers to a new ship as "a dragon" – played as children with toy ships and, if rich enough, were eventually buried in ships.

The displays and some of the contents will change in London, but in Copenhagen the ship is spectacularly displayed against an animated backdrop of stormy seas and a ferocious raid that leaves the target settlement in flames.

The animation was made in the United States and the Danish team was initially dismayed as it appeared to show raiders attacking a much later medieval walled town. Eventually, curator Peter Pentz said, a Hampshire site saved the film: they agreed it was plausible that the towers and curtain walls could represent the ruins of a Roman shoreline fort, such as Portchester castle near Portsmouth.

As well as the swords, some bent like a folded belt to destroy their earthly use as they went into a warrior's grave, there is one unique weapon, a battleaxe with an intricately decorated golden shaft. Such golden axes are described in the sagas, but this, from a settlement in Norway, is the only real example ever found.

"I think the main point was to impress, not to kill somebody," Pedersen said, adding with satisfaction: "but you can kill somebody with it if you want.

Viking, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, until November 17 2013

Author: Maev Kennedy | Source: The Guardian [June 19, 2013]

One of the sites chosen as part of the green cultural routes program organized by the Culture Ministry’s Directorate of Museums, Exhibitions and Educational Programs Department was Aristotle’s Lyceum. The tour, which introduced attendees to new and exciting information about life in ancient Greece, was led by the head of the Third Ephorate of Classical Antiquities, Eleni Banou.

The Lyceum, located between the Officers Club, the Athens Conservatory and the Byzantine Museum, is poised for its grand opening. The display areas are ready, the information signs are up and the site is officially waiting for visitors. Those passing the well-tended 11,000-square meter grounds on the Culture Ministry’s tour asked Banou when the ancient philosophy school would be ready. Some of them managed to sneak in through the door on the Vassilissis Sofias side of the site to take in the ancient lyceum from up close.

The Lyceum (first brought to light by archaeologist Effi Lygouri in 1996), was an overgrown suburb of ancient Athens named after a nearby temple dedicated to Apollo Lyceus. The archaeologists of the Third Ephorate of Classical Antiquities, which is responsible for the site, want it to become a part of Athenians’ everyday life, a place where visitors can take a walk, rest or read.

However, a date for its formal inauguration has not been set yet, though it is slated to take place within the next couple of months, before the end of summer.

Author: Iota Sykka | Source: ekathimerini [June 03, 2014]

The history of the horse is the history of civilisation itself. The horse has had a revolutionary impact on ancient civilisations and this major exhibition explores the influence of horses in Middle Eastern history, from their domestication around 3,500 BC to the present day. Britain’s long equestrian tradition is examined from the introduction of the Arabian breed in the 18th century to present day sporting events such as Royal Ascot and the Olympic Games.

The domestication of the horse more than 5,000 years ago dramatically changed human history. Domestication is thought to have first happened on the steppes of South Russia with horses being introduced into the Middle East around 2,300BC. Before this introduction, asses and donkeys were used for transport, predominantly as harness animals pulling cumbersome but technologically advanced vehicles — as seen on objects found at the Royal Cemetery of Ur -but gradually horses became the means of faster transportation for these early societies.

The exhibition includes one of the earliest known depictions of a horse and rider: a terracotta mould found in Mesopotamia (Iraq) dating to around 2,000 – 1,800 BC. Horses became a vital component in warfare and hunting, as reflected in the art of ancient Assyria, where elaborate and ornate horse trappings and ornaments were developed reflecting the prestige and status of horse, charioteer and rider.

Riding became an essential part of society during the Achaemenid period (5th -4th century BC), a cylinder seal of Darius, dating to 522 – 486 BC shows the king hunting lions in a chariot, and famously, the Achaemenid’s introduced ‘post horses’ which were used to deliver messages on the royal road. The horsemen of the Parthian Empire (3rd century BC – 3rd century AD) were celebrated by Roman authors for the ‘Parthian shot’, in which an apparently retreating rider would shoot arrows backwards whilst on horseback. The renown of Parthian horsemen is shown in their representation on terracotta plaques and bronze belt buckles in the British Museum collection.

Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Mughal miniature paintings, ceramics and manuscripts all attest to the growing importance of the horse in the Islamic world from the 7th century AD. Exquisite Mughal miniatures depict princes with their valued Middle Eastern steeds, horses that were famed for their speed and spirit. A magnificent Furusiyya manuscript, dating to the 14th century AD, on loan from the British Library, is a beautifully illustrated manual of horsemanship, including information on proper care for the horse, advanced riding techniques, expert weapon handling, manoeuvres and elaborate parade formations.

The horse has a long history on the Arabian Peninsula, becoming an important cultural phenomenon and a noted part of the traditional Bedouin way of life. The ‘Arabian horse’ was developed through selective breeding, and with features including a distinctive head profile and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most familiar horse breeds in the world. The exhibition includes ‘Gigapan’ panorama photography of rock art which show horses in scenes of various dates from sites in Saudi Arabia, as well as loans of objects from Qaryat al-Fau which include wall paintings and figurines.

The importance of fine horses in the Middle East is explored through the fascinating Abbas Pasha manuscript (dating to the 19th century and on loan from the King Abdulaziz Public Library, Riadyh). This document is the primary source of information about the lineage of the purebred Arabian horses acquired by Abbas Pasha (the viceroy of Egypt) throughout the Middle East.

The story of the Arabian breed of horse is examined in parallel to that of Wilfrid Scawan Blunt (1840-1922), poet and agitator, and Lady Anne Blunt (1837-1917), the granddaughter of Lord Byron. The Blunts travelled widely in the Middle East and established a celebrated stud for purebred Arabians, which was crucial for the survival of the Arabian breed, at Crabbet Park in Sussex, and another outside Cairo in Egypt.

Horses, including Arabians had long been imported from the Middle East to Britain, but from the 17th century, three Arabian stallions in particular were introduced, which, bred with native mares, produced the Thoroughbred breed, now the foundation of modern racing; some 95% of all modern Thoroughbreds are descended from these three horses. Paintings and prints, trophies and memorabilia explore their remarkable success and their influence on sport and society, from early race meetings through to modern equestrian events.

Faissal Ibn Abdullah Ibn Muhammad Al-Saud, Minister of Education and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Saudi Equestrian Fund said "It is well known that the horse has played a crucial role in the development of civilization, and that a close bond exists between horses and men. I am very pleased that it has been possible to support this exhibition in London which gives us an opportunity to look at different aspects of the history of the Arabian horse and the context from which it emerged."

The exhibition runs until 30 September 2012 and is part of the celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee.

Admission is free.

