The Museum of the University of Tokyo has changed and modernized in recent years, emphasizing particularly the use of up-to-date information technology. It is no longer an ivory tower but is reaching out beyond the university community to the general public. Its exhibitions have received favorable attention in the press, and the museum's aims, technical possibilities and target public are much different now from those of traditional university museums and collections.
Most previous exhibitions, however, presented materials from the museum's own collections or from Japanese collections, which is why the current exhibition, "Investing in the Afterlife," is something totally new.
Monumental tombs, colorful tomb paintings, impressive tomb sculptures and bas-reliefs, and luxurious burial gifts were characteristic features of many ancient Mediterranean cultures and particularly of their social elites. Ancestor worship and the cult of the dead were considered moral and religious duties, and contributed at the same time to social prestige. "Investing in the Afterlife" presents for the first time in Tokyo an archaeological exhibition of monumental tombs, tomb paintings and burial gifts from Etruria, southern Italy, Macedonia and Thrace.