A room full of beautiful shiny gold and silver objects, from coins to swords. With so many shiny items, the magpie in me wakes up. But instead of gold, I take home knowledge: insight into a culture that has been 'forgotten'.
Dacia - Rich in gold and silver at the Drents Museum is one of those exhibitions where I enjoy wandering around; feasting my eyes and learning about a period in the history of the (current) European continent about which not much is known. Now, when you think of Dacia, you think of a car brand rather than an extremely interesting prehistoric people with a fascinating culture and wonderful heritage. Hopefully that will change with this exhibition.
Forgotten but not obliterated
The Drents Museum is known for its international archaeological exhibitions highlighting a forgotten period in world history. Some of the gold on show is already four thousand years old. At the time the Bronze Age began in our regions, Dacia was already experiencing a Golden Age. The empire of the Dacians was located in present-day Romania. They were a people who barely, if at all, appear in history books. This is nothing new in historiography. That is usually about men in power who 'won'. Women, 'ordinary people' and losers are always left out of the narrative.
Thanks to the exhibition at the Drents Museum, I remembered that Dacian society and culture was mentioned in the book 'Timeline of History'. There, Dacia is linked to the Romans and the victory of Roman emperor Trajan.
As Romanian curator Christiana Tataru of the Romanian Museum of National History in Bucharest told the press tour, international cooperation is essential for such large exhibitions. Thanks to the Drents Museum, says director Harry Tupan, the exhibition is finally possible. Dacia was an important society that deserves attention. To understand Romanian culture today, we must first gain knowledge about their base: the Dacians.
Experienced
It is not just the beauty of the objects that makes an exhibition, it is also about the feeling it evokes in you. This will be in Dacia partly done by projections on the walls of the hall. One is inspired by the Carpathians, the grand mountain range that lies in a semicircle through Eastern Europe. It is Europe's last stronghold of wildlife and biodiversity.
The exhibition can be divided into four time periods, with a core object for each time period. A beautiful animation pulls that object into the present. Unfortunately, I was not able to experience the accompanying projections live, as they were not yet working.
Reflection
The central moment of the exhibition invites self-reflection. What does all that gold and silver mean to that magpie in me? Is it symbolic? With my own jewellery, I think of love and heritage. It's memories of my parents, grandparents, of family and our history. But sometimes it is also about taste and bad taste, excess and money.
Among the captivating 673 objects in the exhibition, I dwelt on the splendour and craftsmanship. The impressive artistic level. The gold and silver coins with the typical and familiar profiles used to purchase goods all those centuries ago. They belong to people who may have been forgotten by the history books, but who all somehow left a mark on the story of Dacia. I particularly liked the diadem of Buneşti-Avereşti from the third century AD, the royal Dacian bracelet from Sarmizegetusa Regia from the first century BC and, of course, the helmet of Coţofeneşti. There were also magnificent silver cups from the treasure of Sâncrăieni, from the second half of the first century BC to the early first century AD.
Activities
The Drents Museum always organises an interesting programme around an exhibition and that includes Dacia - Rich in gold and silver. From free lectures to Studio Dacia where people can make coins and jewellery. More information: drentsmuseum.nl
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