The President of the Diputación de Alicante, Toni Pérezpresented this morning at the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid, MAN, the next international exhibition which will host the MARQ about the first kingdoms of prehistoric Europe. The new proposal, which will open its doors on 26 March and can be visited until 13 October at the Alicante museumincludes unpublished pieces and masterpieces of the Bronze AgeSome of them are being exhibited for the first time in Spain.
With the title "DynastiesThis initiative constitutes a ambitious project with about 500 objects valuable items, among them 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.
Toni Pérez valued "the research and dissemination work of the MARQ team will bring us closer to the Prehistory of our continent in an era that was a decisive turning point in Europe and will once again demonstrate the level of excellence of the museum at an international level, both for the exhibitions it presents and for the cultural experience it offers its visitors".
The President said that The most important thing about this initiative "is the scientific account of years of work, rigour and study, thanks to which we have managed to bring together nearly 500 works through the collaboration of a total of 21 museums".
The institutional head also valued the contribution that this project has for cultural tourism. "We want this exhibition to break attendance records and to bring our culture and the rigorous work of the MARQ closer to the public so that Alicante once again becomes an international museum epicentre," he said.
In this sense, he has claimed the enriching effect of "the destination offer of the province and the city of Alicante", while acknowledging that it is "an exhibition of incalculable value and an extraordinary staging".
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.
Thus, the selected objects from 21 museums and institutions across EuropeThe following are testimony to the emergence 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 will be 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 will be on display for the first time, such as those of the Dohmsen and Teichafound in Germany and recently restored.
Likewise, and after 120 years of absence, MARQ's next venture will allow 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 will contribute 26 outstanding pieces from its collection to the exhibition.Some of them will be exhibited to the public for the first time.
The presentation was also attended by the deputy for Culture, Juan de Dios Navarrothe director of MAN, Isabel Izquierdothe director of MARQ, Manuel Olcinaand the manager of the CV-MARQ Foundation, José Alberto Cortés.
Dynasties', which will open its doors next March, will be curated by archaeologists Juan Antonio López Padilla of the MARQ, Roberto Risch of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and János Dani of the Déri Museum in Debrecen, Hungary. The scientific content of the exhibition has been prepared by the following participants more than 70 researchers from all over Europespecialists in the study of the Bronze Age.
During the round of speeches, the director of the MAN highlighted the collaboration and joint work of both museums over the years and said that, as a result of "this excellent relationship, we have loaned four pieces for this magnificent exhibition, showing a certain generosity with the project and with the MARQ".
Isabel Izquierdo, who predicted a great success for this exhibition, stressed that it has been possible to carry out the transfer "because the state of conservation of our pieces allows it, because the project has considerable excellence, scope and projection in Europe, as well as having a very appreciable quality of substance and form, and because our pieces have great prominence in it".
For his part, Manuel Olcina acknowledged that it is a pleasure for the MARQ to have the collaboration of museums from all over Europe for this exhibition, and at the same time he highlighted the value of the research work by the technicians of the Alicante museum over the years.
"Now museums are not mere exhibition spaces, but bring together the work of teams of professionals dedicated to the research and conservation of heritage that provide greater solidity. The MARQ is a good example of this with its research plans and its wealth of new developments that offer rigour and beauty," said Olcina, who assured that this project would not be possible "without the whole group of people who make up the museum, and their excellence, as well as the sponsors who support these cultural initiatives".
In his turn to speak, Juan de Dios Navarro said that this event is "the starting signal for one of the most important exhibitions that Spain and the province of Alicante will hold in 2024". 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 21 museums to highlight the value of history and our past".
The deputy acknowledged that the exhibition "is quite a challenge, but we will once again be a reference point after one of the most important exhibitions we have had, the warriors of Xi'an", while the curators have highlighted the relationships with colleagues from other museums in Europe, "without whom this exhibition would not have been possible".
As the experts told the media present at the event, the idea for this project came about more than two years ago as a result of archaeological research at Bronze Age sites and collections in Orihuela. "This discovery led us to establish connections with the Carpathians and this was joined by advances in the last two decades". In addition, they have advanced that the exhibition proposal brings together a collection of pieces "absolutely exceptional, because some are being exhibited for the first time in Spain and others are simply being exhibited for the first time".
Dynasties' will be distributed in the three temporary rooms of the museumIn the first of which the public will be shown the history of the world leaving the Bronze Age and the formation of the new statesThe second room will unveil these themes, their construction and the shaping of the foundations of political leaders and kingdoms. In the second room, these will be unveiled. exchange networks The second room will show how precious objects, gold, plant, amber or tin, as well as how they were worked and what was made from them. Finally, the third room will offer an explanation of how these objects were made. characters become heroes and how their drive to perpetuate those privileges allows, for the first time, the construction of the dynasties, title of the exhibition.
As the curators have recognised, this is a "crucial exhibition that will focus on three specific societies, the Unaetians, the Ottoman and the Argaric cultures, because in these three societies revolutionary changes for humanity took place".
In this sense, they have detailed that for the first time "we find a massive exchange of objects and goods more than 500 kilometres away, as we see in metals, so we can speak of the beginnings of trade. Also the emergence of the concept of exchange value, thanks to ingots and proto currency, or mass production, with proto industry and the exchange of weaponry such as axes and axes. All this produced spectacular levels of social inequality and this allows us to speak of the first states or kingdoms of Europe".
Finally, they pointed out that this MARQ exhibition "repairs a historical oversight and is based on a scientific discourse that will present a vision and a catalogue that does not exist right now. It will be a manual for students and a reference book, as well as a tribute to the first researchers in the history of Spain. And we are doing it at MARQ because it is committed to quality exhibitions as a fundamental didactic element to improve the cultural level".
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, Mula and Callosa de Segura.