Source: The British Museum [June 02, 2012]

The exhibition "The Roman villa in Chatalka site. The wealth of a Thracian aristocrat" is a result of a successful collaboration between the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum and the Regional Museum of History Stara Zagora. It presents the lifestyle of wealthy Thracian aristocrats, owners of villa rustica, built in the 1st c. AD in Chatalka site, close to the city of Stara Zagora.

The exhibition includes valuable artifacts found in Roshava Dragana tumulus, where some of the family members who possessed the estate were buried, as well as items from other tumuli of the necropolis of the villa.

Protective and offensive weapons, a rare bronze helmet mask among them, refer the owners to the local military aristocracy. The gold jewellery and breastplates found in graves of a man and a woman, and the gold wreaths confirm their high social status. Luxury items imported from the East and Italy, parts of the furniture, such as candelabrum with an image of herma with faces of two youths, balsam-containers and perfume vessels reflect their exquisite lifestyle.

The implements attest to the main activities of men and women who lived in the villa. Various inquisitive objects, usually neglected and forgotten in the museum depots, are displayed for the first time at one place. Agricultural tools, model mould and pottery indicate the source of the wealth of the owners of this estate. Votive tablets of the Thracian Horseman discovered close to the residential sector of the architectural complex and the mound necropolis of the villa reveal the Thracian origin of the inhabitants.

Group of silver cups of Boscoreale type and rare glass vessels found near the city of Stara Zagora, complete the notion of the rich urban life of the local Thracian aristocracy comparable to the lifestyle of the Roman nobles in Italy.

The opening is on May 22nd 2015 in the National Museum of Archaeology, Sofia. The exhibition will be on display until September 10th, 2015.

Source: National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences [June 01, 2015]

Pointe-à-Callière presents a major exclusive international exhibition, The Aztecs, People of the Sun. Visitors will have the unique privilege of learning about the people who founded the fabulous city of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire and the site where Mexico City was built after the Spanish Conquest in 1521. The exhibition, presented from May 30 to October 25, offers insights into the dazzling world of a people who reigned over much of Mexico for two centuries.

The exhibition, produced by Pointe-à-Callière in collaboration with the Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts – National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), showcases some 265 items from 16 Mexican museums, including the Templo Mayor Museum, an archaeological site museum like Pointe-à-Callière itself, and the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology. The tremendously varied objects are both spectacular and moving. Masks and statues, gold jewellery, figurines of women, children and animals, stamps for creating patterns on fabric and skin, sculptures and objects relating to the sacrifices required to keep the Sun on its daily journey, chests, boxes for offerings, vases and ceramics, all reflect the mysteries surrounding this people.

Stunning artifacts

The highlights of the Montréal exhibits include some of the most remarkable remains from the Aztec civilization. Two statues from the Templo Mayor Museum, each weighting 250 kg and standing 170 cm (nearly 6 feet) tall, are sure to appeal to visitors’ imaginations. The terra cotta statue of an eagle warrior, with jagged claws protruding from his knees front and back and his face emerging from an eagle’s beak, could also represent the rising Sun. This true work of art was found in the House of the Eagles, next to the Templo Mayor, used for rituals and penitential ceremonies. The terra cotta statue of Mictlantecuhtli shows the god of death leaning forward toward humans. With his skull-like face, pierced with holes for hair to be inserted, his shredded skin and clawed hands, stained with human blood, he is a terrifying sight!

Other items with splendid colours, like the vessel representing Tlaloc, the rain god, tell us more about the Aztecs’ lifestyle and deities. This vase is considered one of the masterpieces of Aztec art, and shows the god with his typical “goggles” and fangs, in his usual blue colour. The pyramid shapes on his headdress are references to the mountains where the Aztecs believed Tlaloc stored the water that would later fall as rain.

A wooden mask inlaid with turquoise, shell and mother-of-pearl is one of the rare Aztec “turquoise masks” to have survived. It may be a reference to the god Quetzalcoatl, whose face is emerging from the mouth of a serpent. This rare piece comes from the “Luigi Pigorini” National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography, in Rome.

A ceramic piece with three faces, adorned with 13 circular gems, or chalchihuitl, evoking the 13 months of the sacred calendar, is also stunning. It decorated a brazier or a funerary urn, and shows the three phases of existence: in the centre, youth opening its eyes to the world, followed by an image of old age, and then the face of inescapable death, with its eyes closed, all referring to passing time. This sublime piece expresses the cyclical principle of duality, so important in Aztec thought, where life is reborn from death.

There are also images drawn from historic codices, photos of archaeological sites and remains, and different videos. Then there are some 150 unique hand-built and painted figurines made in Mexico to create a colourful, joyous scene depicting the vast Tlatelolco market held north of Tenochtitlan in days gone by.

Exhibition themes

The exhibition focuses on the founding of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, their daily lives, the Templo Mayor, and of course the question of human sacrifices and the two Aztec calendars. It looks at many themes in their rich history: the Aztecs’ migration, guided by their god Huitzilopochtli, and the founding of Tenochtitlan; the remarkable urban planning and land use development in this “Venice of Mexico”; the Aztec art of war and the tribute paid by conquered peoples, as well as their agricultural techniques and the chinampas, the ingenious floating gardens that made the city self-sufficient. It also looks at the organization of Aztec society, with its different classes, a fascinating subject that addresses the role of women, education and the administration of justice. Aztec writing and the famous codices, manuscripts made up of glyphs or pictograms illustrating the spoken language, are examined in depth. Religion, an essential and omnipresent part of Aztec society, along with their various deities and rituals, are described. And lastly, the exhibition closes with a description of the Spanish conquest and the fall of the Aztec Empire, and the legacy of the Aztecs today.

Who were the Aztecs?

The story of the Aztecs began around the year 1000, when a warrior tribe, probably driven by famine, set out on a long southward migration. Despite many difficulties on their odyssey, they persevered, trusting in the god watching over them to reveal the place where they could finally found their city. And so it was that in 1325 the Aztecs, or Mexicas, founded the city of Tenochtitlan, building a temple on an island in marshy Lake Texcoco, in the central Mexican highlands. The capital was divided into four districts, watched over by the gods associated with the four cardinal directions. In a sacred precinct in the centre of the city stood the main temples, including the Templo Mayor or “Great Temple,” which would become the heart of their city and the centre of their spiritual and material universe. The Aztec Empire lasted almost 200 years, until 1521. They built lavish palaces, temples and markets there, creating an immense metropolis with a population of about 200,000 at its height. Theirs was an imperialistic society that relied on diplomacy and near-constant warfare to expand their empire and collect tribute in the form of regular “taxes” from the peoples they conquered.

