An evocative circular route, which becomes a journey through history to discover a great ancient civilization: if the debate on the protection of cultural heritage in crisis areas is as topical as ever, the exhibition "The Assyrians in the shadow of Vesuvius", in program at the MANN from 3 July to next 16 September, symbolically shines the spotlight on the region of Assyria, which represented the territorial belt of the High Tigris in correspondence with the northern part of today's Iraq.

On that strip of land, from the nineteenth century onwards, the research of intellectuals and antiquarians concentrated, which laid the foundations for the establishment of a modern koinè of international scholars: this synergistic model appears to be replicated, in a suggestive way, by the network of collaborations which led to the creation of the exhibition "The Assyrians in the shadow of Vesuvius".

The scientific project, promoted by MANN and the University of Naples "L'Orientale", has selected over forty-five artifacts, coming, among other things, from the British Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Vatican Museums, Barracco Museum, Civic Museums of Como and the Royal Museums of Turin: fulcrum of the exhibition, the nineteenth-century casts, belonging to the MANN collections and not exhibited for many years.