The modern world is plagued with unprecedented levels of social, economic, and political inequalities. But these inequities did not happen overnight; in places like southeastern Europe they emerged over the course of thousands of years as the small egalitarian farming villages of the Neolithic gave way to some of the earliest hierarchical kingdoms in the Iron Age. This is the story that is told in the First Kings of Europe exhibition, an ambitious international collaboration between twenty-six museums in eleven countries in southeastern Europe. The exhibition, organized by the Field Museum of Natural History, is currently on display in Chicago before it travels to Ottawa, Canada, in early 2024. In this presentation, Bill Parkinson gives an overview of the exhibition he co-curates with his colleagues, Attila Gyucha, and discusses the challenges they faced during the process of putting it together over the last eight years.

Summary

By Kirstin Ohrt

William Parkinson outlined the eight-year journey it took to pull together The First Kings of Europe exhibition now on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. His partnership with Attila Gyucha in Hungary along with collaborators across the Balkan Peninsula brought the show to fruition despite the dramatic setback that COVID inflicted.

Parkinson first set the stage by discussing the strengths and shortcomings of his prior exhibitions at the Field Museum. From these, he arrived at the most effective model for drawing a curious audience and leaving them with a lasting impression.

For The First Kings of Europe, Parkinson and his team gathered more than 700 objects from 26 museums in 11 countries. A replica of the most recently commissioned crown in Europe, worn by Queen Maria of Romania, and an ancient Thracian gold wreath bookend the exhibition - signaling to viewers the royalty whose ascension from a prior period of agrarian egalitarianism was the focus of the exhibit. Among installations in the exhibition is a diorama of a Hungarian village dating back to 5000 B.C.E. as well as gold objects from Varna, Bulgaria, that date back 1000 years more. Another compelling exhibit projects flames to give the impression of a burning funeral pyre. The cross-section of captivating objects was selected to reinforce one central theme: that today’s predicament, in which the eight wealthiest people hold the wealth of half the world, is the culmination of a trajectory with ancient roots.