An archaeological exhibition: prehistoric journey of current issues
«The Somme des Préhistoires: a territory, our history» is based on contemporary archaeological excavations and the study of collections, mixing the fieldwork of archaeologists with the perspectives of multidisciplinary researchers in the image of the two exhibition curators: Agathe Jagerschmidt-Séguin, heritage curator, responsible for archaeological collections, antiquities and natural history, and Clément Paris, archaeologist specializing in the Upper Palaeolithic, head of operations at INRAP and inventor of the Amiens-Renancourt site.
The exhibition and its catalogue highlight the climate change and their impacts on past human societies, providing a perspective on the climate emergency we are currently facing. They combine scientific requirement and willingness to transmit to all.
The exhibition «The Somme des Préhistoires» benefits from National Interest Exposure label granted by the Ministry of Culture, represented at the inauguration by Hilaire Multon, regional director of cultural affairs of Hauts-de-France. This rare label highlights the major scientific interest of the subject and the extent of loans that highlight the wealth of Hauts-de-France.
A local exhibition, a national interest
From the discovery of flints cut at Moulin-Quignon by Jacques Boucher de Perthes in 1863 to the fascinating Venus of Amiens-Renancourt Recently unearthed, the Somme Valley has become an essential site for prehistoric archaeology. It represents, rightly, another «Dordogne» thanks to a favorable framework for the conservation of deposits, since the remains of the first human settlements in Northern Europe there are 700,000 years, until the last demonstrations of hunter-gatherer populations before the appearance of agriculture about 7000 years ago.
Conceived as an exploration of the distant past, the exhibition not only presents the hardness of cut flint, but also pays tribute to the delicacy of the adornments and chalk statuettes. It is deployed throughout the Musée de Picardie, restored and renovated in 2020 by Amiens Métropole with the support of the State.
The scientific committee that contributed to the development of this exhibition is a consortium of passionate experts, including archaeologists, geologists, archaeozoologists and historians, including Regional Archaeological Service of the DRAC Hauts-de-France, of lINRAP, of the CNRS and of National Museum of Natural History.
The site of Amiens-Renancourt 1
This exhibition allows the picardy museum to enhance a remarkable archaeological site: “One of the highlights of the exhibition is the illumination of the site of Amiens-Renancourt 1. Discovered in 1910 by Victor Commont and explored again a century later, this site revealed an abandoned gravettian encampment 27,000 years ago. “Until 2023, more than 180 m² have been explored and nearly 100,000 remains collected: carved flint, animal bones, bone and mammoth ivory tools, but also, more rare, ornaments and chalk statuettes.”
Prehistory and Impressionism, the wealth of museums in France
Alongside this inauguration, it was also an opportunity to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Impressionism. The musée d'Orsay has generously lent emblematic works of his collection to many regional museums, thus allowing impressionist paintings to return to the places where they were imagined, thought and dreamed.
The Musée de Picardie is part of this celebration by presenting to the public the painting On the beach of Édouard Manet, painted in 1873 in Berck-sur-Mer.
The exhibition «The Somme des préhistoires» and the festivities surrounding the 150th anniversary of Impressionism underline the importance of museums of Franceplaces of knowledge, emotion, discovery and sharing, playing a major role in the federation of audiences.
Practical information
The exhibition «La Somme des Préhistoires» is held at the Musée de Picardie in Amiens from March 23 to November 3, 2024. It is accessible from Tuesday to Friday from 9:30 am to 6 pm and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, except May 1, from 11 am to 6 pm.
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