Art of the first cities : the third millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus / edited by Joan Aruz ; with Ronald Wallenfels.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Aruz, Joan.

Wallenfels, Ronald.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art, Ancient--Middle East--Exhibitions.

Civilization, Ancient--Exhibitions.

Cities and towns, Ancient--Middle East.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiv, 540 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color), 1 map

Place of Publication:

New York : The Metropolitan Museum of Art ; New Haven : Yale University Press, c2003.

Summary:

Our civilization is rooted in the forms and innovations of societies that flourished more than six thousand years ago in distant lands of western Asia, extending from Egypt to India. The earliest of these societies was in the region known to the ancients as Mesopotamia, which occupies what is today Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey. In Mesopotamia arose the first cities, and here urban institutions were invented and evolved. Writing was invented, monumental architecture in the form of temples and palaces were created, and the visual arts flowered in the service of religion and royalty. These extraordinary innovations profoundly affected surrounding areas in Anatolia, Syria-Levant, Iran, and the Gulf. Mesopotamia was influenced in turn by these outlying regions, for as networks of trade emerged they encouraged cultural exchange. This publication explores the artistic achievements of the era of the first cities in both the Mesopotamian heartland and across the expanse of western Asia. More than fifty experts in the field have contributed entries on individual works of art and essays covering a wide range of subjects. Among the objects presented are many that display the pure style of Mesopotamia, others from outlying regions that adapt from Mesopotamian models a corpus of forms and images, and still others that embody vital regional styles. Included are reliefs celebrating the accomplishments of kings and the pastimes of the elite; votive statues representing royal and other privileged persons; animal sculptures; and spectacular jewelry, musical instruments, and games found in tombs where kings, queens, and their servants were buried. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

Contents:

Art of the first cities / Joan Aruz

Uruk and the formation of the city / Hans J. Nissen

Art of the early city-states / Donald P. Hansen

Proto-Elamite period / Holly Pittman

Fara / Joachim Marzahn

Excavations in the Diyala Region / Karen L. Wilson

Stone sculpture production / Jean-Francois de Laperouse

Nippur / Jean M. Evans

Tello (Ancient Girsu) / Béatrice André-Salvini

Metalworking techniques / Jean-François de Lapérouse

Al Ubaid / Paul Collins

Kish / Paul Collins

Royal tombs of Ur / Julian Reade

Tomb of Puabi / Paul Collins

Great death pit at Ur / Julian Reade

Mari and the Syro-Mesopotamian world / Jean-Claude Margueron

Treasure of Ur from Mari / Nadja Cholidis

Ebla and the early urbanization of Syria / Paolo Matthiae

Tell Umm el-Marra / Glenn M. Schwartz

Tell Banat / Anne Porter and Thomas McClellan

Art of the Akkadian Dynasty / Donald P. Hansen

Lost-wax casting / Jean-François de Lapérouse

Tell Mozan (Ancient Urkesh) / Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati

Tell Brak in the Akkadian period / Jean M. Evans

Art and interconnections in the third millennium B.C. / Joan Aruz

Egypt and the Near East in the third millennium B.C./ James P. Allen

Aegean and Western Anatolia / Claus Reinholdt

Early bronze age jewelry hoard from Kolonna, Aigina / Claus Reinholdt

Troy / Eleni Drakaki

Poliochni and the civilization of the Northeastern Aegean / Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki

Central Anatolian plateau : the tombs of Alaca H[232}oyük / Oscar White Muscarella

North Caucasus / Elena Izbitser

Maikop (Oshad) kurgan / Yuri Piotrovsky

Novosvobodnay / Yuri Piotrovsky

Susa / Paul Collins

Gulf : Dilmun and Magan / D.T. Potts

Copper alloys and metal sources / Jean-François de Lapérouse

Tell Abraq / Paul Collins

Island of Tarut / Paul Collins

Intercultural style carved chlorite objects / Joan Aruz

Pathways across Eurasia / Maurizio Tosi and C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky

Altyn-depe / Yuri Piotrovsky

Gonur-depe / Elisabetta Valtz Fino

Indus Civilization / Jonathan Mark Kenoyer

Baluchistan / Paul Collins

Cities of the Indus Valley / Paul Collins

Beads of the Indus Valley / Jonathan Mark Kenoyer

Approaching the divine / Jean M. Evans

Rediscovery of Gudea statuary in the Hellenistic period / Béatrice André-Salvini

Earliest scholastic tradition / Piotr Michalowski

Uruk and the world of Gilgamesh / Beate Salje

Mesopotamian legacy / Ira Spar.

Notes:

Also available as electronic reproduction. New York, N.Y. : Thomas J. Watson Library, 2014.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 499-523) and index.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 8-Aug. 17, 2003.

Exhibition title: Art of the first cities : the third millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus.

Also available as electronic reproduction. Plymouth Meeting, Pa. : codeMantra ; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.

ISBN:

1588390438 (hc.)

1588390446 (pbk.)

0300098839 (Yale)

OCLC:

51752677

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access