★★★★★
“Spellbinding… calling to mind Picasso and Brancusi at every turn.”
— The Observer
★★★★
“Many pieces have never ventured overseas… lovers of the ancient world should seize this chance.”
— The Times
“There’s much to admire”
— The Telegraph
“Revelatory”
— The Week
This major free exhibition was hosted at the Fitzwilliam Museum between 24 February 2023 and the 4 June 2023. It brought together extraordinary loans examining the unique identity of islanders, transporting visitors to 6,000 years of island life and history from the ancient Mediterranean to today.
More than 200 objects from the three of the largest Mediterranean islands - Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia- many on display in the UK for the first time, exemplified how insular identity shaped the Mediterranean world. Together they revealed how being of an island affected and shaped everyday life, art and creativity, community building, migrations, and movement of people. They also show how creative, adaptable, and inventive islanders are.
Throughout history, islands have been treated as distinct places, unlike mainlands, and their histories have been deemed different. The idea of island life has never been neutral; belonging to/being of an island – has been romanticised and associated with otherness. Yet the evolution and culture of the islands is defined by how connected they are.
Highlights include Sardinia’s famous Bronze votive figurines revealing how the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia, (ca. 2000/1800 BCE-238 BCE), was comprised of communities sharing a common sense of identity based on the repetition of architecture, practices, and lifeways. An extraordinary selection of votive figurines of humans, deities, sphinxes, and chariots, a micrography of the Cypriot 7th and 6th ce. BCE communities and mythological beliefs, from the sanctuary of Agia Eirini in Cyprus will also be on loan from Cyprus for the exhibition alongside finds from the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Bellapais-Vounous (ca. 2200-1950 BCE), Cyprus, a site that has shaped our understanding of this formative stage on the island.
A 3,500-year-old ox-hide ingot a form of Bronze Age currency, together with unprecedented antiquities from Crete; pottery, jewellery and bronze figurines from the palatial centres, peak- sanctuaries and caves of Minoan Crete, will also be displayed. These unique objects and their places of origin, reveal a sense of place and identity for island people. Through this journey, we invite you to reflect on your own sense of identity beyond the ancient Mediterranean. The exhibition, a result of a longstanding research project, is under the auspices of the Ambassador of Greece to the United Kingdom and the High Commissioner of Cyprus to the United Kingdom. The exhibition is organised in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Greece; the Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, Cyprus; and the National Archaeological Museum, Cagliari, Sardinia. The exhibition obtained blanket national and international coverage, including 5 star reviews, from the Times, Guardian, Observer, TLS and the Telegraph.
