At the BMTA, the meeting between the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Edmondo Cirielli and the Minister of Cultural Affairs of Tunisia Guettat Guermazi in the name of cultural cooperation.
The International Archaeological Discovery Award “Khaled al-Asaad” goes to an Italian discovery for the first time
The 24 bronze statues from the Etruscan and Roman eras found in San Casciano dei Bagni tell of the peaceful coexistence between the Etruscans and Romans, a great and very current example
Award for the 150th anniversary of the École française de Rome, Director Marin announces an exhibition of the unpublished collection for 2024
An unreleased video about the ancient Bride of the Desert was presented for the first time in Paestum by the last director of Palmyra Tourism Mohamad Saleh.
“The Mediterranean as a sea of peace and brotherhood among peoples” said Hayet Guettat Guermazi, Minister of Cultural Affairs of Tunisia, the first woman to hold the position of Director of Alecso, the Arab League of Culture, speaking today at the Conference “#unite4heritage: archaeology and cultural cooperation from 2015 to today”, organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and focused on the theme of cultural cooperation. “Even though Italy and Tunisia are on two different shores, they share many things, starting with the common heritage of the Roman Empire, and we must insist on the path of cultural cooperation because it is through it that the dialogue between the peoples of the Mediterranean can be enriched, a point of reference for foreign policy in cooperation for the protection and development of cultural heritage, starting with the underwater one, which is very dear to us”.
“Italy has a great responsibility in the global panorama: to contribute to the progress of humanity – underlined Edmondo Cirielli, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation who was entrusted with the conclusions of the conference – "Our ancestors, with the beauty they left us, allowed us to be a rich, strong country with an extraordinary cultural heritage. Italy, moreover, is one of the most important UNESCO countries, active in terms of the contribution of ideas and activities. The Province of Salerno is an important reference in terms of archaeological heritage. I know the BMTA very well also because I am from Salerno and I was President of the Province – the Deputy Minister underlined – I thank the Director of the Stock Exchange Ugo Picarelli for his genius because he has given the Province of Salerno a great showcase”.
As part of the BMTA, a bilateral Italy-Tunisia meeting also took place between Deputy Minister Cirielli and Minister Guettat Guermazi.
At the end of the conference, the "Paestum Mario Napoli" Prize was awarded to the École française de Rome for the 150th anniversary of its foundation, an extraordinary commitment to research into history, archeology and the contemporary world.
“It is a great honour to receive this Prize, especially since its attribution to the École française de Rome corresponds with the anniversary of our 150 years of activity in the field of archaeology and the valorisation of the research we have conducted” said Brigitte Marin Director of the École française de Rome in receiving the Prize. After having retraced the history of the Ecole, from the first great difficulties in excavating in Italy when a young Italian State did not grant excavation permits to foreigners, to the great excavations of the Ecole after the Second World War (Bolsena, Megara Hyblaea) for decades and decades important fields of discovery and publication, Marin explained how over the years "the field of action of the Ecole has expanded, giving us more and more to do in terms of usability to an ever wider public to make our knowledge accessible. In this perspective - he announced - for the 150th anniversary we are trying to give more visibility to our heritage, in particular to our collection of ancient objects - vases, ceramics, everyday objects - from the Roman and Etruscan period, made up of various donations, of which we have resumed the study and inventory, and which we will exhibit in an Exhibition in 2024 at the headquarters in Piazza Navona, telling through this exhibition the history of the Ecole intertwined with the formation of this collection. The Exhibition will also be made partly accessible on the Ecole portal with the 3D scan of some objects".
For the first time, the International Archaeological Discovery Award “Khaled al-Asaad” has been awarded to an Italian discovery. Since 2015, the BMTA, in collaboration with Archeo, the leading archaeological monthly in Italy, has assigned the award to archaeological discoveries voted for by the main international archaeological publications that are media partners of the Exchange: Antike Welt (Germany), arCHaeo (Switzerland), AiD Archäologie in Deutschland (Germany), Archéologia (France), Current Archaeology (United Kingdom), Dossiers d'Archéologie (France).
