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Article: Phoenicia: The Forgotten Civilization; In Venice, a Ground-Breaking New Exhibit
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 20, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Two thousand years after their grand Mediterranean civilization
was destroyed by the Romans at Carthage, the Phoenicians are trying
to reconquer Italy.
This time there are no martial means such as Hannibal employed
in his elephant-backed campaign against the Roman Empire. Instead,
they are capturing the country with the subtlety of their exquisite,
sophisticated and long-neglected art and culture.
That is the message of the impressive new show at the Palazzo
Grassi museum here: Italian culture and history is not rooted
exclusively in its classical Greek and Roman past.
Twenty-five years of concerted research and archeological
pursuit of the elusive ancient Phoenicians have at last ...