A highly innovative civilization

Tenochtitlan was founded on a shallow, marshy lake. The Aztecs were able to increase the habitable area of their city by planting pilings and installing platforms to hold sediment from the lake. Thanks to this ingenious system, the city was crisscrossed by canals, and chinampas, or true floating gardens, were created where they could grow various crops. These remarkably fertile gardens produced up to seven harvests a year, feeding much of the city. The system was also used to recycle the city’s organic waste. The Aztecs developed trade in cocoa, maize and other crops, which were sold in markets of all sizes, and produced striking ceramics and magnificent gold and silver finery.

A life governed by gods and calendars

Like many other Mesoamerican peoples, the Aztecs divided their universe into three main levels: the sky, the Earth – an island with the Templo Mayor at its centre – and the underworld, inhabited by the god of the dead and his companion. The god and goddess of duality were the source of four creative principles occupying the “four roads of the universe” corresponding to the four cardinal directions. For the Aztecs it was important to constantly maintain the balance among the divine forces – a delicate exercise governed from day to day by following two calendars that dictated not only the maize planting and harvesting cycle but also the rituals required to appease some 200 different gods.

The Aztecs considered time to be cyclical, and human lives to be influenced in turn by their gods, at regular intervals, as spelled out in the two interlocking calendars. The solar or annual calendar lasted 365 days and consisted of 18 months of 20 days, adding up to 360 days. The remaining five days were seen as highly inauspicious – it was best to avoid all activity on those days! In every month a major god was honoured. Since this calendar governed agricultural activity, it included many feasts dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc and to plant deities.

The sacred calendar also dictated religious ceremonies and important dates. Each day was defined by a glyph or written sign (there were 20) and a number from 1 to 13. These signs and numbers combined in an unchanging order, and the same combination of signs and numbers repeated until the 13 x 20 possibilities were done, that is for 260 days. Every 52 years, the solar and sacred calendars aligned once again. For the Aztecs, this was a time of fear and anguish, since they didn’t know whether it signalled the end of the world.

The importance of the Sun and human sacrifice

The Aztecs worshipped the Sun, and feared that it would disappear if they didn’t perform various rituals. Just like many other pre-Columbian civilizations, they also engaged in human sacrifice. These sacrifices were considered offerings and an essential part of the various rituals associated with their religion and daily life. Victims were put to death to nourish the Sun and the Earth. When the rains failed to appear and crops were at risk, for instance, the Aztecs would sacrifice children to regain the favour of the rain god. Different kinds of victims were sacrificed: warriors captured in battle, slaves, people condemned to death for offences, and children.

Highly significant codices

The Aztecs had a special form of writing. They transcribed their language, Nahuatl, using a combination of glyphs, figures and graphic elements. These manuscripts, known as codices, are an inexhaustible source of details about their economy, and include tax rolls, property registers, politics, history, education, religion, sacred rituals and science. They are key to our understanding of Aztec civilization.

The Aztec heritage

When he first saw Tenochtitlan and its many canals, Hernán Cortés of Spain compared it with Venice. But despite his admiration for the city, he had no scruples about laying it to waste in 1521. Cortés left Cuba with about 500 men, on a mission to secure the interior of Mexico. After being greeted with splendid gifts by Moctezuma II, Cortés soon took the Aztec Emperor prisoner. The destruction of Tenochtitlan marked the end of the Aztec Empire and launched the colonization of all of Latin America.

Today the Aztec civilization is considered one of the most remarkable in human history. Many archaeological digs and different museums celebrate their exceptional contribution to world heritage. Mexico City, the country’s capital and largest metropolis, was built atop the ruins of the superb city of Tenochtitlan. Today it is home to some 22 million people. The Aztec language, Nahuatl, is still spoken by about 1.6 million Nahuas. Today’s Mexicans also carry the memory of the Aztecs in their name. When their god Huitzilopochtli guided the Aztecs to the site where they would found Tenochtitlan, he called his people Mexicas. Even today, a divine eagle perched on a cactus devouring a serpent – the sign that the god had sent to the high priest of the Aztecs to tell them where to found their city – adorns the Mexican flag and banknotes. And one can still travel by boat along the canals built by the Aztecs, in Xochimilco and other districts of Mexico City.

Source: Pointe-à-Callière [May 29, 2015]

The J. Paul Getty Museum today placed on view a Decree Relief with Antiochos and Herakles, the first Greek loan to arise from a 2011 framework for cultural cooperation between the Getty and the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture.

The relief takes the form of a stele, a stone slab decorated with images and text, crowned with the figures of Herakles and his son Antiochos, who was the mythical hero of the tribe Antiochis. Herakles is depicted as an athletic nude, holding a club and the pelt of the Nemean Lion he vanquished, referring to the first of the twelve labors he had to perform. Seemingly the elder, Antiochos wears a dignified mantle and holds a staff (no longer visible, but probably added in pigment). Both father and son heroes were the subject of cult worship, and are shown standing within a small temple framed by columns and a pediment.

Written in ancient Greek below the figures, an inscription describes the honors bestowed upon Prokleides by his soldiers and comrades, all members of an elite infantry corps known as the epilektoi. This is the earliest known inscription referencing the epilektoi, a group of men bound together by their military service, participation in sacrifices and theatrical performances, and membership in the Athenian Council. According to the decree, Kephisokles of the village of Alopeke proposed the resolution to praise Prokleides, who “has well and with distinction taken care of security,” and crown him with a gold diadem worth at least 1,000 drachmas (an enormous sum, considering the average worker in classical Athens could support a family of four on one drachma a day).

Soon after arriving at the Getty, the stele was photographed using a technique that captures the object numerous times with varying degrees of raking light. The resulting composed image reveals the shallow lettering with unprecedented depth and clarity and enables a more accurate reading of the inscription. A transcription of the ancient Greek text, translation, and detail photography of the historical inscription accompanies the installation.

“The Antiochos relief commemorates the affection and respect of troops for their commanding officer,” explains Claire Lyons, acting senior curator of antiquities at the Getty Villa. “We are delighted that it will be on view at the Getty Villa in time for Memorial Day, when we honor the contributions of fallen soldiers to their communities and country.”

This long-term loan results from the Framework for Cultural Cooperation signed in September 2011, which provides for joint scholarship, research projects, loans, and exhibitions between the Getty and the Hellenic Republic. “As part of this framework of cooperation between the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture and the Getty Museum, we are pleased to have the Antiochos relief on display at the Getty Villa,” said Maria Vlazaki-Andreadaki, director general of archaeology in Athens. “We believe that this collaboration will promote classical studies in the United States and will spread the values and the spirit of ancient Greek civilization.”

Historical Background

The relief was discovered in 1922 in the foundations of a house in the Athenian neighborhood of Dourgouti. In antiquity, the area was known as Kynosarges and was the site of a public gymnasium and a sanctuary of Herakles, the greatest of the Greek heroes. Believed to have stood in this sanctuary, where several other inscriptions mentioning the tribe Antiochis were found, the relief was a votive dedication erected in a prominent public location befitting a successful military leader.

