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Rome (AFP) Nov 19, 2010 The silk trade connection between the Chinese and Roman empires went on display in a unique exhibition in Rome that opened on Friday, including hundreds of rare artifacts from the ancient powers. The exhibit sets a variety of Chinese and Roman archaeological treasures -- jade coffins, silk robes, musical instruments and statues -- side by side in the Palazzo Venezia museum and the old Roman Senate building in the Forum. "The Two Empires: The Eagle and The Dragon" will run until February 6. Some of the most visually stunning pieces are a jade and gold funeral covering for a Chinese king from the 1st century AD and a giant lacquer and jade sarcophagus from the Han dynasty from the 2nd-1st centuries BC. The Senate building also contains 10 statues from the terracotta army dating from 210 BC and found near the mausoleum of the First Qin emperor. Among the Roman remains there were grandiose marble statues of gods, goddesses and emperors, but also many household objects including women's perfume bottles, hydraulic pumps, amphoras and farming hoes. In total more than 400 objects have been put on display. Organisers said there was in fact little interaction between the Qin and Han dynasties and Rome, which achieved its greatest territorial extent under the Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD as the Hans were starting to decline. The main real thread between the dynasty and the empire was the silk trade along the ancient Silk Road through Central Asia, organisers said. "For the Romans this wonderful material was made by the Seres, a people who lived at the end of the earth," an exhibition display explained. "The Chinese had heard of the Roman Empire, known to them as the Da Qin... and imagined it to be populated by exotic animals and plants," it continued. Chinese silk gloves and embroidered robes from the 2nd century BC were among the most fragile objects on display in three large halls of Palazzo Venezia. The exhibition started in Beijing last summer and has travelled to Luoyang and then Milan before moving to Rome, where it will close next year. It has been organised jointly by Italy's culture ministry and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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