The President of the Diputación de Alicante, Toni PérezThis morning, he inaugurated the new international exhibition from MARQ which addresses the early kingdoms of prehistoric Europe through a 500 masterpieces and unpublished pieces from the Bronze Agesome of which are exhibited for the first time in Spain.
This ambitious cultural proposal, in which the following have participated twenty museums across Europeoccupies the three temporary rooms and can be visited until 13 October. Entitled 'Dynasties', the exhibition exhibits, among other outstanding objects, a reproduction of the Nebra Disc and part of its treasure. It is the earliest known depiction of the celestial vault in Europe, included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register since 2013.
During the presentation of the exhibition, Toni Pérez stressed that this exhibition "goes beyond the research work carried out for decades by more than 70 scientists, archaeologists and tireless workers who have devoted themselves to talking about the culture of Europe".
"We are going to see an exhibition that will amaze you. We will go back thousands of years to contemplate societies that had many elements in common. We will talk about the formation of the dynasties and the first kingdoms, but also about social inequality," said the president, who said it was an "immense honour to be here today and to be indebted to the work well done, inherited by my predecessor in the presidency of the Provincial Council, Carlos Mazón, now president of the Generalitat".
According to the institutional responsible during his speech at an event in which nearly 200 people have participatedThis initiative is "a pole of attraction and a way of injecting culture into society in general and into people who are attracted by the novelty of this exhibition, with pieces that have never been exhibited before".
Toni Pérez thanked the patrons of MARQ and its Foundation, to the teams of museum professionalsto the sponsors and to the commissioners "The colossal effort and the steps taken to enable the development of this exhibition, which is a great event for the culture of Alicante and Alicante for the world".
Finally, the president announced that there will be open day this afternoon and also at the weekendWe have to be ambassadors of a culture that is very much ours, because it will be one of the most important exhibitions to be seen in Europe. "We have to be ambassadors of a culture that is very much ours, because it will be one of the most important exhibitions that can be seen in Europe and because we have the vocation and the obligation to bring culture in its maximum expression with the aim of making society grow and as a pole of economic and tourist attraction", he concluded.
The inauguration was attended by the Deputy for Culture, Juan de Dios Navarroand of the three curators of the exhibition, the archaeologists Juan Antonio López Padillaof the MARQ, Robert Rischof the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and János Danifrom the Déri Museum of Debrecen in Hungary. In addition, the director of MARQ, Manuel Olcinaspoke at the pre-launch presentation of the opening of the exhibitionin the preparation of which the scientific contents have participated more than 70 researchers from all over Europespecialists in the study of the Bronze Age.
Pioneering research from the end of the 19th century to the present day has gradually expanded the information on the cultures of the 2nd millennium BC in Europe, and the current data collected in the exhibition show that the European cultures of the 2nd millennium BC are still very much alive today. less isolated and more interconnected societies.
The selected objects, from 20 European museums and institutions, bear witness to the appearance of the first 'warrior' charactersof the evolution of agricultural and livestock farming societies as the foundation of the first states, of extractive activities such as the mining and the development of trades such as metallurgy and the goldsmithing or the constitution of the elites and the ideological control of society.
In addition, the proposal includes sets of trousseaus located in the monumental burials of Early Bronze Age kings and queens. Also on display are masterpieces of the European Bronze Age, such as the Schifferstadt gold hat (Germany), the Meltz halberd set(Germany), the gold diadem of Quinta da Água Brava (Portugal) or the Guadalajara swordand several treasures are on display for the first time, such as those from Dohmsen and Teichafound in Germany and recently restored.
Likewise, and after 120 years of absence, this MARQ's commitment allows for the return of Bronze Age artefacts to Spain found in Almería in the 19th century and deposited since then in the Musée du Cinquantenaire de Bruxelles (MRAH). MARQ contributes 26 outstanding pieces from its collection to the exhibitionSome of them are being exhibited to the public for the first time.
