First Keepers of Memory. Burials in the Palaeolithic Era – Exhibition
23 January 2026, at 6:00 p.m., Multicultural Centre, Transilvania University of Brașov
The Multicultural Centre of Transilvania University launches the invitation to the opening of the exhibition First Keepers of Memory. Burials in the Palaeolithic Era, an event that will take place on Friday, 23 January, starting at 6:00 p.m.
The exhibition is curated by the University of Turin through the Museum System and UNITA Alliance, and proposes to its visitors a collection that includes moulds of Palaeolithic inhumations. The project follows the evolution of the rituals and artistic expressions related to the cult of the dead, from the first Neanderthals’ entombments to late Palaeolithic. The collection of mouldings of the prehistoric tombs in Turin – partly achieved in the laboratories of Turin, and partly received from other institutions – is the most significant collection of this kind all over the world.
Funeral rituals should not be related to material needs, but to the concerns about the fate of the individuals and of their bodies after death. Therefore, they are a consequential stage in mankind’s social history and provide essential information on the life of the deceased and the group which they belonged to.
Due to the Palaeolithic tombs which sheltered the human remains, complete or nearly complete skeletons found their way to us; and the moulds convey their actual condition at the time of discovery, during the excavations. Such a moulding made during the excavation is not a mere replica, but the very reproduction of a context no longer extant, and becomes thus a testimony of extraordinary importance.
The exhibition has come to pass due to the curators Giacomo Giacobini, Cristina Cilli and Giancarla Malerba, it includes moulds achieved by Cristina Cilli, Giacomo Giacobini, Giancarla Malerba, Giuseppe Rembado, Paola Rolfo, Cyndie Paulet, Marion Quatrepoint, but also texts written by Piero Bianucci, Giacomo Giacobini.
Images: Sistema Museale di Ateneo, Daniele Arobba, Federica Fontana, Fabio Martini, Eric Mahieu, Bruno Maureille, Gérard Onoratini, Marco Peresani, Elena Rossoni Notter, Patricia Valensi.
The exhibition will be open for the public at the Multicultural Centre of Transilvania University (Rectorate building, ground floor, 29 Eroilor Blvd.), until 6 March 2026, from Monday to Friday, between 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The entry is free.