Reserve

The Ligurians are a very ancient race of people who in remote times inhabited a much vaster area than what is today called Liguria...

The Ligurians are a very ancient race of people who in remote times inhabited a much vaster area than what is today called Liguria: they lived in the vast territory between the Arno and Provence, and the Ligurian sea and the Po. They lived among steep cliffs and in mountains surpassing two thousand metres, and in hostile plains. It was an enormous struggle to survive in an environment lacking many resources. In such a place, over more than two thousand years, the ancient Ligurians formed a culture, an economy and a unique character.
This book is the catalogue to the extensive exhibition sponsored by the Ligurian Ministry for the Conservation, Protection and Management of Archaeological Sites as part of Genoa 2004 events. It brings together archaeological evidence of the people who lived in this territory before the arrival of the Romans and records, through more than 900 objects – some of which have never been seen before – their history, aspects of daily life, customs and traditions, the spiritual world, the economy, and art and artisan production.
Beginning with written Greek and Roman sources and the myths pertaining the Cicno, the King of the Ligurians, this fascinating journey brings the viewer into contact with the characteristics of the natural environment and the resources of the territory in which this small population lived: large forests from which wood was obtained, copper mines for metal production, terraced cultivation built with dry walls along the sides of mountains, traditions which continue today and which make the Ligurian landscape so unique.
Throughout the VII century B.C. the Ligurians entered into cultural contact and exchange with the Etruscans and then with the Greeks of Marseilles. In practice the Ligurians of both the coast and the interior – albeit in different ways – were part of the network of Mediterranean commercial trade and also trade between the Mediterranean world and central Europe; these trade routes constitute an important aspect of the first Iron Age in Europe.
Personal ornamentation (amber and glass necklaces, brooches, bracelets, gold and silver earrings), warrior weapons (lances, helmets, swords), ceramics intended for daily life or to preserve the remains of ancestors in characteristic tombs made of stone cases, rock engravings and the mysterious stele statues sculpted in blocks of sandstone, trace the changing fortunes of one of the most fascinating and little known populations of pre-Roman Italy.


Genoa, Commenda di San Giovanni in Prè
23 October 2004 - 23 January 2005