CULTURAL HERITAGE: - Macedonian Information Centre

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rich spiritual life of our ancestors. World’s archaeological eminent persons
will have the opportunity to evaluate chronologically and stylistically
these artifacts in a broader context of this archaeological discovery. The
basic idea of the organizers to join, on one spot in the world, which is
in the case Norwich, a part of the Balkan and a part of the Japanese
prehistoric archaeology, proved to be very successful. It is interesting
for the archaeologists to trace the similarities and the differences in
the presented artifacts, taking into consideration the distance that was
insurmountable five thousand years B. C. However, in spite of that, the
development of prehistory is evident, and also similar on the two far ends
of the Planet. The purpose is to link a part of the prehistoric figurines from
the Balkans (Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania) and from Japan and to
show them in a joint exhibition that would start in the UK, Norwich, in
the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, which would continue in museums
in the Balkans and end-up in the Sainsbury Centre in Japan, Tokyo, in
2009. In the meantime, this task is developing into a Project for the
realization of the international exhibition “Prehistoric figurines from the
Balkans and Jomon figurines from Japan”. The ambitious project in which
the Republic of Macedonia is also taking part will include a number of
researchers and archaeologists, museum experts, and theoreticians. The
entire museum approach of a conglomerate of prehistoric artifacts from
diametrically different parts of the Earth will be presented.
The abundance of terracotta figurines depicting the woman from
prehistory, more precisely from the Neolithic and Eneolithic eras, which
were discovered in the Republic of Macedonia, have imposed the idea of
jointly presenting archaeological artifacts that are inter-related merely
by one concept – the woman. The purpose is to elucidate a segment of
the rich spiritual life of the prehistoric populace settling the territory of
present day Macedonia from the sixth till the third millennia BC.
This collection has been compiled in excavations carried out
throughout the sixty years of Macedonian archaeology.
ANALOGIES, CHRONOLOGICAL
AND CULTURAL FRAMEWORK
Analogies to the figurines are being found, above all, by analysis of the
overall discovered archaeological material, including both the architecture
(houses, structures, dug-outs, etc.) and the movable material excavated
at particular sites. These observations and accomplishments are being
compared with the features of the nearest and most closely associated
cultural groups in the region and at large. In this way the discovered
archaeological material is assigned within a certain chronological
framework.