At the Colosseum Park Magna Mater: between Rome and Zama

(by Laura Valentini) The Great Mother was worshipped for over a millennium in Anatolia, Greece and Rome in its many identity, Kubaba, Cybele, Kybele, Meter Theon: today his figure is at the center of an international project between archaeology and myth that gave life to the exhibition 'Magna Mater between Rome and Zama', starting tomorrow at the Colosseum Archaeological Park where will continue until November 5th. The exhibition, promoted by the Park Archaeological Museum of the Colosseum in collaboration with the Institut National du Patrimoine Tunisien, is edited by Alfonsina Russo, Tarek Baccouche, Roberta Alteri, Alessio De Cristofaro and Sondès Douggui-Roux with Patrizio Pensabene, Aura Picchione and Angelica Pujia. At the heart of the project are the origins and transformations of the Magna Mater, from the Phrygian cult to the official adoption Rome in 204 BC, when - according to the response of the Books Sibillini - his image was transferred from Pessinunte to Palatine, becoming a symbol of salvation and regeneration for the Urbe. The cult on the Palatine, an integral part of the religion of state, was articulated since the republican age in forms monumental with the original sacred area gradually subjected to architectural interventions in the Augustan age and, above all, between the and the century AD The imperial era also articulates the profile social life of the priests of the goddess: among the authors of inscriptions votive now also include high-ranking figures and freedmen imperial, demonstrating its connection with the power central. It is no coincidence that the cult of the Magna Mater will last in Rome until the affirmation of Christianity. On the front of the Tunisia the site of Zama, as Tarek Baccouche, Director, recalls of the National Institute of Heritage of Tunis, is the site of the battle of the Second Punic War but the city was the capital of Numidia and its importance preceded the romanization which however occurred without effort. Thanks to the Italy-Tunisia cultural cooperation here is the result of the plan Mattei for Africa the exhibition "offers visitors a mosaic of scientific, technical, geographical, economic and patrimonial data on the Zama site and, through it, on the entire region" says Baccouche. "This exhibition - explains Alfonsina Russo, Head of Department for the Promotion of Cultural Heritage and Director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park - represents a precious bridge between ancient cultures and memories. Through a a route that is divided into six locations in the Park, the exhibition tells the origins of the cult, its diffusion in the Greek world and Roman and throughout the ancient Mediterranean. This bond has formed the basis for developing a valorisation project and a comprehensive re-reading of history and archaeology through the figure of the Magna Mater". The exhibition route in several locations of the Park offers a journey immersive in the history and spread of the cult of Magna Mater with particular attention to the symbolic and religious bond between the African sanctuary and the Roman one on the Palatine, the heart of the cult of the Magna Mater in the Empire. The section set up in the Temple of Romulus presents to the public for the first time the works from the excavations of Zama Regia with its evidence archaeological evidence on the presence of the cult of the goddess in North Africa Roman. The Curia Iulia extends its perspective to the provinces of the Empire, from Egypt to Gaul, from Thrace to Britain while on the Palatine, at the Farnese Aviaries, the visitors can explore the goddess's oriental roots and the their transmission in the Greek and Hellenistic world. The Nymphaeum della Pioggia proposes an installation that returns sounds, gestures and symbols of Roman ritual while a selection of works of art on the iconographic fortune of the goddess over the centuries finds space in the Museum of the Roman Forum. "The Magna Mater exhibition between Rome and Zama - he commented in a notes the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli - it is an example concrete cultural diplomacy between Italy and Tunisia, created within the Mattei Plan. The result of the cooperation between scholars, institutions and restorers of the two Countries, demonstrates how the valorization of shared heritage can become an effective tool for dialogue, research and sustainable development. Promoting the figure of the Magna Mater thanks to the Tunisian discoveries and to this exhibition it allows the our Ministry to give life to a cultural event whose importance goes beyond archaeology alone, promoting the historical study of a religious experience whose values ​​and meanings retain a strong relevance, for all cultures who live overlooking the great Mare Nostrum".