Capitoline Museums – exhibition “Ancient civilisations of Turkmenistan”

Turkmenistan is a land of ancient civilisations and of outstanding historical and archaeological significance. Owing to its strategic location between Mesopotamia, the Iranian Plateau and the Indus Valley, the region has, since the 3rd-2nd millennium BC, served as a vital crossroads along the main trade routes linking East and West. These routes not only facilitated the exchange of luxury goods but also the transmission of ideas and technological knowledge.

The exhibition at the Capitoline Museums in Rome, inaugurated on 24 October by the President of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, and the Ambassador of Italy to Turkmenistan, Luigi Ferrari, presents for the first time to an international audience an exceptional collection of masterpieces from prehistoric Margiana-the present-day Murghab River valley in south-eastern Turkmenistan-and from ancient Parthia, in particular from Nisa (2nd century BC - 1st century AD), an important site in south-central Turkmenistan.

Margiana was the cradle of the complex cultural phenomenon known as the Greater Khorasan Civilisation, which flourished throughout Central Asia and neighbouring regions during the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. During this period, shared political, economic, social and cultural structures bound these regions together, giving rise to a refined and magnificent material culture-one of the most remarkable expressions of this civilisation.

The splendid artefacts on display, arranged in thematic sections, reveal Turkmenistan as one of the most sophisticated and expressive cultures of Central Asia during the Bronze Age.

The second section of the exhibition is devoted to another glorious chapter in Turkmenistan's ancient history: the Parthian (Arsacid) Empire. The masterpieces on view come from Nisa-Mithradātkert, a vast ceremonial and memorial centre of the Arsacid rulers, founded to celebrate the national glories of an empire that stretched from the Euphrates to Bactria.
One of the longest-lived empires of the ancient world, it stood on equal terms with Rome along its western frontier.