Posted by moodhacker on February 5, 2017 at 8:20 PM
Aegean History Wows Visitors at Chicago Museum
The exhibition “Creation of an Archipelago” invites both children and adults to dive beneath the surface of the Aegean Sea
National Hellenic Museum in Chicago
The overwhelming enthusiasm of the public for the exhibition “Aegean: Creation of An Archipelago,” currently housed at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, has led to its extension to June 2017. The excibititos is organized by the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest in cooperation with the University of Thessaloniki, has been shown in Athens, Thessaloniki and Rome and has also received critical acclaim by National Geographic in Germany,.
The exhibition will also be presented at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow until March 16th, showcasing the Petrified Forest, Lesvos and the northern Aegean islands, in the context of the participation of the Northern Aegean region in the celebration program of “Year of Greece in Russia 2016”.
Through a wealth of audiovisual presentations, analytical texts and photographic materials, combined with rare petrified and other natural artefacts and unique exhibits, the exhibition communicates the historical evolution of the Aegean Sea over millennia. It reveals what its current host museum describes as “literally groundbreaking history, strewn with extinct civilizations, volcanic eruptions, tectonic shifts and changes and island formations and mythical figures.” The exhibition also conveys life and nature in the Aegean islands, from the flora and fauna starting at the shoreline to the natural phenomena that have shaped local lore and mythological writings. Awaiting the visitor is an impressive landscape that includes a wealth of fossils from the Aegean, including of mammals, as well as evidence of the primitive presence of hominids. Trees from the present appear alongside petrified tree remains (including a 12 meter-long primitive tree trunk) from the famous petrified forest of Lesvos, while a display reenacts animal life. The forest, a protected natural monument, is one of the most unique testaments to geological heritage worldwide. It is thought to be the result of intense volcanic activity in the northern Aegean 20 million years ago. The park was formed after an abundance of fossilized plants and trees were found in the northwestern part of the island. The discovery of artefacts continues, as recently hundreds of petrified items were discovered during the construction of the new Kallonis–Sigriou roadway in the western part of the island. Many of these finds are to be presented at the Old Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki as part of the temporary exhibition “The Forest Down the Road,” which is also scheduled to run at the Eugenides Foundation from January 23 to May 29, 2017.
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