The Antiochos relief is a primary document of democracy, and the language of its inscription shows that voting and public speech were deeply ingrained in civic life two centuries after the foundation of democratic political institutions in Athens.

The creation of the Attic tribes was the most important feature of the revolutionary reorganization of Athenian politics that followed the overthrow of the tyrants in 508 B.C. In this system, ten tribes composed of approximately 3,000 citizens and their families were created. Each tribe was assigned the name of a mythical Athenian hero: Antiochos was the eponymous hero of the tribe Antiochis.

Drawn from villages in three distinct zones of the Athenian territory—the coast, the inland farming region, and the urban/suburban zone—the tribes represented the entire citizenry of Athens. Josiah Ober, Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University, observes: “Imagine a reorganization of the United States that would require citizens from Maine, Texas, and California to work, fight, and feast together on a regular basis. The communities constituting the tribe of Antiochis included Alopeke, the philosopher Socrates’ home village—so we might even imagine that a descendant of Socrates as among the signatories to the decree.”

Source: J. Paul Getty Museum [May 23, 2012]

The landscape has remained unchanged since the Roman empire. Soft hills where barley and wheat are cultivated like 2.000 years ago surround Djemila, a city on an Algerian plateau built in 96 AD by the Roman army.

Moreover, all Roman cities are in northern and central Algeria, the safest areas in the country with no major security issues. Djemila hosts a number of important buildings: an amphitheatre from the 2nd century, where performances and music festivals are still held, temples, prisons, altars, an arch dedicated to Caracalla and a magnificent baptistery from the 4th century which is still intact.

On Friday, the Muslim weekly holy day, the site is flooded with local tourists: women wearing the Islamic veil or Maghreb-style face veil, bearded men wearing long kaftans, lots of children observe with admiration and respect the remains of a faraway, ancient civilization and are friendly in welcoming the rare foreign visitors.

Inside the museum where extraordinary mosaics can be found depicting hunting scenes or joyous everyday scenes portraying men and gods, some glance elsewhere but most observe the figures with great attention.

What makes Algeria's archaeological sites extraordinary — from Djemila to Tipaza, Timgad and Tiddis — is the beauty, almost primordial, of the surrounding landscape which is rare in other parts of the Mediterranean.

'From a touristic standpoint, we are still children and need to become adult', Said Boukhelifa, a high official with the Algerian tourism ministry, told ANSAmed. "One thing is certain, we don't want to make mistakes which have been committed elsewhere. We are aiming for a tourism which respects nature, landscapes and our historic culture. This is the challenge we have to start from, after all the years that have been lost."

Source: ANSA [May 20, 2013]

The British Museum will open a major exhibition presenting a history of Indigenous Australia, supported by BP. This exhibition will be the first in the UK devoted to the history and culture of Indigenous Australians: both Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. Drawing on objects from the British Museum’s collection, accompanied by important loans from British and Australian collections, the show will present Indigenous Australia as a living culture, with a continuous history dating back over 60,000 years.

The objects displayed in this exhibition are immensely important. The British Museum’s collection contains some of the earliest objects collected from Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders through early naval voyages, colonists, and missionaries dating as far back as 1770. Many were collected at a time before museums were established in Australia and they represent tangible evidence of some of the earliest moments of contact between Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Islanders and the British. Many of these encounters occurred in or near places that are now major Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. As a result of collecting made in the early 1800s, many objects originate from coastal locations rather than the arid inland areas that are often associated with Indigenous Australia in the popular imagination.

The exhibition will not only present Indigenous ways of understanding the land and sea but also the significant challenges faced by Indigenous Australians from the colonial period until to the present day. In 1770 Captain Cook landed on the east coast of Australia, a continent larger than Europe. In this land there were hundreds of different Aboriginal groups, each inhabiting a particular area, and each having its own languages, laws and traditions. This land became a part of the British Empire and remained so until the various colonies joined together in 1901 to become the nation of Australia we know today. In this respect, the social history of 19th century Australia and the place of Indigenous people within this is very much a British story. This history continues into the twenty first century. With changing policies towards Indigenous Australians and their struggle for recognition of civil rights, this exhibition shows why issues about Indigenous Australians are still often so highly debated in Australia today.

The exhibition brings together loans of special works from institutions in the United Kingdom, including the British Library, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. A number of works from the collection of the National Museum of Australia will be shown, including the masterpiece ‘Yumari’ by Uta Uta Tjangala. Tjangala was one of the artists who initiated the translation of traditions of sand sculptures and body painting onto canvas in 1971 at Papunya, a government settlement 240km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Tjangala was also an inspirational leader who developed a plan for the Pintupi community to return to their homelands after decades of living at Papunya. A design from ‘Yumari’ forms a watermark on current Australian passports.

This exhibition has been developed in consultation with many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, Indigenous art and cultural centres across Australia, and has been organised with the National Museum of Australia. The broader project is a collaboration with the National Museum of Australia. It draws on a joint research project, funded by the Australian Research Council, undertaken by the British Museum, the National Museum of Australia and the Australian National University. Titled ‘Engaging Objects: Indigenous communities, museum collections and the representation of Indigenous histories’, the research project began in 2011 and involved staff from the National Museum of Australia and the British Museum visiting communities to discuss objects from the British Museum’s collections. The research undertaken revealed information about the circumstances of collecting and significance of the objects, many of which previously lacked good documentation. The project also brought contemporary Indigenous artists to London to view and respond to the Australian collections at the British Museum.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum said, “The history of Australia and its people is an incredible, continuous story that spans over 60,000 years. This story is also an important part of more recent British history and so it is of great significance that audiences in London will see these unique and powerful objects exploring this narrative. Temporary exhibitions of this nature are only possible thanks to external support so I am hugely grateful to BP for their longstanding and on-going commitment to the British Museum. I would also like to express my gratitude to our logistics partner IAG Cargo and the Australian High Commission who are supporting the exhibition’s public programme.”

Source: The British Museum [April 23, 2015]

Palazzo Strozzi is presenting The Springtime of the Renaissance. Sculpture and the Arts in Florence, 1400-1460, an exhibition which sets out to illustrate the origin of what is still known today as the “miracle” of the Renaissance in Florence predominantly through masterpieces of sculpture, the form of figurative art in which it was first embodied. Following its debut in Florence, where it is on view from 23 March to 18 August 2013, the exhibition will be shown at the Musée du Louvre in Paris from 26 September 2013 to 6 January 2014.

