Courtesy of Milwaukee Public Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) opened its first new permanent exhibit in more than a decade on March 15. It’s a worthy addition to what is already the most popular museum in Wisconsin and among the most visited museums in America. “Crossroads of Civilization” draws on decades of museum-led excavations and research to present more than 200 artifacts from MPM’s collection covering four millennia of life in ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome. The exhibition features new life-size figures created by MPM’s in-house artists and research team alongside state-of-the-art interactive digital technology that’s easy to grasp and fun to play with. In its several connecting rooms, alcoves and corridors, the objects and informational displays are arranged by topic rather than chronology. The organizing themes are construction, communion, community, commerce, communication and conflict.
To the quiet piping of a flute, visitors enter a long corridor with a digital timeline on the wall. Touch its images, beginning with Uruk, the earth’s first city, built in 3200-3100 B.C.E., for informative pop-ups that should be popular with school children and teachers. Gilgamesh, Uruk’s legendary king of epic fame, arrives centuries later. The timeline ends in ancient Rome and you’ll walk beneath the arch of a Roman aqueduct and into an exhibit on construction in ancient Egypt. Beside the small diorama of the exterior of the temple of Ramses III, long familiar to museum patrons, is a new digital installation that allows you to travel through the temple’s labyrinthine interior by touching a digital map and viewing on a large video screen each room and hall as your finger arrives there.
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There’s a large diorama of Jerusalem and the surrounding desert as it stood 2,000 years ago, its buildings toy-size, its Temple Mount gigantic in comparison. Beyond is the exhibition’s centerpiece, a life-size sculpture by museum artist Craig Yanek of the young King Tutankhamun in a chariot pulled by two white horses. The chariot is an exact model of one found in Tut’s tomb. The boy king’s look reflects the latest medical research on his mummy. The horses are masterpieces by museum taxidermist and artist Wendy Christensen.
Museumgoers will recognize MPM’s two Egyptian mummies, Padi-Heru and Djed-Hor; they’ve been in the collection since 1887. Now they have the presentation they deserve. Based on a 2011 scan, you’ll see the details of the mummification process as you move through Padi-Heru’s body. Longtime visitors will also recognize the life-size sculpture of a young Greek Hoplite or soldier. He now stands face to face with his Persian archer enemy, evenly matched in realism and historical accuracy.
The final exhibit is extremely moving given the destruction of invaluable antiquities in Syria today. From 1974-1978, MPM conducted excavations at Tell Hadidi, a Bronze Age city on the Euphrates River. The history of that Sumerian city is traced through representative objects and an enormous, wall-size representation of life there. As MPM President and CEO Dennis Kois said in his remarks before the sneak peak media tour from which this article is written, all the many objects displayed allow us in our digital age to connect in a tangible way with things that people once actually touched.
Kois also noted that few museums in the world today have a house staff capable of building such an exhibit. Northwestern Mutual Foundation provided major sponsorship for this one. Next will be a re-do of The Streets of Old Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Public Museum is located at 800 W. Wells St. Call 414-223-4676 or visit mpm.edu.
