Special Collections
Ancient Near Eastern Seals and Tablets
New York, New York
(212) 685–0008
www.themorgan.org
Through November 12, 2006
Pierpont Morgan’s world-renowned collection of Near Eastern seals is the focus of an exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum. Cylinder seals, which originated in Mesopotamia during the latter half of the fourth millennium B.C., are among the earliest known objects used to communicate ideas through pictorial symbols. Carved into various semiprecious stones, the seals had both practical and magical functions, and they remained in use until the arrival of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century B.C.
Gilded Legacies: The Saint John’s Bible in Context
New York, New York
(212) 408–1500
www.mobia.org
September 7–November 26, 2006
Inspired by the centuries-old tradition of Bible illustration and embellishment, Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, commissioned a contemporary illuminated Bible. A selection of folios from the prophetic books of the Saint John’s Bible will be on display at the Museum of Biblical Art, along with more than 50 other books and individual leaves that trace the production of sacred scripture over 1,000 years.
Discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls
Seattle, Washington
(206) 443–2001
www.pacsci.org
September 23, 2006–January 7, 2007
The Pacific Science Center in Seattle is offering visitors the opportunity to view an exhibition including ten original Dead Sea Scrolls, four of which have never been seen by the public and another that has never before been outside Israel. Also using photographs, replicas and numerous ancient artifacts, the exhibit will feature the roles of science and technology in the discovery, study and conservation of this amazing collection of manuscripts. Other displays will present resources to help place the scrolls in their geographical, historical and societal contexts.
You can see this exhibit and learn about the scrolls from the very scholars who are working on them! Join Martin Abegg, Peter Flint and Risa Levitt Kohn in Seattle at Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls, a weekend seminar sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society Travel/Study Department, October 5–7, 2006. Visit our Web site at www.biblicalarchaeology.com or call (800) 221–4644, extension 208, for more details.