Artifacts from both Italian and Chinese museums are on display at a special exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in north China's Tianjin Municipality, telling the stories of ancestors nurtured by ancient waterways.
The National Maritime Museum of China, a young establishment dedicated to displaying both the country's new and historic maritime items, is nested on the coast of Bohai Bay in the port city of Tianjin.
The museum boasts 15 halls with over 8,300 items. It is now holding an exhibition on "river civilizations" with nearly 200 artifacts on display, depicting the lives of ancient people by the riverside.
One clay tablet from the Mesopotamian civilization, nourished by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers some 5,000 years ago, shows how rivers contributed to the thriving of human civilizations.
"This piece of clay tablet is made of sediment from the river and cuneiform characters were imprinted on it using reeds in the rivers. So, it can be said that this item is a kind of resource brought to human civilization by rivers, encapsulating the contribution of rivers to human civilization," said Zhu Ci, deputy director of the Center for Scientific Research and Education at the National Maritime Museum of China. The exhibition also features other rivers and civilizations including the Chinese civilization nurtured by the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, the ancient Indus civilization originated in the Indus Valley, and the ancient Egyptian civilization known as the "Gift of the Nile".
Notably, many of the artifacts on display come from four museums in Italy, including the Museo Egizio in Turin. This marks the first time that foreign artifacts have been displayed for visitors at the museum.
"It's the first time that we've hosted a special joint exhibition with four overseas museums and 11 other domestic museums. It's the first step the National Maritime Museum has taken in deepening international exchanges," Zhu said.
The exhibition which runs from March 22 to July 28 offers visitors a good chance to get a glimpse of the wonder of river civilizations.
Wonder of ancient river civilizations unveiled in National Maritime Museum in Tianjin
