DATE: 9 a.m. April 2, 2007.

EVENT: Moving the more than 3-ton, 12th century limestone cenotaph (most likely designed as a memorial to an important person) from a pole barn to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens’ conservatory and assembling the 15 pieces will take several hours utilizing both mechanical and manual expertise.

A 1960 gift to U-M’s Museum of Art, the funerary marker from Syria with Arabic calligraphy excerpts from the Holy Qur’an’s Verse of the Throne remained in storage until 1992 when it was moved to the grounds of U-M’s Inglis House. Awaiting a permanent installation in the expanded museum, the cleaned and restored piece will be on display at the gardens April 2-June 29, where it will find an environment resembling that of Syria near many plants from the Near East, including oleander, laurel, olive and papyrus.

Though the cenotaph deserves further study, U-M students and scholars have translated the Verse of the Throne inscription girding the lower stones where kufic script, the oldest form of Arabic calligraphy, incorporated complex floral motifs.

PLACE: Matthaei Botanical Gardens, 1800 Dixboro Road. Map: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/plan/hours.asp.

SPONSORS: Matthaei Botanical Gardens/Nichols Arboretum, University of Michigan Museum of Art.

CONTACT: David Michener: (734) 998-7061, [email protected]
Stephanie Rieke: (734) 647-0524, [email protected]

WEB: Matthaei Botanical Gardens:
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/
University of Michigan Museum of Art:
http://www.umma.umich.edu/