Exhibition The Goddess and the Horsemen 2 – Synthesising the Fusion

EXHIBITION

THE GODDESS AND THE HORSEMEN 2–SYNTHESISING THE FUSION

21. 10. - 23. 11. 2025.

Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, 1st floor

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Tuesday 2, 2025, at 12 pm (noon)

The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb and Vinkovci Municipal Museum present the inter-museum exhibition The Goddess and the Horsemen 2 – Synthesising the Fusion. It puts focus on the Cult of the Danubian Horsemen, a phenomenon of cult fusion typical for the 3rd and the first half of the 4th century. This cult is attested on stone and lead plaques with rich iconographic scenes, dominated by a centrally depicted goddess flanked by two horsemen. On display are sixteen newly discovered lead plaques found in the vicinity of Roman Cibalae. As such, the exhibition directly supplements the earlier presentation The Goddess and Horsemen – Cult Fusion of Lower Pannonia (2022), which introduced the corpus of all 86 previously known lead objects of this syncretistic phenomenon in holdings of Croatian museums.

While the previous exhibition took the form of a cabinet, immersive and quiet, demystifying the research process, this exhibition is conceived as a communication room: structured but dynamic, defined by the permanent need for the dialogue following the research and intellectual process, subsequently engaging the wider public in the open communication.

The key task of The Goddess and Horsemen 2 is to speak – literally. The exhibition is therefore framed by a series of popular-scientific lectures held within the exhibition space itself. Through their presentations, domestic and international scholars will seek to summarise the state of knowledge about the Cult of the Danubian Horsemen, as well as related themes from the wider field of Roman religion. The necessary exchange of ideas, new insights, proposals and hypotheses, methodological tools and theoretical frameworks, through open and constructive communication strive to enhance common understanding of the spiritual aspects of the ancient world.

The exhibition thus shifts its focus away from passive museum object, maps, statistical charts and fixed interpretive texts towards the speaker and the listener. Museum users become active elements of the display and bearers of the museums presentation. This dialogue injects the much-needed dynamics into the rigid framework of a single exhibition room. The objects themselves, though exhibition starting points, cease to serve as signs. They become a mediator which transfers meaning to its intended destination. That destination is communication – the essence and the goal of the museum’s social role.