For over 1,700 years, the Pantheon in Rome was the largest domed building in the world. It was not until the Renaissance that the temple on the Campus Martius in Rome was surpassed. Its imposing architecture and its dedication to all the gods, including the emperors, make the Pantheon unique. With the reopening of the permanent exhibition, the Archaeological Museum will be able to display a detailed model of one of the best-preserved buildings of antiquity for the first time this May. The model can be viewed during normal opening hours from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm. Anyone with a keen interest in the history and architecture of the building is warmly invited to attend the ‘Theme of the Month’ lectures on 17 and 31 May, delivered by Tim Landsmann at 2.15 pm.

In 2021, the Archaeological Museum received 570 Roman-era coins from the City of Gelsenkirchen on permanent loan. The coins were once part of the collection of the Local History Museum in Buer (which has since been incorporated into Gelsenkirchen and is now a district of the city), and later of the Gelsenkirchen Municipal Museum. Using the inventory list, coin curator Dr Katharina Martin has now been able to prove that eight of the coins belonged to a hoard found in 1924 on the grounds of Haus Berge in Buer. The whereabouts of these coins had previously been unknown. The coins, which date from the time of Constantine the Great, are now available to all interested parties via the Digital Coin Cabinet. 

In the latest issue of the university newspaper, Sudanese archaeologist Prof. Mohamed Albdri Sliman Bashir discusses the destruction wrought by the war that has been raging in his homeland since 2023, including the damage inflicted on the African country’s archaeological treasures. The professor from the University of Khartoum is currently in Münster at the invitation of Prof. Angelika Lohwasser, Director of the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology.

At the Alter Sudan research centre there, he is conducting research into the archaeology of Sudan. Bashir is a specialist in settlement patterns and ancient urbanisation in the Kingdom of Kush (c. 1000 BC to 350 AD). In his current research, he combines traditional archaeological analyses with molecular approaches, such as DNA and isotope studies, and interviews with local communities, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the region’s past and present.

Weitere Meldungen