Antiquities Exhibits

Nuragic bronze figurines at the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Back in June of this year I posted about the collection of Nuragic Art at the national Archaeological Museum of Cagliari on Sardinia. Nuragic civilization lasted on the island of Sardinia from the 18th century BCE to 238 BCE when the Romans colonized the island. The term "Nuragic" is derived from the island's most characteristic monument, the nura ghe, a tower-fortress type of construction the ancient Sardinians built in large numbers. Even today more than 7,000 nuraghes dot the Sardinian landscape. If you can't make a trip to Sardinia, though, you can still see several excellent examples of Nuragic bronze figurines at the Art Institute of Chicago. These warrior people have been associated with the Sherden tribe of the late Bronze Age Sea Peoples. Simonides of Ceos and Plutarch spoke of raids by Sardinians against the island of Crete, in the same period in which the Sea People invaded E...

Head of a Thirtieth Dynasty Priest of Montu at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York. The head of the priest named Wesirwer meaning Osiris Is Great is part of a group of green-stone heads that combine both conventional and naturalistic facial details. Wesirwer's egg-shaped skull and almond eyes are standard elements of fourth-century B.C.E. works, but the serene gaze is a naturalizing element perhaps evocative of Wesirwer's p iety. This head was once attached to a statue wearing an Achaemenid period Persian-style garment. This type of garment would have been introduced before Dynasty XXVII circa 525–404 B.C.E., a period of foreign occupation. This probably accounts for the Brooklyn Museum's acquisition of just the head. Montu was a falcon-god of war in ancient Egyptian religion, an embodiment of the conquering vitality of the pharaoh. He was particularly worshipped in Upper Egypt and in the district of Thebes, despite being a Delta-native, astral deity. A very anci...

Gilded cartonnage of a Romano-Egyptian woman and man, possibly from Hawara, Egypt, 1st century CE on display at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York. This gilded mummy mask of a woman, thought to be from Hawara, Egypt, and a man were created in the 1st century CE during Egypt's Roman period. It is created of linen, gilded gesso, glass, and faience. Hawara is an archaeological south of the site of Crocodilopolis, its Gree k name, or Arsinoe, its Ptolemaic Period name, at the entrance to the depression of the Fayum oasis. The first excavations at the site were made by Karl Lepsius, in 1843. William Flinders Petrie excavated at Hawara, beginning in 1888, finding papyri of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, and, north of the pyramid, a vast necropolis where, in 1911, he found 146 portraits on coffins dating to the Roman period now known as Fayum portraits. Some of the mummies discovered in Hawara, though, were covered with a cartonnage mask rather than a painted portrait. Carton...

Delicately sculptured head of a Roman child of the 2nd century CE at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Romans kept track of the passing of time by celebrating their birthday every year just as we do. These celebrations consisted of wine, garlands of flowers, ritual cakes, and fire on the domestic altar. A child who reached its first birthday (the stage known as anniculus) was able to have legal privileges  and the parents could apply for full Roman citizenship for their child. From the ages of 5 to 7, children were seen to have more rational minds and were expected to take on responsibility around the home such as taking care of the animals, gathering materials, and general chores around the house. Also during these years, children were considered to be aware of social and sexual roles and children’s groups were organized by gender at that time. The age of 5 was around the end of what was considered to be the infant stage (infantia). At this age Romans...

Kneeling Satyr at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.  Said to be from the vicinity of Pergamon, in modern-day Turkey produced during the 2nd or 1st century BCE, this bronze satyr has traces of silver in his eyes. This statuette depicts a follower of the god of wine, Dionysos. A late-night carouser, he probably served here—most appropriately—as a lamp-stand. The tree probably held oil lamps in its branches. Photographed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Beautifully detailed Greek funerary banquet relief at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia. The afterlife as a banquet, as depicted here, was a popular image in fourth-third century grave-reliefs. The iconography, borrowed in archaic times from the ancient Near East, was based on everyday symposia. Generic elements in this relief include the deceased, represented as a banqueter (symposiast), who holds out a libation bowl (phiale). His wife sits at the foot of his couch. In front of the couch is a table on which food (perhaps fruit or cakes) has been placed. At left, a serving boy stands beside a volute-krater holding a jug and drinking vessel with long conical body and ram's head end (rhyton). The krater is depicted on a stand, indicating that the artist intended it to be understood as metal. The startling horse's head above the serving boy may have aristocratic associations (horse-breeding and racing was the preserve only of the wealthy); ...

