Who has never heard of ox hide ingots, do not need to fret. The least of you will know what that is. But the ignorance is now remedied. In a great exhibition in the Museum Giersch, the Goethe-University, the spread in 16 of the rooms just as many topics from anthropology and archaeology, it is also about those ox hide ingots, to be more precise: the miniaturized versions of this form of transport of copper. Like a stretched ox-skin looked like, knew the people in front of three and a half thousand years, and that metal, in this way, stacked, shipped, and in the then civilized regions of the world, was delivered.

Michael Holzer

culture editor of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

F. A. Z.

Cyprus was known for its Copper deposits, the raw material was an important export product and the main played well role in the economy of the island in the Mediterranean sea during the epoch of the bronze age. Wall paintings from ancient Egypt show ox-skin bars, and Cyprus numerous objects that refer formally to these copper plates, with the characteristic four long, drawn-out corners. The ingot God from Enkomi on an ox hide ingot, the figure is on the 13. to 12. Century BC, dated and has all the characteristics of a male deity. Perhaps it is the protector of the Cypriot Copper mines. But why there are miniature bars en mass? Francesca Meneghetti has developed the Thesis that it was a kind of Souvenir, a memento, a means of communication, and finally inscriptions on them. By the miniaturization process, the ingots handy, and the young scientist is of the opinion that the key to understanding it lies in exactly this Transformation from a useful object to the cute thing. The miniature ox-skin bars is just as functional as a mini-Bembel – this comparison to you. If something is alienated from its original Use and purpose, it can be a subject of contemplation, recollection, Emotion.

The view for the Essentials, instead of overstimulation

The Show with the aptly title “the fascination of things” is based on 16 dissertations and hypotheses. This sounds fairly unspectacular, almost dusty, a lot of my to know that doctor work from most remote objects of the act, which are not for the General public is really of interest to you. Far from it. What are the 14 promo explore four ends and the two Postdocs from the graduate school “way and the Equivalent of” at the Goethe-University, excited the astonishment and stimulates the imagination. You will want to deal with immediately closer with the Corinthian helmet, known as head-covering of Athena, with the Tondächern in ancient Greece, with the new Zealand Whanganui river, for the Maori, a Person with the rites surrounding the death in Ghana or with the memorabilia of the Roman Empire, Gladiator fights, and car racing are the pillars of a thriving entertainment industry.