The lengthy preparation that has gone into the staging of the exhibition, which is curated by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, director of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, and Marc Bormand, curator-in-chief of the Département des Sculptures in the Louvre, has been accompanied by an extensive restoration campaign in both Italy and France with joint funding from the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Louvre. Visitors to the exhibition are able to admire many Renaissance masterpieces, including works by Ghiberti, Donatello, Dello Delli, Filippo Lippi, Nanni di Bartolo, Agostino di Duccio, Michelozzo, Francesco di Valdambrino and Mino da Fiesole, in their newly-conserved splendour.

One of the most significant projects undertaken for this exhibition is the conservation of Donatello’s imposing bronze statue depicting St Louis of Toulouse, 1425, from the Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce where it has been throughout the restoration in a workshop especially set up in the museum and open to the public. The conservation was entrusted to Ludovica Nicolai, who was responsible for restoring Donatello’s David in the Bargello, with the assistance of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure’s scientific laboratory. The procedure was directed by Brunella Teodori, Soprintendenza Speciale PSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze.

The exhibition will be presented in ten theme-based sections.

Section I: The Legacy of the Fathers

The exhibition opens with an intriguing overview of the rediscovery of the classical world with some splendid examples of the 13th and 14th century works by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo, Giotto, Tino di Camaino and their successors, who also assimilated the expressive richness of the Gothic style, in particular from France.

Section II: Florence 1401. The Dawn of the Renaissance

The ‘new era’ coincided with the start of the new century and is represented in the exhibition by two panels depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi from the Baptistry doors, and Brunelleschi’s model for the cathedral dome. At that time, the writings of the great Humanists, singing the praises of the Florentine Republic’s political achievements, its economic power and its social harmony, were spreading the legend of Florence as heir to the Roman Republic and as a model for other Italian city-states.

Section III: Civic and Christian Romanitas

Monumental public sculpture, through the masterpieces of Donatello, Ghiberti, Nanni di Banco and Michelozzo, created for the city’s major construction sites – the Cathedral, the Bell Tower, Orsanmichele – is the first and loftiest expression of the transformation under way and of the triumph of Florence and its civilisation.

Section IV: “Spirits” Both Sacred and Profane; Section V: The Rebirth of the Condottieri

The exhibition also sets out to illustrate the other themes of classical antiquity that were assimilated and transformed through sculpture in this new Renaissance language, which lent its voice not only to the city’s creative fervour but also to its spiritual and intellectual mood.

Section VI: Sculpture in Paint

Sculpture, and more especially statuary, was thus to have a tremendous impact on the painting of the leading artists of the time, men such as Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Filippo Lippi and Piero della Francesca.

Section VII: History “in Perspective”

The search for a “rational” space and Brunelleschi’s discovery of perspective were implemented in the most advanced forms in the art of sculpture, in Donatello’s bas-reliefs – for instance in the predella of his St George from the Bargello or in his Herod’s Banquet from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille. This echoed well into the middle part of the century in the work of Desiderio da Settignano and Agostino di Duccio in an ongoing dialogue/debate with painting, including that of the classical era.

Section VIII: The Spread of Beauty

From the 1420s onwards, the new standards of sculpture perfected by the great masters and illustrated in the exhibition by several masterpieces such as Donatello’s Pazzi Madonna from Bode Museum in Berlin, the Kress Madonna from the National Gallery in Washington, and the Madonna from the Diocesan Museum of Fiesole attributed to Brunelleschi, spread out via a seemingly endless output of bas-reliefs for private devotion (in marble, stucco, polychrome terracotta and glazed or “Della Robbia” terracotta), which fostered the widespread propagation of a taste for the ‘new’ beauty in every level of society.

Section IX: Beauty and Charity. Hospital, Orphanages and Confraternities

At the same time, the most prestigious artistic commissions in Florence, which were almost always from public entities, began to focus on venues of solidarity and of prayer (churches, confraternities and hospitals), where sculpture once again played a primary role.

Section X: From City to Palace. The New Patrons of the Arts

Thus, arranged around the city’s absolute symbol – the wooden model of Brunelleschi’s Cupola for Santa Maria del Fiore – the exhibition offers a retrospective of themes and types of sculpture that were also to have a crucial impact on the development of the other figurative arts, in a direct debate with their classical predecessors, from the tombs of the Humanists, to the inspiration provided by ancient sarcophagi, to the rebirth of the equestrian monument and the carved portrait. The carved portrait, which became popular towards the middle of the century – in the marble busts of Mino da Fiesole, Desiderio da Settignano, Antonio Rossellino and Verrocchio – heralds the transition from the fiorentina libertas, represented by public patrons, to the private patronage that already bore the mark of the Medici family’s impending hegemony. This transition is effectively captured in the culmination at the end of the exhibition with the Wooden Model of Palazzo Strozzi, the most illustrious private residence of the Renaissance.

Source: Palazzo Strozzi [March, 2013]

Cleopatra is without a doubt one of the most famed historical personalities in History’s pantheon, alongside Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon or De Gaulle.

On the purely archaeological level, many pieces have been destroyed. On the historical level, the accounts and opinions are still widely debated. All that is left of her is the notion of an outstanding beauty, of fantastical love affairs with the two most powerful men in the world at that time, an image that was created during her lifetime and that took on an unimaginable scale as soon as she vanished, to be transformed into an ancestral myth, which never ceased to be taken up in all its forms and in all periods.

No Queen throughout time has remained more famous in the world than Cleopatra even though we still do not know exactly what she looked like. She was shown as Egyptian, obviously, but also as Nubian or African and black, never as the Greek she was in fact. Imagined as irresistible, she is even shown as having been the most beautiful women in the world whose nose remains famous thanks to Pascal’s phrase: “Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the face of the earth would have been changed.”

Throughout the centuries she became the most representative image of an Egypt that has in fact absolutely nothing to do with what was the Ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs, Memphis or Tutankhamen.

From the genuine Cleopatra to all her most famous incarnations, from Sarah Bernhardt to Liz Taylor and Monica Bellucci, it's all an attempt to tell who that young queen was and how that woman’s myth took hold of her own life, so as to turn it into an authentic living legend, which none of us, old or young, wherever we are on this earth, can ignore.

The supposed romance she entertained with Caesar then with Mark Anthony, she became all by herself, through her own death, one of the most classical images of her character.

The exhibition was made possible, due to the complicity with Italian partner Arthemisia and with Mrs. Iole Siena and her team that enabled its first presentation in Rome. It is also due to the outstanding work carried out by the exhibition’s curator, Giovanni Gentili that this show has managed to take on this depth and this importance in the Pinacotheque de Paris.

It also due to the presence of the foremost specialists of each of the experts fascinated by Cleopatra’s myth, that this exhibition is so all-encompassing.

Source: Beyluxe [April 11, 2014]

Several Romans dressed as gladiators have climbed the Colosseum to protest a crackdown on their unauthorized business of posing with tourists for money.