The Vicarello Goblet late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This masterpiece of the Roman silversmith’s art was found north of Rome at Vicarello, the ancient Aquae Apollinares (the Springs of Apollo). Exquisitely worked in relief is a multifigure scene centered on a rustic shrine of the god Priapus. He is in the form of a stylized boundary marker placed atop a column. A woman approaching fr om the right seems to have brought him to life by touching him. To the left are votive offerings to the god arranged on top of and around a table. A satyr at the far left and a maenad at the far right dance ecstatically. - Cleveland Art Museum Image: Three views of the Vicarello Goblet from ancient Aquae Apollinares (Vicarello, Italy) courtesy of the museum.

Head of a Roman Imperial Period Priest from the late 2nd to early 4th century CE now on display at the Dallas Museum of Art. The conical headdress goes back centuries in Near Eastern religious art. Originally the mark of a divinity, by the time of the Roman Empire it was the regalia of priests of various Syrian and Anatolian deities. A priest of the Anatolian mother-goddess Cybele in the museum in Ostia, Italy, wears such a headd ress. The well-known frescoes from a synagogue in Dura-Europus, Syria, now in the Damascus museum, also show priests wearing such headdresses. However, the idealized nude Greek figures ornamenting the headdress on the Dallas Museum of Art head represent a complete fusion of Near Eastern beliefs and Greco-Roman style. The incised eyes, which give the figure a hypnotic intensity, are typical of such late Roman portraits and are often emphasized to suggest the spiritual state of the person represented. - Dallas Museum of Art Image: Head of an Imperia...

The Egyptian god Bes and his migration to Rome. Bes together with his feminine counterpart Beset, is an Ancient Egyptian deity worshipped as a protector of households and, in particular, of mothers, children and childbirth. Bes later came to be regarded as the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad. While past studies identified Bes as a Middle Kingdom import from Nubia or Somalia, more recent research indi cates that he was present in Egypt since the Old Kingdom. Mentions of Bes can be traced to pre-dynastic Nile Valley cultures, however his cult did not become widespread until the beginning of the New Kingdom. Worship of Bes spread as far north as the area of Syria, and later into the Roman and Achaemenid Empires. Statue of the half-god Bes, Limestone, Amanthus (Cyprus), Roman copy of the Archaic style. Istanbul Archaeological Museums courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sandstein.  Stele with sculpture of Bes and Beset, Late Period, ...

 A newly conserved bust of an Antonine period military commander (140-160 CE) at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California is now on display.  The cloak, known as a paludamentum, worn over the left shoulder signifies that this man was a military commander. His short beard and tousled hair were fashionable during the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 CE), providing an approximate date for the sculpture. - Getty Villa Bust of a Roman military commander (140-160 CE) at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California

Museum of History of the Yucatan and Mayan culture in the Palacio Canton in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. The Palacio Canton was originally designed for General Francisco Canton in the early 1900s as his residence. Canton fought in the Caste War against rebel Mayan forces. He was also a successful cattle rancher, railroad entrepreneur, and governor of Yucatan between 1898-1902. The National Institute of Anthropology and History p urchased the building and, after an extensive rennovation in 2015, it is now considered one of the best regional museums about the Yucatan and Mayan Culture. Current exhibits include Mexicas, Chosen from the Sun, 120 sculptures, vases, reliefs, tombstones and ritual objects from the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City’s Templo Mayor, and the museum's own permanent collection. Image: Monumental sculpture in the Mexicas, Chosen from the Sun exhibit, courtesy of the museum.

Ancient Egypt: From day-to-day to eternity through January 27, 2020 at Rio de Janeiro's Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil. One hundred and forty artifacts from the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy, the second largest collection of Egyptian objects in the world, spanning a period from 4,000 to 30 BCE will be showcased in this exhibit. The objects, including human and animal mummies, paintings, writings, jewelry, cosmetic bottles, shoe s, and apparel, as well as a replica of the tomb of Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II, will be augmented with videos and photos. Image: A cat's sarcophagus from the Late Period (722-332 BCE) courtesy of the exhibition.

