Organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the fourth lecture entitled “Sogdiana, its mural paintings and religious art: A forgotten civilization from pre-Islamic Central Asia”, integrated in “The Belt and Road Cultural Talk Series – Collections of Mural Paintings”, hosted by Professor Matteo Compareti from the Capital Normal University in Beijing, will be held on 8 September (Sunday), at 3pm, at the Auditorium of the Macao Museum of Art, unveiling the mystery of Sogdian civilization with the public. Admission is free and registration for the lecture is now open. Interested parties are welcome to register through the Macao One Account.

Sogdiana was a historical region of Central Asia that corresponds to modern central Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan in ex-Soviet Central Asia. Sogdians spoke an eastern Iranian language and worshipped deities related to modern Zoroastrianism. Between the fifth and the eighth centuries CE, Sogdians started migrating in large numbers along the “Silk Road” caravan trade network and dominated the trade in the entire Eurasian continent for several centuries. They maintained close relations with pre-Sui and pre-Tang Chinese courts where they served as military or civil officials. Chinese archaeologists excavated some tombs that belonged to powerful Sogdians in modern northern China, especially the area of ancient Chang'an (modern Xi'an). The lecture will explore the bygone unique civilization of the Sogdians through the mural paintings and artefacts found at the archaeological site of Penjikent, in aspects including its mysterious religious culture and rituals.

Italian scholar Matteo Compareti is currently a professor at the School of History of the Capital Normal University in Beijing, and mainly studies the iconography of the Zoroastrian deities of Persia and Central Asia in the pre-Islamic era. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States and the Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an, China. Among his publications are Samarkand the Center of the World: Proposals for the Identification of the Afrāsyāb Paintings and The Elusive Persian Phoenix: Simurgh and Pseudo-Simurgh in Iranian Arts.

The lecture will be conducted in English, with consecutive interpretation into Mandarin. Admission is free and registration can be made through the “Activity Applications” of the Macao One Account (activity.mo.gov.mo/activity-h5/activity-list-web). Successful applicants will be notified by SMS. For more information about the activity, please visit the website of the Division of Research and Publications of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (www.icm.gov.mo/academics). For enquiries, please contact IC through tel. no. 8399 6210 during office hours.