Field Notes

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Nimrud Treasure to be Exhibited Outside Iraq

More than 300 objects from the ancient Assyrian capital of Kalhu (present-day Nimrud, in northern Iraq) will travel to Europe in late October 2005.

In 1988 Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Muhmoud Hussein found the cache of necklaces, bracelets, diadems and a finely wrought crown—all made of gold and semiprecious stones—in four royal tombs lying beneath the palace of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 B.C.).

After the 1990 Gulf War, the treasure was kept in the vaults of Baghdad’s central bank. Coalition forces recovered the artifacts in June 2003 and moved them to Baghdad’s National Museum, where they were briefly put on display for the press.

The five-year-long traveling exhibit of the gold treasure from Nimrud is being organized by United Exhibits Group, a company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The show will open in a European venue that has not yet been announced, and will continue on to North America and the Far East. Funds raised from fees and ticket sales will finance the refurbishment of Baghdad’s cash-strapped National Museum.

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The Weary Warrior

An exhausted gladiator sits with his arms on his left knee, sword still in hand, staring blankly past his slain opponent. The glass-and-stone mosaic showing this poignant scene was found in Leptis Magna, on Libya’s Mediterranean coast.

The mosaic dates to the first or second century A.D., when Leptis Magna was a flourishing Roman metropolis. One of several panels that decorated the bottom of a villa’s cold-water pool, the warrior mosaic was excavated five years ago by archaeologists from the University of Hamburg, Germany. To prevent looting and protect the mosaics from the elements, the panels were then quickly re-buried. Last year the University of Hamburg team—headed by Helmut Ziegert and Marliese Wendowski—re-excavated the mosaics and had them installed on the walls of Leptis Magna’s Mosaic Museum.

Now the gladiators have captured the world’s attention. The mosaic pavement, with its perfectly balanced composition and realistic imagery, has been described by art historians as “worthy of Botticelli.”

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Current Exhibitions

Caravan Kingdoms: Yemen and the Ancient Incense Trade

From the eighth century B.C. to the sixth century A.D., kingdoms in the area of present-day Yemen controlled the ancient “global” trade in frankincense and myrrh. These wealthy peoples produced magnificent carved reliefs and inscriptions, metalwork and funerary sculpture. Nearly 130 of these artifacts, culled from Yemeni museums, are highlighted in this exhibit.

Things With Wings: Mythological Figures in Ancient Greek Art

This small display of 20 objects—including vases, gems, and bronze and marble statuettes—presents various ancient Greek depictions of winged creatures: human, divine and mythological. A 12th-century A.D. angel will also be exhibited to facilitate comparisons between Greek and Christian iconography.

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Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries From the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College, London

On display for the first time in the U.S. is a collection of more than 220 objects from London’s Petrie Museum, where the discoveries of Sir William Flinders Petrie (1853–1942), the “father of archaeology,” are housed. Exhibit highlights include art from the 14th-century B.C. palace of Akhenaten at Tell el-Amarna, gold mummy masks, jewelry and one of the world’s oldest dresses (dating to 2400 B.C.).

The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt

The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, one of the only complete surviving medical texts from ancient Egypt, is a highlight of this exhibition of Egyptian artifacts associated with protection and healing. The papyrus dates to 1600 B.C. and describes examination methods, diagnoses and treatments for 48 types of injuries. In addition to coffins, mummies and mummy portraits that incorporate medical themes, two colossal statues of Sakhmet, the lion-headed goddess of healing, will be on display.

Petra: Lost City of Stone

Until it was destroyed by earthquake in the second century A.D., the ancient Nabatean city of Petra had thrived for 400 years in southern Jordan as a major crossroads for trade. This exhibit—the first major cultural collaboration between the U.S. and Jordan—features more than 200 objects from Petra, including red sandstone architectural elements, stone sculptures, reliefs, ceramics and metal objects.

Saqqara Mummy

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Recent Finds

Egyptian archaeologists digging last spring near Saqqara, a pharaonic necropolis 15 miles south of Cairo, uncovered “the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt,” according to Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The 2,300-year-old male mummy was discovered in a wood sarcophagus at the bottom of a 20-foot-deep shaft.

When the archaeologists pried open the sarcophagus lid, they found an intact mummy wearing a blue headdress and elaborate golden mask. The body was encased in cartonnage (strips of linen and papyrus stiffened with plaster) that had been painted in brilliant hues of red, yellow, orange, blue and gold. Scenes of the afterlife and Egyptian gods and goddesses covered the mummy’s torso. One image depicts Maat—the goddess of truth, order and justice—with outstretched wing-like arms.

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Remnants of Voyages to Punt?

3,500-Year-Old Ship Gear Found on Egypt’s Red Sea Coast

Well-preserved equipment from pharaonic seagoing vessels has been found at Wadi Gawasis, on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, by a team of American and Italian archaeologists led by Kathryn Bard of Boston University and Rodolfo Fattovich of the University of Naples l’Orientale.

Excavating two man-made caves, the archaeologists have uncovered naval rigging, ship timbers, two curved cedar planks (likely used as oars), a mesh bag used for trade goods, limestone anchors, a wooden bowl and a piece of rope still tied in a sailor’s knot. Pottery fragments scattered nearby date to the period when Queen Hatshepsut (1473–1458 B.C.) ruled Egypt. Inscriptions and reliefs carved on Hatshepsut’s funerary temple at Deir-el-Bahri (near Thebes, modern Luxor) indicate that the queen sent trading vessels from Egypt’s Red Sea coast to the land of Punt (probably located in present-day Somalia) in search of gold, ebony, ivory, exotic animals and fragrant unguents.

A stela found near one of the Wadi Gawasis caves tells of two earlier, previously unknown voyages to Punt launched during the reign of Amenemhet III (1818–1770 B.C.). The earliest recorded expedition to Punt is inscribed on an ancient black diorite slab known as the Palermo stone. The stone’s text tells us that Pharaoh Sahure, the second king of the 5th Dynasty (2450–2325 B.C.), sent an expedition to Punt that returned with myrrh, electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) and other goods.

Bard and Fattovich have been excavating at Wadi Gawasis since 2001, searching for the ancient seaport of Saaw, which is known from texts as the departure point for expeditions to Punt. In December 2005, they plan to explore the site with ground-penetrating radar, hoping to find more caves beneath Wadi Gawasis.

Nimrud Treasure to be Exhibited Outside Iraq

More than 300 objects from the ancient Assyrian capital of Kalhu (present-day Nimrud, in northern Iraq) will travel to Europe in late October 2005.