Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins exhibit now open at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California

The Getty Villa has reopened and is now hosting the special exhibit "Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins."  Some of the objects are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  Others are on loan from The Louvre and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Ancient Mesopotamia, centered in present-day Iraq, occupies a unique place in the history of human culture. It is there, around 3400–3000 BC, that all the key elements of urban civilization first appear in one place: cities with monumental infrastructure and official bureaucracies overseeing agricultural, economic, and religious activities; the earliest known system of writing; and sophisticated architecture, arts, and technologies. For some three thousand years, Mesopotamia remained the preeminent force in the Near East. In 539 BC, however, Cyrus the Great captured Babylon and incorporated Mesopotamia into the Persian Empire. Periods of Greek and Parthian rule followed, and by about AD 100 Mesopotamian culture had effectively come to an end. 

Closeup of a Head of Prince Gudea, Ruler of Lagash, Neo-Sumerian 2120 BCE, Diorite, that I photographed at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, California. The sculpture of this prince at the Getty exhibit is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Elamite Head of a Ruler Iran (?) 2300-2000 BCE Arsenical copper that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The headdress seems related to Elamite works of southwestern Iran and resembles another bronze head of the late third millennium BCE found at Nineveh.

Although you will see a statuette of a Neo-Sumerian human-headed bull dated 2150-2000 BCE from The Louvre at the exhibit, this is an image I took of a very similar sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is identified as Kursarikku associated with the sun god Shamash Reign of Ur-Ningirsu of Lagash 2150-2100 BCE, crafted of Serpentine. This serptentine (lizardite) sculpture is from southern Mesopotamia, probably Tello (ancient Girsu). The inscription proclaims the sculpture is dedicated to the goddess Nanshe for the life of the Sumerian ruler Ur-Ningirsu.

Statuette of the Demon Panzuzu, Neo-Assyrian, 934-610 BCE Bronze now in the collections of The Louvre, image courtesy of the museum

Plaque with King Gilgamesh killing the monster Humbaba, Amorite, 2000 - 1600 BCE, terracotta, now in the collections of the Louvre, image courtesy of the museum

Statuette of a dog dedicated to the goddess Ninisina, Amorite, 1894-1866 BCE, steatite, now in the collections of The Louvre, image courtesy of the museum.

Wall fragment with a man's head, Neo-Assyrian 850-650 BCE now in the collections of The Louvre, image courtesy of the museum.

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Iron Age III gold cuirass fragments from Northwestern Iran, 8th-7th centuries BCE

In 2015, I had the opportunity to photograph artifacts in the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery of Asian Art.  In it, I found this spectacular fragment of a gold breastplate dating to the Iron Age III period. Other fragments of this breastplate are today in the Cincinnati Art Museum and in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Fragments from a second gold breastplate found in the burial mound near the village of Ziwiye are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the National Museum in Teheran.

"This is a fragment from the lower part of a much larger pectoral, or breastplate, made of sheet metal and embellished with figures and ornament arranged in horizontal bands. A breastplate shielded the chest from arrows or other weapons. The decoration on this example consists of mythical guardian creatures, whose images were believed to provide magical protection for the wearer."

"A pectoral made of thin sheet gold, like this one, would have been attached to a sturdier material, probably leather. Given the fragility and cost of the material and its intricate decoration, the pectoral may have been fashioned specifically for ceremonial use or burial equipment."  - Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington D.C.

"This plaque, perforated around the edge, was perhaps once attached to a garment of a wealthy lord or to the shroud of a prince. Its design is similar to contemporary art of Assyria, Urartu, and Scythian-style objects. The plaque was originally composed of seven registers decorated in repoussé and chasing; two were separated and are now in the collection of the Archaeological Museum, Tehran. The registers display the familiar composite creatures of the ancient Near East striding in groups of three toward a stylized sacred tree, the central motif. The human-headed, winged lion, seen in the first and third register, is a creature that also appears as a gate guardian on the doorjambs in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud. A sphinx struts along the second band, followed by winged lions and an ibex. The bodies of the fantastic creatures are composed of unusual combinations of animal and bird parts: in the uppermost register, the lions sport ostrich tails, while in the second, their tails are those of scorpions. The trees of life bear pomegranates, pine cones, and lotus flowers. Each scene is framed and separated by a delicate guilloche pattern." - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Closeup of the Iron Age III gold cuirass fragment from Northwestern Iran that I photographed at the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

Iron Age III gold cuirass fragment from Northwestern Iran that I photographed at the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

Another Iron Age III gold breastplate found in the same burial now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

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