Miscellaneous

Roberta Menegazzi (ed.), The road to Karakorum. William of Rubruck’s Journey. Soggetto: Museo di Kharakhorum, Centro Scavi Torino; illustrazioni: Gandul Chuluunkuu, Mirko Fuurlanetto, Viola Vittorini. Torino 2020

The comic, in English and Mongolian, was created in collaboration with the Kharakhorum Museum and is part of the activities of the archaeological mission in Mongolia of the Centro Scavi Torino. This expedition is aimed at enhancing the extraordinary historical and archaeological heritage of the Kharkhorin area through a series of interventions for the support of the local museums and the dissemination of the results of archaeological research to the local community.

It illustrates a significant episode in the Mongolian history, the arrival in Karakorum, in 1254, of the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck. Through the accentuation of the theme of intercultural exchanges in the ancient world and of the multiculturalism of the capital of the Mongolian Empire, it has been created as a tool for the promotion, through the knowledge of the past, of a deeper reflection and comprehension of the present.

C. LIPPOLIS, S. DE MARTINO, R. PARAPETTI, G. CAPRI
L'Iraq Museum di Baghdad. Gli interventi italiani per la riqualificazione di un patrimonio dell'umanità, Firenze, Apice Libri, 2016.

The Iraq Museum of Baghdad, with its extraordinary collections of inestimable value, provides a unique window to the past of Mesopotamia, and the social, cultural and artistic history and the evolution of the mankind.

Following the dramatic looting of the Iraq Museum in 2003, and after being closed to the public for many years, the Iraqi authorities reopened the museum in 2015 also thanks to the constant cooperation from the Italian side. This reopening sent an important message in a time when the Iraqi archaeological and artistic heritage was extremely in danger. The Italian interventions involved the redevelopment and spatial reorganization of some of the most important exhibition halls in order to improve their accessibility and the user experience in the museum.

This volume illustrates the constant and unfaltering efforts made by the Italian institutions (MAECI, Italian Embassy in Iraq, Centro Scavi Torino) to promote the Iraqi heritage. As a scientific publication it presents, also through numerous images, the elaboration of the project, the stages of planning and the final set-up but, at the same time, it aims at making the extraordinary artistic and archaeological heritage displayed at the Museum of Baghdad more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Mirko Furlanetto (ed.), The road of Baghdad, drawings of Laura De Stefani, Pordenone, La Tipografica, 2016.

This comic book, translated into Arabic, is mainly intended for the Iraqi younger generation and aims at underlining the extraordinary value of the local archaeological heritage as well as the primary role of the Museum of Baghdad in preserving and protecting it.

This project is in line with the fulfilment of the educational objectives promoted by the Centro Scavi Torino along with the Universities of Turin and Bologna within the framework of the EDUU European Project (Education and Cultural Heritage Enhancement for Social Cohesion in Iraq), a project oriented at bringing the new generations closer to the Iraqi historical and archaeological heritage.

R. PARAPETTI (ed.), Iraq Museum 2008

This brochure was published when renovation works at the Iraq Museum, planned by Arch. Roberto Parapetti for the Centro Scavi Torino and concerning the Assyrian Gallery, the Islamic Gallery and the main courtyard, were carried out. It includes the texts of the educational panels that will be exhibited in the main courtyard.

The works have been carried out through the support of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Fondazione Banca Nazionale delle Comunicazioni and Centro Scavi Torino.

A. INVERNIZZI (ed.), Ambrogio Bembo, Viaggio e Giornale per parte dell’Asia (1671-1675), Torino 2005

The young Venetian noble Ambrogio Bembo, who travelled in Syria, Mesopotamia, Iran and India, wrote a travel report the manuscript of which is preserved in the James Ford Bell Library of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Bembo’s report is important for his impressions and descriptions of European colonial life in those regions, and particularly for his most careful description of the Bisutun and Taq-i Bustran antiquities. The volume contains the text, edited with rich notes and comments, and 80 plates with the views by Joseph Guillaume Grelot, especially important for the archaeological subjects.

A. INVERNIZZI, Sculture di metallo da Nisa. Cultura greca e cultura iranica in Partia (Acta Iranica 21), Teheran-Liege 1999

The volume contains the detailed study of the small metal sculptures found in the Square House at Old Nisa in Parthia (now in Turkmenistan) by the Soviet Expedition in the years after World War II. These objects point to an exceptionally wide range of iconographic and stylistic influences, from the Hellenistic culture to that of the Iranian countries and the world of the Eurasiatic steppes. They also offer precious evidence of the religious sentiments and the royal concepts of the Arsacids.

A. INVERNIZZI, Ai piedi dell'Ararat. Artaxata e l'Armenia ellenistico-romana, Firenze 1998

The historic and cultural centrality of Armenia between the Mediterranean and Asia in the Hellenistic and Roman periods is clearly stressed by the contributions to this volume, which deal with a number of the most characteristic aspects of the culture of Armenia and bring into the foreground the results of the excavations at Artaxata, one of the main Armenian capitals of the period.

A. INVERNIZZI, Dal Tigri all'Eufrate. Vol. I Sumeri e accadi. Vol. II Babilonesi e assiri, Firenze 1992

The Author illustrates in two volumes the birth and development of the Mesopotamian civilization from prehistory, that is the period of gatherers and hunters, down to the Neo-Babylonian period, dealing with the most important documents of art architecture and handicraft brought to light by the excavations.

G. GULLINI, Architettura Iranica dagli Achemenidi ai Sasanidi. Il “Palazzo” di Kuh-i Kwagia (Seistan), Torino 1964

The volume illustrates the research carried out in the architectural compound of Kuh-i Khwaja, in Iranian Sistan, which attests to the diffusion of the common Achaemenian culture also in the following periods. In particular, the application of the principles of the vaults without building supports in coherence with the universal use of the mud brick; and the precedence of the eastern regions of Iran in the invention of a central layout that the Sasanian architecture will bring to meet with the properly Roman architectural tradition. The analysis is supported by the discussion of several other monuments showing very original solutions connected with the influence of a Hellenistic architectural language.