Culture officials contend the fake gladiators ruin the decorum at the ancient archaeological site.

Some tourists gladly pose for a photo, then are dismayed when the costumed men demand money. The fake gladiators insist they perform a popular service and that their costumes evoke the atmosphere of ancient Rome.

Source: Associated Press [April 07, 2012]

An island at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Sicily occupied a pivotal place in antiquity between Greece, North Africa, and the Italian peninsula.

“This is the first major exhibition to arise from the Getty’s 2010 Cultural Agreement with Sicily, presenting masterpieces that are among the most accomplished examples of ancient Greek art in the world,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

“We are especially thrilled to have on view the exceptional statue of a victorious Charioteer from Mozia that the Getty has recently conserved. This object is a unique expression of the marvelous artistry of Greek sculptors at the dawn of the Classical era.”

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, features some 150 objects, a major portion on loan from institutions in Sicily, including stone and bronze sculptures, vase-paintings, votive terracotta statuettes and reliefs, carved ivory, gold and silver metalwork, jewelry, inscriptions, architectural revetments, and coins.

“These splendid objects bear witness to the athletic and military victories, religious rituals, opulent lifestyles, and intellectual attainments of the Sicilian Greeks, which shaped Greek culture at its peak,” explains Claire Lyons, acting senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition.

The Mozia Charioteer

The Mozia Charioteer, widely considered one of the the finest surviving examples of Greek sculpture, serves as the exhibition’s centerpiece. Recently on view at the British Museum in London during the 2012 Summer Olympics, the statue has since undergone conservation treatment at the Getty Villa. Part of the Getty’s cultural agreement with Sicily, this 18-month collaborative conservation project involved remounting the sculpture and the provision of a seismic isolation base, which will accompany the object when it is reinstalled at the Whitaker Museum on the island of Mozia.

The triumphant Mozia Charioteer, discovered in 1976 on the island of Mozia in western Sicily, is believed to represent a charioteer who competed at Olympia on behalf of one of the Sicilian rulers. The extraordinary style of the sculpture, especially notable in the sinuous pleating of the long linen xystis that sheathes the figure’s athletic physique, is a tour-de-force of stone carving. Clearly a master of his craft, the sculptor was able to reveal the torso and limbs beneath the thin fabric. With its confident gaze and proud stance, this statue conveys the high level of originality and experimentation achieved by Greek sculptors working in Sicily.

The “Signing Masters”

Important evidence of Sicilian artistic innovation is also apparent in the exquisite coins of the time. Beginning in the late fifth century B.C., a group of Sicilian Greek coin engravers, mainly based in Syracuse, added their signatures to the dies used to stamp coins. Known as the “Signing Masters,” these remarkable craftsmen created extraordinary works of art on a miniature scale. Departing from the traditional profile view, they devised novel ways of representing the human body in a lively three-quarter perspective or striking frontal pose. This testimony of individual mastery of the medium is virtually exclusive to Sicilian Greek coins created around 400 B.C. Often abbreviated in tiny but legible script, the artists’ signatures are typically all but hidden in locks of hair or elements of jewelry.

Known as the “coin of coins,” the unique Aitna tetradrachm from the Royal Library of Belgium is one of the most precious ancient coins in the world. On view in the exhibition along with 50 other exceptionally crafted Sicilian Greek coins, the image on the tetradrachm depicts the head of Silenos on the obverse and on the reverse, Zeus enthroned with an eagle perched beside him, imagery that alludes to the cult of Zeus on Mt. Etna.
Greek settlers and their gods

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome will also examine how settlers from the Greek mainland brought their myths and religious practices to Sicily. To sanctify new colonies and maintain ties with mother cities, they built altars and temples to such gods as Apollo, the patron deity of colonists, as well as the deified hero Herakles. Included are terracotta heads of Apollo, Hades, and Persephone, created as cult or votive images of deities that played a central role in ancient Sicilian worship. The skillfully modeled clay, embellished with striking polychrome pigments, compares favorably with the most accomplished works in marble and bronze. An exceptional example of metalwork is a religious offering dish made of two and a half pounds of gold. Known as a phiale mesomphalos, the vessel is embossed from the center outward with bands of beechnuts, acorns, and bees above blossoms; the owner’s name —Damarchos, son of Achyris— is inscribed beneath the rim, together with its equivalent weight in gold coins.

The divine hero Herakles was also embraced by Greek settlers, who linked his deeds to their cities. Contrasting aspects of Herakles’ identity —peaceful healer, solitary herdsman, and violent aggressor— heightened the appeal of his cult among the men of rural Sicily, who tended flocks and worked as mercenary soldiers. Among the objects on view is a finely preserved bronze statuette of Herakles recovered from a river-bed in Contrada Cafeo (Modica), which suggests that a shrine to the hero was situated nearby.

Preeminent among the honored deities was Demeter, goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone (or Kore). Sanctuaries of the goddesses dotted the island, but their cult was most enthusiastically embraced in central Sicily, where, according to myth, Kore descended to the Underworld as the bride of Hades. Depictions of these deities include a terracotta bust with a rare painted figural scene that may represent part of a ritual honoring or celebrating the goddesses, and a cult statuette disc overed near an altar in Gela together with an offering jug of carbonized seeds of grain.

Archimedes of Syracuse

A section of the exhibition will focus on Archimedes of Syracuse (about 287–212 B.C.), one of history’s foremost scientists and mathematicians. More than a millennium ahead of its time, his work laid the foundation for branches of math, physics, engineering, and even computer science. When Syracuse’s King Hieron II asked him to determine whether a crown was made of pure gold, Archimedes made his legendary deduction that a solid displaces a volume of liquid equal to its own volume, a discovery that supposedly caused the scientist to leap from his bath and run naked through the streets crying “Eureka” (“I have found it!”).

On view is a leaf from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the only surviving manuscript containing copies of Archimedes’ writings. The medieval prayer book that included this leaf was inked by a scribe onto recycled parchment that originally bore the theories of Archimedes. The pages were scraped clean before being overwritten, but with the use of advanced imaging technology, the original writing is visible. The leaf on view is a section of text from “Proposition 1” from Archimedes’ Method, a work integrating geometry and physics.

Literature on Sicilian art

Finally, the exhibition examines the reflections of literature in Sicilian visual arts. Many mainland Greeks became familiar with Sicily through the epic poetry of Homer, including Odysseus’s wanderings after the Trojan War, which took him to the western Mediterranean.