In his turn to speak, Juan de Dios Navarro said that this event is "an important date for one of the most important exhibitions that the province will have and which will once again position us on the national and international museum scene". For this reason, he wanted to recognise the work of the MARQ, "because it is not just another exhibition, but we have coordinated with seven countries and 20 museums to highlight our history and our past".
The deputy for Culture, who congratulated the curators for their great work, as well as the sponsors, Asisa and La Caixa Foundationpointed out that MARQ has brought together more than three million visitors since 2002 and with this new exhibition "we will put culture at the service of the citizens and make it accessible to all Alicante residents and visitors". In addition, as he assured, more than 920 schools in the province will have the opportunity to visit the MARQ and make didactic progress in their studies.
For his part, Manuel Olcina expressed his satisfaction with this project "on great European cultures of prehistory", while detailing that the museum's rooms house "fascinating objects from 20 museums, half of them Spanish and half from Central Europe, with a discourse forged thanks to MARQ's research activity, beyond its exhibition function".
Dynasties' and the three temporary rooms
This exhibition focuses on three specific societies, the uneticethe Ottomani and Argaric culturesThe film is a series of stories, in which revolutionary changes for humanity take place. Dynasties' is spread over the three temporary rooms of the museumThe first of which shows the public the history of the world leaving the Bronze Age and the formation of the new statesThe construction and shaping of the foundations of political leaders and kingdoms.
In the second room, the following are unveiled exchange networks The museum also reveals how these elements were worked and what was made from them.
Finally, the third room provides an explanation of how these characters become heroes and how their impulse to perpetuate their privileges allows, for the first time, the construction of the dynasties, title of the exhibition.
Open Day
On the occasion of the opening of 'Dynasties, this afternoon the MARQ will celebrate open day with opening hours of 15:00 h. to 19:00 h.. In addition, next weekend, days 29, 30 and 31 March, the museum will be open free of charge The exhibition will be open to the public. On Friday and Sunday, public holidays, the opening hours will be from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.while on Saturday the margin of visits will be of 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m..
Origins of the exhibition project
The idea of this cultural proposal emerged more than two years ago as a result of a archaeological research carried out in Bronze Age archaeological sites and collections in Orihuela. This discovery led the team of archaeologists involved to establish connections with the Carpathian Mountains, a theory that was coupled with advances in the field over the last two decades.
In this respect, for the first time, the following were found mass exchanges of objects and goods over 500 kilometres apartwhich make it possible to talk about the beginnings of trade. Also from the the emergence of the concept of exchange valuethanks to bullion and the proto currency, or the mass productionThe movement of the Axes, with the proto-industry and the exchange of weaponry such as axes, has produced, according to researchers, a considerable amount of money. This movement produces, according to the researchers, a considerable levels of social inequality that allow us to speak of the first states or kingdoms in Europe.
The exhibition is accompanied by original music by the composer from Alicante. Luis Ivarsof a catalogue, hitherto non-existent, which will become a reference manual for experts, students and the general public, while at the same time providing a tribute to the first researchers of Spanish history.
Among the lending museums that have contributed to making this new cultural proposal a reality are the MRAH in Brussels; the National Museum of Archaeology in Lisbon; the State Museum of Prehistory-Halle; the Déri-Debrecen Museum; the Damjánich János-Szolnok Museum in Hungary; the State Office for Culture, Archaeology and Monuments Conservation-Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; the Moesgard Museum in Aarhus, Denmark; the Hermann Otto-Miskolc Museum in Hungary; the Palatinate History Museum in Speyer, Germany; the State Office for the Conservation of Monuments and Archaeology of Thuringia, Weimar; the Slovak Academy of Sciences-Nitra; the MAN in Madrid; the Museo Arqueológico y Paleontológico Regional de Madrid-Alcalá de Henares; the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, as well as museums in Lorca, Almería, Jaén, Callosa de Segura and Villena.
