Ancient Near East
- Comments
-
Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 200 objects from the Ancient Near East. These date from 4000 BC to AD 400. This collection includes stone seals, pendants and sculpted vessels from the Protoliterate Period, Sumerian stone sculptures and figurines, and a selection of Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs from Nimrud and Nineveh. It also holds bronzes from Luristan and Western Iran, including weapons, ceremonial items and horse harnesses, and bronzes from Turkey, Achaemenid Persia and Syria. The collection of bronzes from Luristan provides valuable evidence for the ornamental metalwork of the horse-riding warrior societies south of the Caucasus Mountains in north-west Iran. In addition, there are 12 important examples of cuneiform inscriptions on baked clay bricks, tablets, a cone and a stone relief. A collection of glass vessels contains 15 Phoenician examples from Lebanon, three examples from Ephesus, Turkey, and eight Roman examples from Syria. Other notable items include a small collection of oil lamps from Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, and six texts on Mesopotamian archaeology by pioneers such as Layard and Rawlinson. The Ancient Near East lay in the area between the Mediterranean coast and Western Iran between 6500 BC and AD 650. It encompassed the rise and fall of many states and empires, including the Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian and Sumerian Empires. Significantly, writing and urbanization first developed in the Ancient Near East. Much of the origin of Christianity, Judaism and Islam can be traced to the region.
- Broader term
- Narrower term