Often depicted in vase-painting and sculpture, Odysseus’s encounters with strange creatures like the Cyclops and Scylla were allegories for early colonial settlement and trading enterprises that spread Greek culture to distant, exotic regions. The pastoral genre created and perfected by the Syracusan poet Theokritos (about 300–after 260 B.C.) flourished as Sicily was falling under the dominion of Rome in the third century B.C. He is renowned for his Idylls (literally, “little pictures”), which paint nostalgic word-images of Sicilian country life from the point of view of a sophisticated urbanite. Theokritos’s rustic characters—including satyrs, shepherds, and the woodland deity Priapos—also populated the visual arts of the period, attesting to the appeal of rural fantasies during a time of civic turmoil. On extended loan from Syracuse, a life-size statue of the fertility god Priapos, the earliest such figure in Greek art will be featured in the exhibition. Like the Mozia Charioteer, it was also the subject of a collaborative conservation project undertaken by the Getty Museum.

The importance and popularity of Greek comedy and drama outside of Athens is evident in the theatrical figurines, masks and scenes on vases, many of which come from the island of Lipari. The celebrated “Father of Tragedy,” Aeschylus (Greek, 525–456 B.C.) traveled to Sicily on at least two occasions, where his plays found fertile ground in the strong local tradition of performance on the island.

On display is a terracotta mixing vessel with the earliest known depiction of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, which likely reflects a performance of Sophocles’ Andromeda (about 450 B.C.). The Greek inscription painted above the figure of Perseus—“Euaion, the son of Aeschylus, is handsome”— names the actor, son of the great tragedian.

Rich harvests, bountiful seas, and a favorable trade location brought immense wealth to the Sicilian city-states, and the exhibition highlights their widespread reputation for luxurious lifestyles with five gilt-silver vessels, part of a larger group of fifteen. The silver treasure had been buried for safekeeping beneath the floor of a house in Morgantina during the Roman sack of the city in 211 B.C. The entire hoard comprises religious vessels as well as a set for the symposion, a convivial drinking party for men that was an important part of the social life of well-to-do Greeks.

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome is the latest in a series of cooperative efforts between the Getty and the Sicili an Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity arising from a 2010 agreement that calls for a number of collaborative projects, including object conservation, seismic protection of collections, exhibitions, scholarly research, and conferences. Recent related projects include the 2010 loan of the Gela Krater, a monumental red-figured volute krater (wine mixing vessel) attributed to the Niobid Painter; The Agrigento Youth, a rare example of an early classical marble statue called a kouros (an idealized nude young man), loaned to the Getty from the Museo Archeologico Regionale in Agrigento (2010/2011); and most recently the loan of thirty-six objects from the sanctuaries of Demeter at Morgantina (2012/January 2013).

The exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, and celebrates 2013 as the Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realized under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Italy.

Source: The J. Paul Getty Museum [March 19, 2013]

Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History Complex, and the Canadian Museum of History are pleased to announce that they will be welcoming a world-premiere exhibition to Canada later this year: The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great. To be presented in Montréal from December 12, 2014 to April 26, 2015 and in Gatineau from June 5 to October 12, 2015, the exhibition covers more than 5,000 years of Greek culture, from the Neolithic Period to the Age of Alexander the Great.

The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great is the most vast and comprehensive exhibition on Ancient Greece ever presented in North America. It brings together more than 500 artifacts from 22 Greek museums, including many pieces never before displayed outside Greece. Among other treasures, visitors will be able to see a number of priceless objects, the result of some unparalleled archaeological discoveries.

“We are delighted that Pointe-à-Callière is participating in the consortium formed for the exhibition’s North American tour,” says Mark O’Neill, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of History. “The consortium, which our Museum is proud to lead, includes several prestigious museological institutions and we are all honoured that the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports has agreed to lend us artifacts of such great historical value for the benefit of Canadian and American audiences.”

To facilitate the production of an exhibition of this breadth, a consortium of North American museums was created. In addition to the Canadian Museum of History and Pointe-à-Callière, the consortium includes The Field Museum in Chicago and the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC. The Museum of History will oversee direction of the consortium, as well as work on production of the exhibition in association with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.

“I am especially proud to see this unique project take shape as a showcase for Greece, our heritage, and our treasures, illustrating an important part of our history. The fact that 22 Greek museums have come together to produce this exhibition—the largest ever to be held outside of Greece—demonstrates both the scope and the value of this project, as a number of major objects will be travelling to America for the very first time,” stated Eleftherios Anghelopoulos, Greek Ambassador to Canada.

About the Exhibition

The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great invites visitors on a breathtaking and illuminating journey through 5,000 years of Greek history and culture. It is the most comprehensive exhibition about Ancient Greece to tour North America in a generation and features some of the finest artifacts of the classical world. Many of the objects have never before travelled outside of the country. The exhibition includes priceless treasures, the fruit of fascinating archaeological discoveries, along with items recounting the epic adventures of heroes of Ancient Greece, from the siege of Troy by Agamemnon to the triumphs of Alexander the Great.

The journey begins around 6000 BCE, revealing the deep roots of Greek culture. It ends in the days of Alexander the Great (356 to 323 BCE), whose military conquests created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Along the way, visitors will meet the legendary King Agamemnon, leader of the united Greek forces in the Trojan War (12th century BCE) and one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. They will also learn about numerous milestones in Greek and human history: the birth of democracy, philosophy, theatre and the arts, science and medicine. They will see how the first democracy functioned and discover the tools that made it possible.

Visitors will also be able to admire over 500 exquisite treasures drawn from the collections of 22 Greek museums, including the renowned National Archaeological Museum and the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. Among the many exceptional pieces are the iconic portrait of Alexander the Great, found near Pella, the impressive kouroi statues of young men and women dating from the 6th century BCE, and a dazzling array of golden jewellery from royal tombs. All these items come from Greek museums, co-ordinated by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports –Directorate General of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with a consortium of museums led by the Canadian Museum of History. All in all, hundreds of golden objects will be presented, including two magnificent death masks from Mycenae (16th century BCE); superb warrior’s helmets; the beautiful myrtle wreath of Queen Meda from the antechamber of the tomb of Philip II of Macedonia (about 336 BCE); and a marble bas-relief representing a young man crowning himself.

As they tour the exhibition, visitors of all ages will be captivated by the stories of historical figures like Aristotle, Plato, Philip II of Macedonia and the Spartan King Leonidas, and the epic heroes and gods of Greek mythology, including Achilles, Aphrodite, Athena, Zeus and Poseidon.

They will also enjoy captivating interactives, fascinating hands-on objects, and a stunning design treatment.It all adds up to a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition and a truly memorable visitor experience.

Source: Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History [March 26, 2014]

All cultures throughout time have tried to honor and commemorate those they have lost. A new exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum will show how the living cared for the dead, and how the ancients conceptualized the idea of the human soul in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Israel/Palestine.

