Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B. C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus; through August 17, 2003 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Joan Aruz (ed). Art of the First ...

THE great and inventive people who settled 5,500 years ago in Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates (now part of Iraq), founded one of the world’s first major civilizations.

About 4,500 years ago, an image of the Sumerian storm god Ningirsu was engraved on a silver vessel now on view in the Getty Villa Museum exhibition “Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins.” ...

GOLD-encrusted and splendid, Tutankhamun’s tomb changed perceptions of archaeology in Europe and the United States on its discovery by Howard Carter in 1922, and the resulting wave of Egyptomania ...

Picking one period or dynasty to represent the entirety of this era was far too difficult. So I’ve decided that I will be dedicating two blog posts to Near Eastern art. Today’s blog post will be ...

Introduction : becoming art -- The search for Origins : Mesopotamia and the cradle of civilization -- Uruk : the arts of civilization -- Early Dynastic Sumer : images for people, temples for gods -- ...

Foundation figure in the form of a nail surmounted by the bust of a god (Sumerian, Early Dynastic III period, 2600–2300 BCE), copper alloy (courtesy private collection, via Morgan Library & Museum) ...

ARCHAEOLOGISTS at times may seem over-bold in attributing racial values to the terms of their cultural analyses, although the practice frequently has much to be said in its favour, when it is followed ...

What happens to ancient artifacts after they’re dug up by archaeologists is more complicated than the casual museumgoer might realize. “From Ancient to Modern: Archaeology and Aesthetics,” a ...