Main Courtyard.

The statue of a seated lion has been on display in the inner courtyard of the Museum, opposite the entrance since the time of the Italian Occupation. It was a grave marker and also comes from the Hellenistic cemetery of Rhodes. In its forepaws the lion holds the head of the bull it was savaging when it raised its head to look at the spectator.

In front of the statue is a mosaic floor from the apse of the Early Christian basilica of Eucharistos at Arkasa on the island of Karpathos. The mosaic floor dates from the 5th century AD.

All four sides of the courtyard have porticoes roofed with ribbed cross-vaults, in which architectural members and inscribed blocks are displayed.

A second mosaic floor from the narthex of the Early Christian basilica of Ayia Anastasia (6th c. AD), also from Arkasa, is displayed in the second, smaller, inner courtyard, which is reached by way of the door in the wall of the south portico.

Museum Garden.

From the sculpture rooms visitors have access to the large Museum garden, a small part of which is now open to the public. In its present form, the garden was designed under the Italian Occupation and com­bines elements of Renaissance architecture with Ottoman garden landscaping, which is the predominant feature. The entire garden will open in the near future and will house an outdoor exhibition of sculp­tures and funerary monuments. A semi-outdoor display of mosaic floors from Rhodian houses of the Hellenistic period will be organised in an imposing portico on its south side and representative architectural members will be exhibited in another closed room.

The garden will provide a pleasant break for visitors before they move on to the two new archaeological collections in the museum - the Prehistoric and Epigraphic Collections. The two new displays will be housed in the west and east wing, respectively, of the Villaragut mansion, a two-storey Hospitaller building at the north­west corner of the garden. Artefacts from the Neolithic to the Mycenaean period on the island will be put on display for the first time in the Prehistoric Collection. A prom­inent place will be occupied by finds from the large Minoan settlement at Trianda and the grave offerings from the Mycenaean tombs at lalysos. The Epigraphic Collection will include a representative selection of the thousands of inscriptions found on the island, which are direct written evidence for the history and public and private life of the Rhodians, mainly during the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st c. BC), when the city was at its most prosperous. The display will be organized on the ground floor of the building, while the restored mansion of the Ottoman period (18th c.) will open to the public on the first floor.

The visit to the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes is designed to give visitors a compre­hensive picture of the island from the first period of its occupation to its recent history.

Ex. 1. Answer the questions:

1. What is located opposite the entrance since the time of the Italian Occupation?

2. Where is a second mosaic floor displayed?

3. What elements does the Museum Garden combine?

4. When was the Hellenistic period?

5. Why should the tourists visit the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes?

Ex. 2. Remember the following words and word combinations:

to be on display; entrance; the Hellenistic cemetery; a mosaic floor; portico; the sculpture rooms; to be open to the public; to house an outdoor exhibition; to be exhibited.

Ex. 3. Make-up sentences using the following words. The first word is underlined.

1. statue, In, of, is, front, the, floor, a, mosaic.

2. holds, The, bull, head, lion, of, the, the.

3. garden, near, will, The, entire, future, in, open, the.

4. display, floor, organized, will, ground, on, The, be, the.

5. It, Rhodes, of, from, the Hellenistic cemetery, comes.

Дата добавления: 2015-12-01