Genghis Khan: Bringing the Legend to Life through April 26, 2020 at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. Journey back 800 years to experience the treasures and stories of Genghis Khan's 13th-century Mongol Empire. Presented in Kansas City for the first time, this world tour exhibition invites your entire family into an adventure across the vast grasslands of Central Asia among the relics of Gen ghis Khan's reign. Experience life in 13th-century Mongolia. Entering the tents, battlegrounds, and marketplaces of a vanished world. Explore Genghis Khan's life and those of his sons and grandsons during the formation, peak, and decline of the Mongol Empire. View rare treasures from 13th-century Mongolia; 200 spectacular objects dramatically displayed to illustrate this legendary story. Gold jewelry and ornaments, silk robes, musical instruments, pottery, and sophisticated weaponry are nestled among numerous other fascinating relics throughout the exhibit. This presentation w...

Greco-Roman, African, and Asian antiquities at the Ackland Art Museum of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The collection of the Ackland Art Museum includes over 19,000 works of art. It's ancient works of art include sculpture, glassware, coins, jewelry and ceramics dating as far back as the second millennium. Among some of the more unusual pieces, is a sculpture of a man carrying a fish identified as possibly 4 th century CE Anglo Roman. The African collection includes a sculpture created by the Nok culture of ancient Nigeria dated from 100 BCE - 200 CE. Also, don't miss a painting of a peasant offering Cleopatra VII a basket of figs with an asp by French artist Eugène Delacroix painted in 1838. Images: The goddess Juno, Roman, bronze, 150-200 CE, Man carrying a fish, 4th century CE, Anglo-Roman, and a Nok figural sculpture from ancient Nigeria 100 BCE - 200 CE. All images courtesy of the museum.

Cyprus: Island on the Move through March 15, 2020 at the Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden in Leiden, Netherlands. More than four hundred objects including three hundred archaeological masterpieces from the national collections of Cyprus are presented in this exploration of the history and cultural diversity of this archaeologically rich island. A story covering more than nine thousand years, visitors will see Aphrodite statues of marb le, luxury goods from the Near East and Egypt, gold jewelry, imaginative pottery with lively animal figures, decorated bronze kettles and weapons, colorful mosaics and a silver-inlaid king throne. Image: Dated between 460-450 BCE, this Cypriot male portrait with almond-shaped eyes and the 'archaic' smile is typical of a Greek image of the period. However, the curled beard reflects the fashion of the Persian court as 5th century BCE Cyprus was ruled by the Persians. Image courtesy of the museum.

The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis in Memphis Tennessee. The Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology maintains a collection of over fourteen hundred ancient Egyptian antiquities. Approximately 200 of those objects, most ranging in date from 3800 B.C.E. to 700 C.E., are on permanent exhibition in the Egyptian Gallery of the Art Museum of the University of Memphis. Artifacts include  mummies, religious and funerary items, jewelry, sculpture, and objects from everyday life. Image: Gilded cartonnage mummy mask from the Early Ptolemaic Period (305-150 BCE) courtesy of the museum.

Roman and Byzantine mosaics at the Haleplibahçe Mosaics Museum in Şanlıurfa, Turkey. Opened in 2015, the modern 6,000 square meter Haleplibahce Mosaic Museum houses the remains of the mosaic pavements of a large Roman villa uncovered during a municipal construction project i n Şanlıurfa, Turkey. Şanlıurfa, also known as Urfa, is built on the site of the ancient Greek city of Edessa. Discoveries include mosaics depicting the life of Achilles, including his mother, Thetis, holding him by the heel and dipping him into the waters of the River Styx, his training by the centaur, Chiron, and his departure for the Trojan War. Another pavement depicts Amazon queens hunting wild beasts. Mosaics from other archaeological areas depict various animals, Ktisis, a figure personifying the act of generous donation or foundation often found in 6th century Greek mosaics, and a 2nd century CE depiction of the myth of Orpheus. The Orpheus mosaic was recently repatriated from the Dallas Museum of Art. ...

Pompeii: The Immortal City, June 6, 2020 to September 7, 2020 at the Orlando Science Center in Orlando, Florida. Conceived by the Galileo Museum of Florence and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, this exhibition plunges the visitor into the heart of the drama and  ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii. Spectacular immersive moments allow the visitor to experience the destruction of the city and to identify with the inhabitants of that time, immobilized by the volcano’s ashes. Over 100 archaeological items originating from Pompeii, including a large number being exhibited for the first time, demonstrate the knowledge that the Romans had about nature as well as their scientific and technical know-how at the moment Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E. Image: Sculpture of Artemis recovered from Pompeii at the exhibition Pompeii: The Immortal City courtesy of the exhibition company.