Princes, Pageants, Rituals – Image worlds from the Etruscans and Celts.
Situlae – from the Latin word situla meaning pail – are vessels produced from bronze plate dating back to the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Used at large festivals, these wine blending vessels are richly adorned with scenes and motifs from Mediterranean designs. The belt-shaped decorations depict lively and detailed scenes: Groups of musicians, athletes, chariot drivers, riders, warriors, hunters, sacrifices and pageants. These friezes are the oldest “hieroglyphics” from the then non-literate Central Europe.
The hieroglyphics grouped amongst four important situlae and the cultural values symbolised within are decrypted and made easily comprehensible to the visitor, the image programmes on the vessels are revealed as replicas of a real, although nowadays forgotten living world of the Etruscans and the Celts. Situlae were also found in the Hunsrück burial mounds from the end of the 6th Century BC, although these bore no images. However, these bronze vessels are visible evidence of initial contact with the culture of the Mediterranean region 500 years BC, and of the rich trade relations of the Hunsrück inhabitants.
The exhibition came into being through cooperation with the Natural History Museum in Vienna and the Musée de Bibracte in Burgund. After around five decades this show deals for the first time once again with the subject of “situlae art”.
For the purpose of the presentation, multiple situlae and additional noteworthy objects were selected from around a dozen European museums in Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary and Germany. To date the exhibition has been shown in Bibracte, Belginum and the Kelen Römer Museum in Manching.
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