The Colosseum in Rome is hosting “the most important exhibition about Troy ever organized”, the organizers said on Friday, specifying that the event will follow the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas, from the ruins of the ancient city in Asia Minor, burned by the Greeks, to Italy, where he laid the foundations for the foundation of the “Eternal City”, informs the ANSA agency, quoted by Agerpres.
The exhibition, which opened on Friday, will remain open until October 18. It includes 300 ancient artifacts that tell the story of Aeneas' legendary voyage and more.
Entitled “Troy and Rome. Myths, Legends, Stories from the Ancient Mediterranean”, the new exhibition is part of a bilateral agreement signed between Alessandro Giuli, the Italian Minister of Culture, and Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, his Turkish counterpart.
It is “one of the most important and largest exhibitions dedicated to Troy ever organized”, as Rustem Aslan, director of the archaeological site Troy Antica, explained at the opening on Friday.
“It would be difficult to organize another exhibition of this magnitude outside Turkey,” he added. Rustem Aslan did not rule out the possibility of organizing a similar exhibition dedicated to Rome in the ancient Turkish site of Troy.
“I discussed this with Alfonsina Russo,” he said, referring to the curator of the Colosseum exhibition.
Dozens of previously unseen artifacts on display at the Colosseum
The artifacts come from some of the most important museums in Italy and Turkey, including Troy.
Nineteen Turkish museums have lent more than 220 objects, of which 50 have never been seen before by the Italian public, and more than 20 have never been exhibited outside Italy.
The exhibition begins with a replica of the Trojan Horse and establishes, on the border between reality and fiction, a dialogue between the archaeological evidence and the materials documenting the spread and reinterpretation of the myth of Aeneas until the founding of Rome.
“The Colosseum Park brings before the eyes of the world the narrative of a founding myth crucial to the history of humanity,” said Simone Quilici, director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park.
The exhibition comprises four sections: a reconstruction of the site of Troy, offering a unique overview of the Hittite civilization and the various cultural realities in Anatolia between the 3rd millennium BC; and II BC; The Trojan War, told from the perspective of the Trojans, and the beginning of the diaspora, with Aeneas in the lead role; the hero's journey, inspired by literary traditions and archaeological evidence; and the myth of Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome.
