About us

CONCEPT OF THE MUSEUM

The Museum of the Near East, Egypt and the Mediterranean was created as a testimony of the results obtained in the field by more than thirty archaeological missions of Sapienza in fifteen different countries of the Near East, the Mediterranean and Africa over more than fifty years. The Missions worked in harmony and close collaboration with the authorities of the

countries that generously hosted them and were financed by the special fund dedicated to the Great Excavations of Sapienza and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The main purpose of the Museum is to disseminate the scientific results of archaeological research, offer Sapienza students a valid training laboratory, make known archaeological companies that have made Sapienza one of the major centers of excellence in global archeology.

A SHARED CULTURE BETWEEN THE NEAR EAST AND THE MEDITERRANEAN

The exhibition itinerary explores, through the finds found by the Missions of Sapienza (originals, but also copies and models, since the finds must remain in the countries where they "lived" and were found by archaeologists) the articulated and differentiated training path of the Mediterranean civilization , tracing its deepest roots up to the birth of the city, the invention of writing and, subsequently, the alphabet, the creation of the most ancient human cultural institutions: religion, power, economy, history, art and literature reflected through the lens of archeology in a variety of documents and evidence.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MUSEUM

Among the highlights of the Museum: the tower, the modeled skull and the first bricks from Neolithic Jericho (8500-7000 BC); the cretulae and the tomb of the prince with all the weapons and jewels from Arslantepe (3300-3000 BC); the Batrawy axes (2400 BC); the volute capital from the palace of the kings of Judah in Ramat Rahel (8th century BC); the Simonides Ossuary (1st century AD); obsidian from Pantelleria; the steles and urns of the Tophet of Motya (VII-VI century BC); the figurine of an ithyphallic god from Monte Sirai (3rd century BC) and, in the section on Egypt, the plate of the first pharaoh of the 2nd Dynasty, Hotepsekhemui; the casts of Tuya, mother of Ramses II, and the extraordinary unfinished bust of Nefertiti, as well as the portraits of two pharaohs, one of which is wooden; the relief of Sheshonq, a very high dignitary of the XXVI Dynasty, owner of one of the largest tombs in Thebes; the very rich materials from Antinoe, the city founded by Hadrian in memory of his favorite who died drowned in the Nile; the 6 m high cast of the carved wall of the Temple of the Lion-God Apedamak in Mussawarat es-Sufra erected by the Meroitic ruler Nakatamani (1st century AD), as well as the statue of a lion and the precious finds from the Palace erected by the same king at Jebel Barkal ( Napata). Finally, the testimonies of Coptic Christian Egypt from Tamit and Sonqi Tino in Nubia.

 

© Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" - Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma