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 ...

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 ...

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 -- ...

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.” ...

Leonard Woolley waxing a skeleton for removal, in Ur (1929-1930) (courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) After excavation, ancient artifacts embark on an ...

In ancient times, Mesopotamia, meaning 'land between two rivers', was a vast region that lay between the Tigris and Euphrates river systems, and it is where civilization emerged over 7,000 years ago.