Crossroads of Civilization

Experience MPM's first new permanent exhibition in more than a decade: Crossroads of Civilization.

This exhibit, made possible by the Northwestern Mutual Foundation, explores how the ancient civilizations of Africa, Europe, and Asia came together to form an epicenter of complex culture, creating not just a physical crossroads, but an intellectual one as well.

Drawing on decades of Museum-led excavations, research, and exhibit-building expertise, Crossroads of Civilization brings the ancient world to life by presenting over 200 artifacts from the Museum’s collections alongside dynamic interactive technologies and all-new interpretive content based on emerging research.


Exhibit Highlights
  • Interactive Timeline - Explore 4,000 years of history from the rise of the earliest civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia to the fall of the Western Roman Empire using a wall-sized interactive timeline.
  • Medinet Habu - See a circa-1960s MPM-created scale model of the first courtyard of the temple of Pharaoh Ramesses III. Today, this visitor favorite is supplemented with a digital fly-through of inner rooms of the temple.
  • Mummies - MPM’s two Egyptian mummies, Padi-Heru and Djed-Hor, have been part of MPM's collection since 1887. Using the latest technology, visitors can now peer inside MPM’s two Egyptian mummies through CT scan imagery.
  • Maps - Flanked by life-size figures of Greek and Persian warriors from 500 BCE, a large video screen depicts the growth, expansion and decline of dozens of civilizations, kingdoms and empires over a span of 5,000 years.
  • King Tut and his Chariot - Witness a life-size recreation of the boy king driving a magnificent chariot, featuring a forensic reconstruction of Tut's facial features based on CT scans performed on his mummy.

This exhibition was made possible by
Northwestern Mutual Foundation

Major Sponsors:
Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Gerda A. Debelak Fund
John and Linda Mellowes Family and Charter Manufacturing Company

Supporting Sponsors:
Ralph Evinrude Foundation, Inc.
Krause Family Foundation, Inc.
Bert L. & Patricia S. Steigleder Charitable Trust

Additional Support Provided By:
Alvin & Marion Birnschein Foundation, Inc.
Harrison Foundation
Wisconsin Department of Tourism