Happy 145th Birthday to the Metropolitan Museum of Art!
Relief from the walls of the Northwest Palace of king Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud (883-859 BCE). The relief is among many fascinating objects housed by the Met, a museum with one of the greatest Near East collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
Limestone sculpture depicting Ahuramazda in the Winged Disk or the Faravahar, one of the most famous symbols of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of the Persian Empire. The Achaemenid sculpture dates back to 486-460 BCE. The Sasanian capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon (near modern-day Baghdad) was a major center of Zoroastrian theology prior to the city’s destruction in 637 CE. Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
Sasanian Ewer made with silver and gilt from the 7th-8th century CE. Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
Head of a Winged Protective Spirit from Room B at the Northwest Palace of Nimrud, the Assyrian Capital. The alabaster wall relief dates back to the era of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE). Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
Macedonian coin depicting Alexander the Great. The Macedonian king brought Hellenism to Babylon when he captured the city in 331 BCE. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
A silver and gilt Sasanian wine horn with gazelle protome, dating back to the 4th century CE. Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
A limestone head of an archer from Persepolis, dating back to 486-465 BCE. Persepolis was among the ceremonial seats of government in the Persian Achaemenid Empire and was used to escape the summer heat of Babylon, the Achaemenids’ main imperial capital. The relief is part of an extraordinary Near East collection at the recently renovated Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
Golden breastplate fragment from Persia, dating back to 800-500 BCE, the same time period when the Babylonians and the Persians collaborated to eliminate the Assyrian Empire. Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
One of two Babylonian lions at the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago, dating back to 575 BCE. In the equivalent of Babylon’s Time Square, 120 life-size lions symbolizing the goddess Ishtar lined the walls of the Processional Street, where the entire city celebrated the New Year: the Resurrection of Tammuz, the Babylonian god of harvest. The Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
Detail of a Serapis bust from the 2nd century CE. The earliest mention of this deity, who was worshiped throughout the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, dates back to Alexander the Great’s presence in Babylon. The Greek historian Arrian of Nicomedia listed Serapis as a Babylonian god who had a temple in the city of Babylon. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
