Antiquities Exhibits

Ancient Civilizations. Ongoing. At the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania.  4th century BCE Bronze Pseudo-Corinthian or Italo-Corinthian Helmet.  Image courtesy of the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania The Reading Museum's antiquities collection include an array of artifacts from Egypt, Greece, Rome and other civilizations around the Mediterranean. Their Egyptian collection is comprised of amulets, votive sculptures, and a full length cartonnage mummy case of the 8th century BCE Lady Tadiashaikhet. Their Greco-Roman collection encompasses  a wide variety of ceramic vessels, Roman portrait heads, bronze lamps, Roman glass and this 4th century BCE Pseudo-Corinthian or Italo-Corinthian Helmet in excellent condition. The museum points out "During the 5th century BC this type of helmet was adapted by the Etruscans, who frequently depicted it in amphorae painting and on sarcophagi. Out of combat, soldiers often wore the helmet tipped upward for...

Archimedes: Science and Innovations. January 25 -- September 26, 2019 at the Museum of Idaho in Idaho Falls, Idaho. A mosaic originally believed to date from ancient times, but now thought to be an 18th century copy or falsification. Located in the Städtische Galerie Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Solve puzzles, view lost technology, and interact with machines designed in the 3rd century BCE by Archimedes, a Greek mathematician whose inventions revolutionized the ancient world. Exhibits are focused around four themes: Machines of the Ancient World; Energy Machines; The Power of Shapes; and Archimedes' Lega cy.

Crystal: Visible and Invisible.”   October 12, 2019 to January 6, 2020 at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.  Bracelet of rock crystal with gold rams heads Greek part of the Ganymede Jewelry collection 330-300 BCE photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today, high quality quartz crystals are mined from the mountains and caverns of Arkansas. Yet this iridescent, enigmatic material has captivated artists, religious leaders, monarchs, and healers across the world for more than 6,000 years. View ancient artifacts like the one below, including engraved gems, skulls, figurines, vases, and more, alongside works from contemporary artists around the world that explore the power of crystal in art by drawing on its form, properties, and mysterious qualities. Featuring more than 75 works from Ancient Egypt and Greece, through to Rome, China, India, Japan, the Middle East, the Americas, and beyond, discover how the power of crystal tr...

Pompeii: The Exhibit through April 21, 2019 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Pair of Bronze Gladiator Shin Guards from the Gladiators' Barracks in Pompeii Roman 1st century CE. These elaborately decorated shin guards depict a procession in a celebration of Bacchus, Bacchus' tutor Silenus, masks of the god and a lion skin symbolic of Hercules. The lower portion depicts a stork fighting a snake to protect her children. Photographed at "Pompeii: The Exhibit" at Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington. Pompeii: The Exhibit features over 150 authentic artifacts on loan from the renowned Naples National Archaeological Museum in Italy, including wall-sized frescos, marble and bronze sculptures, jewelry, ancient Roman coins, and full body casts of the volcano’s victims. Note: I saw this exhibit a couple of years ago at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington. It is a fascinating exhibit and I was particularly ...

The Life of Animals in Japanese Art. May 5 through July 28, 2019 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Haniwa Horse, Japan, earthenware, 6th century CE. Image courtesy of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California. These votive figurines were placed on top of tombs for the wealthy elite in Japan from 300 to 600 CE. For those on the West Cost a smaller version will run Sept. 8 through December 8, 2019 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art” will feature 330 pieces representing many media, from prints and sculpture to textiles and ceramics. Spanning 15 centuries organized around eight theme s, including ancient Japan, the Japanese zodiac, religion, folklore, nature and leisure.

Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum and Library.  Through March 31, 2019 at the Albuquerque Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.   Electrum Celt-Iberian torque 125-100 BCE courtesy of the Hispanic Society Museum and Library "Visions of the Hispanic World" highlight works from Spain and Latin America drawn from the Hispanic Society’s renowned Museum and Library collections, including archaeological works from the Iberian Peninsula, arts of Islamic Spain, paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and manuscripts from Medieval, Golden Age, and 18th-century Spain, Latin American colonial and 19th-century paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and manuscripts, and Spanish paintings of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Related link: https://www.cabq.gov/visions

Genghis Khan, the Great Civilizer. Opening January 26, 2019 at the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center in Mobile, Alabama. Recreated Mongol warriors courtesy of the Exploreum Science Center and exhibit presenters. The exhibition features more than 300 spectacular objects on display, including rare and sophisticated weapons, costumes, jewels, ornaments, instruments and numerous other fascinating relics and elaborate artifacts from 13th-century Mongolia. Genghis Khan dominated three times more land in his lifetime than either Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, a conquest attested to by the formidable array of swords, bows, arrows, saddles and armor included on display.