Sphinx carvings Courtesy of the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center
Sphinx carvings Courtesy of the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center
Beijing, June 24 (China News Network) -- The "Encounter mesopotamia - Syria Ancient Cultural Relics Exhibition" jointly sponsored by the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center and the National Library (National Museum of Classics) opened in Beijing on the 24th and will be officially opened to the public on the 25th. The 196 exquisite cultural relics in the exhibition will take the audience to an overview of 500,000 years of history.
"Mesopotamia" means in Greek the middle of two rivers, that is, two river basins, located in what is now Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, western Iran, northeast Saudi Arabia and other places. From 5000 BC to 300 BC, sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians and other peoples emerged successively, forming a great fusion of various cultures.
Mural Courtesy of China Cultural Relics Exchange Center
Around 4000 BC, humans in this region created an incredible high degree of civilization, inventing the lunar calendar, cuneiform writing, methods of calculating weight and length, building the world's earliest arched building, introducing the world's first legal code, the Code of Hammurabi, and surprising craftsmanship in pottery, bronze, and iron. The civilization of the Two Rivers Valley is also known as the Babylonian civilization. With the development of modern archaeological technology, ancient city walls and related cultural relics have reappeared.
Divided into five units: "Dawn", "Change", "Competition for Hegemony", "Integration" and "Dialogue", the exhibition spans syria's Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, as well as the Greek, Roman and Islamic eras, depicting a cultural picture and a magnificent historical picture of 500,000 years. The exhibition brings together 196 exquisite cultural relics from 9 Syrian museums and 3 domestic museums, including damascus National Museum and Aleppo Museum, including worshipper statues from Syria, Assyrian murals, lapis lazuli necklaces, as well as the rubbings of the "Great Qin Jingjiao Popular Chinese Stele" from the Forest of Steles Museum in Xi'an, the carved stone stele of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum, and the Syrian Bible and Psalms reproduction of the Dunhuang Research Institute to show the cultural exchanges and trade exchanges between China and Syria in history. Showcasing China's traditional friendship with belt and road partner countries.
Statue of worshipper Courtesy of China Cultural Relics Exchange Center
At the entrance to the exhibition center area, the organizers recreate the magnificent Arch of the Assyrian Palace, the walls are decorated with Assyrian reliefs, and on each side of the arch stands a 2-meter-high human-winged cow statue.
Also divination, the people of the ancient Two Rivers Basin believed that the liver was the place where mental activity was placed, and then believed that the change of liver form could explain God's thoughts and behaviors, which was called "liver divination". Scholars have shown that when people in the Two Rivers Basin think that the right lobe of the liver becomes enlarged or abnormal, it indicates prosperity and success; A larger or abnormal left lobe of the liver is a precursor to weakness, failure, and disease.
The scene of the exhibition hall is provided by the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center
In order to promote people-to-people exchanges between China and Syria, help the friendly development of the two countries, and meet the diverse viewing needs of Chinese audiences, the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center organized and planned a theme exhibition of Ancient Syrian Cultural Relics to travel to China. "Encounter Mesopotamia - Exhibition of Ancient Syrian Artifacts" is the third stop of the exhibition's tour to China. Previously, the "'Narrative' Writing Legends - Syrian Ancient Cultural Relics Exhibition" was exhibited at the Nanshan Museum in Shenzhen from August 4 to November 7, 2021, and the "Kaleidoscope of Civilization - Syrian Ancient Cultural Relics Exhibition" was exhibited at the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu from December 30, 2021 to May 8, 2022.
It is reported that the exhibition will be exhibited at the National Library (National Museum of Classics) until October 8. (End)