The Archaeological Museum of Alicante hosts from today the exhibition "Images of life and death"composed of four female terracotta figures from the Iberian necropolis of l'Albufereta, located at the foot of the Tossal de Manises.
The Member of Parliament for Culture Juan Bautista Roselló inaugurated this morning the exhibition, which will be open to the public at the hall of the alicantino museum until the next month of December. The event was also attended by MARQ's technical director Manuel Olcina and the curator of the exhibition Enric Verdú.
Roselló, who explained the choice of this exhibition space to house the exhibition, pointed out that ".this room is our museum's letter of introduction. The aim of this small exhibition is to establish a dialogue between the hall and the rest of the permanent and temporary collections housed at the Marq".
The pieces, found in the inside cremation gravesThe data come from the excavations carried out at the Iberian necropolis of l'Albufereta in the 1930s. In them, features of nurturing deities are observed such as a bulging belly and even the action of breastfeeding a young child.
"These are four female figures related to the birth of life, to fertility, and which accompanied burials to connect life and death."said Roselló.
"Images of life and death" is composed of four pieces by Hellenising features possibly made by Punic or indigenous craftsmen from imported moulds. The images are evidence of a popular devotion and a special appreciation for the female representations of a Nurturing Mother Goddess, benefactress and protector of the community.
Their appearance in funerary contexts is also associated with the belief in resurrection, or an 'afterlife', where the deceased requested the protection of the goddess.
.jpg)
In this sense, Verdú has explained that ".All the pieces on display allude to motherhood. The first of them shows a young pregnant woman carrying a dove, the second shows her feeding a child she has just given birth to, the third shows her standing, also carrying a child, and the fourth shows the faithful, the devotee".
The exhibition is also complemented by a explanatory panelas well as with a magazinea brochure and a audiovisual with animations, which provide illustratively the significance and importance of the exhibited pieces.
