AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD

in association with the exhibition

THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE, The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC

Clay, water, a potter’s wheel – and a technique almost unchanged for thousands of years.

On Saturday 24 July 2010, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford played host to a unique event: at the invitation of the Ratiu Foundation, craftsman CORNEL SITAR, a true master of ancient Romanian traditional pottery skills, met the audience and held a special three-session workshop.

Grown-ups and children alike took enthusiastically to this task, eager for their turn at the wheel. A great number of small pots and several full-scale demonstration objects resulted from this workshop, the audience being invited to take them home, as a memento of the meeting.

You can see a photo gallery with images taken during the workshop on the website of the Romanian Cultural Centre, by clicking here. You can also see a short film of the event by clicking here.

CORNEL SITAR is a traditional craftsman from the Baia Mare region in north-western Romania. He learned his trade from his parents, having first come into contact with the potter’s wheel in 1962, at the age of 13. From 1978, Cornel Sitar began working in the workshop inherited from his father. Pottery and ceramics became not only a way of preserving an ancient skill, but also a business, the entire Sitar family being involved in the workshop.

Special thanks to: Cornel Sitar, Nicolae Ratiu, Ramona Mitrica, Mihai Risnoveanu, The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London, Susie Gault, Rowan Guthrie, The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Virgil Nitulescu, Oana Halpern, The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Adrian Cherciu, ROMANi-ONLiNE.co.uk, Petrica Pop Sitar.

THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE

until 15 August 2010, Temporary Exhibition Galleries, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH
Tel. 01865 278 000 • Tickets: £6.00 / £4.00 concession • www.ashmolean.org .

With major loans from Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, ‘The Lost World of Old Europe’ presents more than 250 artefacts recovered by archaeologists from the settlements and cemeteries of ‘Old Europe’. This remarkable exhibition of gold, pottery and archaeological finds from the prehistoric civilisation of the Danube Valley, in southeast Europe, is presented in Britain for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include the ‘Thinker’ and Female Figurine from Cernavoda, as well as many ceramic and metallurgical pieces from the Cucuteni culture in Romania.

The exhibition has been organised by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW) in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum of History, Bulgaria and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chisinau; and has been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

the pottery workshop was supported by The Ratiu Foundation, in collaboration with The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant (Muzeul National al Taranului Roman).