The Award, named after the archaeologist from Palmyra who paid with his life to defend the cultural heritage, is the only recognition in the world dedicated to archaeological discoveries and its archaeologists, who with sacrifice, dedication, competence and scientific research face their task every day in the dual role of scholars of the past and professionals at the service of the territory.
Before the award ceremony, an unreleased video on Palmyra was presented, created by the latest Tourism Director Mohamed Saleh, who when illustrating it declared: “When we lose tradition, we lose respect; if it is not possible to remember the old generations and the customs of the past, it means that the cultural identity of a territory has been destroyed".
“The image of Palmyra is always alive at every edition of the Mediterranean Archaeological Tourism Exchange of Paestum; while diplomacies work to completely recover relations between Italy and Syria, while Mohamad Saleh is now a university professor in Frankfurt, there has not been a single year in which the stock exchange has not dedicated its attention to the ancient, beautiful Bride of the Desert ” recalled the Director and creator of the BMTA Ugo Picarelli.
At the 9th edition, the prize was awarded for the discovery of the 24 bronze statues from the Etruscan and Roman era found in San Casciano dei Bagni, in the province of Siena and was delivered to the Mayor of San Casciano dei Bagni Agnese Carletti representing the Municipal Administration in charge of the area and to Jacopo Tabolli, scientific director of the excavation.
Dating back to a period between the 2.300nd century BC. and the 2019st AD, were protected for XNUMX years by the mud and boiling water of the sacred tanks of the votive sanctuary together with coins, votive offerings and Latin and Etruscan inscriptions. The discovery represents a model of collaboration between the Municipality (in XNUMX it began financing the excavation of Bagno Grande, after having purchased the private land and requested the concession, entrusting the operational management to Emanuele Mariotti), the Ministry of Culture (ABAP General Directorate in collaboration with the Superintendency for the provinces of Siena, Grosseto and Arezzo), Scientific Direction of the excavation (Jacobo Tabolli Researcher at the University for Foreigners of Siena), local volunteering (Archaeological Association “Eutyche Avidiena”), with the collaboration of specialists from each discipline : from architects to geologists, from archaeobotanists to epigraphy and numismatics experts from several universities in the world.
“This award is a source of great pride both because it is the first time that it has been awarded to Italy and because it has been assigned to a very large research team. – said Jacopo Tabolli – we are a team of more than eighty researchers from all over the world who come with us every year to dig in San Casciano dei Bagni in the warm waters of an Etruscan and Roman sanctuary where these statues emerged last year: an absolutely exceptional discovery. The historical value lies in the exceptional state of conservation of these statues inside the warm mud but above all in their ability to tell a story: a story of peaceful coexistence between Etruscans and Romans, a moment of historical transition in which two peoples opposed elsewhere find in a sacred place a moment of synthesis”.
“This is the result of the will of successive municipal administrations that wanted to invest in order to go and find the roots of a small community like ours” – highlighted Agnese Carletti. "We were convinced from the very beginning that this research could provide important answers from many points of view: identity, social and obviously also economic and touristic. The discovery of the statues has given a very important boost to the very broad planning that all the different entities involved together have put in place". On the community's reaction, the Mayor added that "the community is involved and curious also thanks to the fact that we have decided to make both the site and the information that comes from the site accessible: together we are trying to organize ourselves to welcome more people who we hope will come to visit the site and experience our territory".
The BMTA is promoted by the Campania Region, the City of Capaccio Paestum, the Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Salerno, the Province of Salerno, the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park. Founder and Director Ugo Picarelli. Designed and organized by Leader srl, owner of the brand. Official Partner ACI Automobile Club d'Italia, Technical Partners Arti Grafiche Boccia, Convergenze, Fiuggi, Mare Group.
Article published on November 4, 2023 - 13:30
