Sea and Navigation in Ancient Cultures
23 October, 2009 - 9 March, 2010
Pakgauz Exhibition Hall, the Museum of the World Ocean, Kaliningrad
198 exhibits

23 October 2009, the exhibition dedicated to the development of navigation in Ancient Times was opened in the Museum of the World Ocean, Kaliningrad.

Exhibition from the collection of the State Hermitage tells about the development of navigation in the times of Antiquity, people’s attitude towards the sea and its presentation in Antique Art. The exhibition includes about two hundred exhibits and covers a period of time from the 6th century BC till the 3rd century AD. Pieces of art and monuments of material art that are a part of the exhibition show the development of navigation, sea fishery, notions about sea deities that patronized seamen or destroyed them.

It is impossible to overestimate the significance of the sea in the lives of ancient Greeks and Romans. The sea provided them with food, served as the fastest and the most convenient way of communication, active trade took place by the sea. Large cities sent overseas excessive population that did not manage to get landed property to their lot and that meant a status of fully legitimate citizens. They established a great number of colonies and due to their restless activities Antique Art penetrated into almost all the corners of the inhabited world of that time.

But the same sea concealed a great number of dangers - storms, piracy, and underwater reefs. Each shipwreck claimed scores of lives of those, who put out to sea, and took away fortunes of those, who stayed ashore.

Dangers and rampage of the deep sea found their intricate reflection in the antique mythology. The section of the exhibition dedicated to sea deities and fantastic monsters narrates about that. A whole world opens for the visitors. Indomitable and amorous Poseidon (Roman Neptune) reigns in this world. He sweeps by along the waves in his chariot harnessed with horses with long manes and accompanied by sea Centauruses, Tritons blowing into fanciful shells, nymphs and dolphins. In this world one can meet ferocious colliding cliffs of Symplegades that wrecked those ships that came in-between them or monstrous whirlpool of Charybdis, as well as Sirens - half-maidens half-birds that enticed seamen to underwater reefs. One of a few deities that helped travellers to reach native shores safely was goddess of love Aphrodite that once appeared from the sea foam.

The next section of the exhibition illustrates the achievements of Antique shipbuilders. Overcoming dangers of nature ancient shipwrights came a long way from the construction of the first primitive vessels to the creation of three-, four- and five-deck ships. One of the symbols of Ancient Greece is a legendary triera, high-speed and flexible, that became a miracle and an indication of technical progress achieved by the Hellenes. Its crew consisted of oarsmen, officers, sailors and soldiers about 200 in number. The Romans became deserved successors of the Greeks; they preserved traditions of shipbuilding that later on were used by the states that were established on the ruins of the Roman Empire. The largest cargo ships that were built in Ancient Rome had 2000 tons burden. These were masterpieces of engineering thought and carpenter art.

The section dedicated to the ancient sea fishery tells about sea foods that the Hellenes and the Romans used. Works of Antique Art present various sea animals, fish and mollusc that once filled up market stalls. The artists depicted inhabitants of the sea so naturally that ichthyologist can identify types of fish, for example, those depicted in the paintings with the Attic and Italic fish dishes or coins. If fish filled up kitchens and dinner tables, then other trophies from the bottom of the sea - pearls, corals, shells - took their rightful stand in the lady’s caskets. Sea theme was generally popular with applied art. For example, core-shells were used by those artists that created figured vessels from clay, glass and stone, by sculptors, jewellers; there were even boxes for cosmetics made from cockleshells.

And, at last, at the exhibition one can see famous Greek amphorae that without exaggeration are considered to be one of the most perfect and finest forms of vessels created by man. Meanwhile, their function was prosaic - amphorae served as tare for transportation of liquid and dry friable products such as grain, fish, wine, olive oil. Different cities produced amphorae of special traditional form that was not changed for centuries and observed volumes established by special laws; such amphorae became a "trade mark" of the manufacturing city. Information acquired as a result of studies of antique tare amphorae, marks and inscriptions on them helps us to get the idea of geography of trade routes and goods exchange in ancient times.

The Sea and Navigation in the Antique culture exhibition that is presented in Kaliningrad is the first one that is organized by the State Hermitage on the subject matter.

The Exhibition curator - Olga Gorskaya, research assistant at the Ancient Department of the State Hermitage Museum.