Before the alphabet. Journey to the origins of writing in Mesopotamia

E 'was presented at Palazzo Loredan, Veneto Institute headquarters of Sciences, Letters and Arts, in Venice, the exhibition organized by the Foundation Giancarlo Ligabue entitled "Before the alphabet. Journey to the origins of writing in Mesopotamia. "

Nearly 200 works will be on public display for the first time, among which ancient tablets and extraordinary seals dating back 5,000 years ago. Testimonials that evoke the great civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, the territory now made inaccessible because of military conflicts. The exhibition will be held from 20 January to 25 April 2017 and finally shows to the public one more piece of the immense treasure collected by Giancarlo Ligabue.

The son Inti, president of the foundation that bears his father's name, brings to light this treasure assisted by loans of the Archaeological Museum of Venice and the Museum of Antiquities in Turin. The Archaeological Museum of Venice arrive borrow beautiful fragments of bas-reliefs discovered by the discoverer of Nineveh mythical, Austen Henry Layard, who in the last period of his life he had retired in Venice, at Palazzo Cappello Layard (he donated his objects to the city in 1875); the Museum of Antiquities in Turin a fragment strongly iconic Assyrian bas-relief depicting King Sargon II, discovered in 1842 by Paul Emile Botta - French consul in Mosul - and was donated to King Carlo Alberto. "The exhibition is the dawn of humanity with the most cutting-edge techniques - explains Inti Ligabue - are ancient objects, large seals as an inch and larger tablets as a smartphone, so they must be enlarged in order to be understood." A Loredan palace there will be 40 information elements, banners, touch screen and the ability to take a virtual tour also. But also educational workshops for children, being right Mesopotamia and Sumer program for fourth and fifth grade classes.

The exhibition is curated by Professor Frederick Mario Fales (University of Udine), one of the most famous assirologi and scholars of the Ancient Near East, and takes us back in time about 6,000 years in the Land of the Two Rivers, in a universe of signs, symbols, engravings but also of images and visual stories that bear witness to the birth and the overwhelming spread of cuneiform writing, revealing at the same time the social, economic and religious center of ancient Mesopotamia. "A collection of old times - said F. Mario Fales - one assembled by Giancarlo Ligabue, extraordinary not only in magnitude, quality and the historical importance of these and other materials, but as evidence of a collecting slow, respectful of places that Giancarlo well studied and institutions, research and knowledge; a passionate collector, directed to preserving the memory and not to defraud the cultures with other purposes. " Displayed around the place particularly evocative of ancient Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters to the library arts will find seals depicting men, heroes and animals, but also deities like the sun god Samash, the storm of Adad, the god of fresh waters Ea, or Enlil which assigned the kingship, the highest authority of the Mesopotamian pantheon, defined the god of heaven and hell, the complex Inanna (in Sumerian) Ishtar (Semitic), "constantly straddling the barrier between men and women, adult and child, between good and evil, including virgin and whore ": the goddess of fertility, love and war at the same time.