On Saturday, May 11, the Paolo Orsi Museum in Syracuse opened the exhibition »Il regno di Aḫḫijawa. I Micenei e la Sicilia« (»The Kingdom of Aḫḫijawa. The Mycenaeans and Sicily«).
The exhibition, which features 180 artefacts from Greek and Italian museums, presents the Mycenaean world of the second half of the 2nd millennium BC in eight thematic units. The objects, some of which are published for the first time in the accompanying catalogue, come from tombs, administrative complexes, settlements and hoards. They illustrate key features of Mycenaean society.
The first part of the exhibition deals with the various tasks carried out by the population under the administrative control of the palaces, as well as their everyday lives. Special emphasis is placed on the work of women - from powerful priestesses to textile workers - and the lives of children. One section is dedicated to the administrative mechanisms and the enforcement of state power. The exhibition also deals with the subject of religion, which formed the ideological framework for society and the functioning of the state apparatus. Another part deals with the influence that overseas contacts between the two coasts of the Ionian Sea had on material culture – with a special focus on south-east Sicily. The exhibition concludes with a look at post-palatial society, whose martial character is expressed in rich warrior burials with remarkable parallels in 12th and 11th century BC Sicily.
The curators of the exhibition are Anita Crispino (Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico di Siracusa Eloro villa del Tellaro e Akrai) and Reinhard Jung (OeAI).
