Taiwan’s Used Shoes Save Lives in KenyaNPM to display British Museum pieces in Taipei

2014-12-10

The National Palace Museum will kick off an exhibition of 100 pieces from the British Museum Dec. 13 as part of celebrations for its upcoming 90th anniversary.

“It is a privilege to host the event with the London museum marking the NPM’s anniversary,” NPM Civil Deputy Director Ho Chuan-hsing said at the Dec. 8 news conference announcing the exhibition.

“Spanning two million years of human history, the treasured pieces in this event will attract history aficionados from home and abroad.”

According to Ho, the British Museum has been preparing this event for four years. “A History of the World in 100 Objects” is divided into nine sub-themes such as Earliest Cities, and Rituals and Beliefs. Guiding visitors through various times and places, it showcases a wide range of objects found in different cultures, revealing insights into the development of mankind.

The NPM deputy director unveiled four of the exhibition’s star pieces: the woodcut “Dürer’s Rhinoceros” by German artist Albrecht Dürer, an ancient tablet from Iraq, an Olduvai stone chopping tool from Tanzania and a statue of Rameses II from Egypt.

The chopping tool found in the Olduvai Gorge sheds light on human evolution, Ho said. Discovered by British archaeologist Louis Leakey along with fossil remains of an extinct human ancestor, the object, between 1.8 and two million years old, indicates that human life began in Africa and that stone tools, humans’ first form of technology, also had their origin there.

Another fascinating item is the statue of Ramesses II. Dated to around 1280 B.C., the relic found on Elephantine Island was designed to communicate the authority of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. The king, who presided over an age of prosperity, erected numerous monuments to celebrate his success and power.

Running until Mar. 15, 2015, the exhibition is complemented by the NPM piece “Terrestrial Map of the World,” Ho said. Created in 1845 by Qing dynasty (1644-1911) historian Yeh Gui-shou, the work was revised by geographer Liu Yan in 1851.

Drawn using the Lambert conformal conic projection method, the large map is unique for its time due to its depiction of both the northern and southern hemispheres.

“The concept was radically different from the horizontal portrayal of the world’s eastern and western hemispheres typical of the cartographic works done by Jesuit missionaries in early Qing China. The map is of unrivaled historic significance,” Ho added.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=225017&CtNode=413)