The Oriental Institute’s Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli, Turkey in 2008, during which an inscribed funerary monument was discovered, inspired the exhibit. The monument, which dates to about 735 B.C, is carved with an image of a man named Katumuwa seated before a table heaped with offerings and with a lengthy inscription in Aramaic—a language widely used in the ancient Middle East. The text proved to be the longest-known memorial inscription of its type.

“The text gave us a whole new understanding of the ancient belief system in eastern Turkey and northern Syria. Although Katumuwa knew that the realm of the dead could be a cruel and lonely place, the rituals he describes that his family would enact on his behalf would give him a happy afterlife,” said exhibit curator Virginia R. Herrmann, PhD’11. Herrmann, now a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, was part of the team that discovered the stela and co-curated “In Remembrance of Me.”

The text also revealed that the rituals took place not just at the grave or in the home, but in a private mortuary chapel next door to a temple—exactly the setting where the Katumuwa stela was discovered. The stela itself is in the Gaziantep Museum in eastern Turkey, but a precise facsimile of its front has been produced for the exhibit.

Rituals of remembrance

Other sections of the exhibit explore how commemoration and communication with the dead was enacted, the importance of banquet scenes, and how the concept of the soul differed in ancient Egypt, Iraq and Israel/Palestine.

Rituals of remembrance of lost loved ones—from memorial services to Day of the Dead celebrations in Latin America and even the “funeral selfie” phenomenon—continue to be an important aspect of many cultures.

Jack Green, chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum, said, “In coordinating this exhibit, we found that although death can often be a taboo topic in Western society, there are plenty of examples today that commemorate the dead through festive and colorful celebrations—the Dia de Muertos being just one example.”

Source: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago [March 13, 2014]

The Royal Ontario Museum unveiled The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors, presented by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation with Manulife as Lead Sponsor. The exhibition is on display in the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall from Saturday, March 8 until Monday, September 1, 2014. Presented in collaboration with Beijing’s Palace Museum, the show brings to Canada for the first time approximately 250 treasures that were part of Chinese imperial life for five centuries in a city strictly off-limits to all but the emperor, his family, and his personal servants. These objects are the relics of a momentous chapter in China’s long and fascinating history.

More than 80 of the exhibition’s objects, including textiles, calligraphy, paintings, and armour, have never before travelled outside the Forbidden City. Complemented by stunning artifacts from the ROM’s own internationally celebrated Chinese collections, these objects tell captivating stories and reveal the fascinating characters that made the Forbidden City the centre of an immense empire for more than 500 years. Due to the significant number of light-sensitive textiles and paintings, there will be an extensive rotation of objects half way through the exhibition’s engagement, presenting a new opportunity to experience the stories and exquisite objects of the Forbidden City.

The ROM has partnered with Beijing’s Palace Museum to create an exhibition that uncovers untold stories about life in the courts of the Chinese emperors. Dr Chen Shen is the exhibition’s lead curator and the ROM’s Vice President, World Cultures and Senior Curator, Bishop White Chair of East Asian Archaeology. He said, “This exhibition allows Canadians to see, for the first time, the finest objects hidden from view in the Forbidden City. We have worked with our Palace Museum colleagues to develop untold stories about life in the courts of the Chinese emperors; ensuring ROM visitors will enjoy many of China’s national treasures, many of which have never left the palace. These objects — both luxurious and everyday — provide the unique opportunity to advance our understanding of the people who lived within the walls of the Forbidden City.”

Robert H. N. Ho, Founder of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, said “The Foundation is pleased to present The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors in Canada. Advancing the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture is a key mission of our foundation. Robust educational programming in support of the exhibition should encourage wider exploration by the public, especially teachers and students. The Foundation is also proud to once again be working with the ROM, an outstanding institution which together with Beijing’s Palace Museum, has developed this wonderful exhibition, bringing to life the 600-year-old imperial palace and revealing for the first time many of its treasures and secrets. ”

The ROM’s exhibition uncovers the stories of the Forbidden City and China’s last emperors who led their lives deep within the palace’s opulent interior. Through intimate encounters with everyday objects, visitors meet a cast of real characters, including emperors, court officials, concubines, and eunuchs — castrated men who served the imperial families. The ROM’s exploration of life inside the mysterious Forbidden City transports visitors through increasingly restricted areas — the palace’s great halls, grand courtyards, and intricate terraces and roofs, until visitors ultimately gain access to the most private space of all: the emperor’s personal study.

Imperial throne set, The Palace Museum, Gu115711 (throne, footstool only) © The Palace MuseumIn the exhibition’s entrance, visitors gain information about the fascinating locale before progressing into The Outer Court, the official space where the emperor displayed his power only to those invited inside. In this, the exhibition’s largest area, ceremonial bells, suits of armour, weapons and large-scale paintings tell the story of the emperors’ governing and military battles. An exhibition highlight dates to the reign of Emperor Qianlong — a throne, symbolizing his authoritative power. This area also introduces visitors to the first of several characters, including Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong, two of the most accomplished emperors of the Qing dynasty.

The exhibition’s climatic section takes visitors inside the Emperor’s personal spaces that were once forbidden to all but the emperor. As rulers, emperors were bound to strict institutionalized governance. However, their choices were their own in collecting and personal cultivation. This area showcases some of the most exquisite objects in the imperial collection including jades, calligraphies, and ceramics and an exceedingly rare porcelain “chicken” cup, commissioned by Emperor Chenghua for his mother; only two such cups exist today in the Palace Museum. In this section, a British-made musical clock and the character of a Western missionary represent the foreign dignitaries who gained access to the Forbidden City with gifts from their homelands — pieces much admired by Qing dynasty emperors.

The Forbidden City

China’s imperial palace, known to the world as the Forbidden City, was built from 1406 – 1420. It was the center of government and home to China’s last 24 emperors of the Ming (1368 – 1644) and Qing (1644 – 1911) dynasties. Made up of about 980 buildings and 8700 rooms in over 90 architectural complexes, the Forbidden City remains to this day the largest palace complex in history. Once strictly forbidden to all but the emperors, their families, servants, invited guests, and most trusted officials, the palace gates are now open to all.

The Palace Museum

The Forbidden City became the Palace Museum in 1925, one year after the last emperor was forced into exile. Located in the heart of Beijing, the magnificent site spans over 720,000 square metres and houses the largest collection of China’s imperial treasures. Designated by China’s State Council as one of that country’s most important protected cultural heritage sites in 1961, it became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. Today, it is considered one of the world’s most important museums. Popularly called The Forbidden City, it houses over 1.8 million art treasures spanning 5,000 years of Chinese history with many from the Qing imperial court. It is one of the world’s most visited museums, welcoming a record 182,000 visitors on October 2, 2012.

Source: The Royal Ontario Museum [March 08, 2014]