Boat shaped votive vessel
Ur, Third Dynasty, 2112-2004 b.C
14,5 × 22,5 × 8,3 cm.
Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago
© Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago
Before the Flood – Mesopotamian Art in Barcelona ‘Before the Flood. Mesopotamia, 3500-2100 BC’, brings together for the first time a unique group of 400 Mesopotamian pieces from thirty-two museums and collectors all over the world. Caixaforum Barcelona, from 30 November 2012 to 24 February 2013.]]>
Source: Caixaforum Barcelona
“Before the Flood. Mesopotamia, 3500-2100 BC” explores the image theMesopotamians had of the world in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, which hasmostly come down to us through the Bible, the Koran and Greek myths andtexts. Rather than simply showing the treasures of the Sumerians, the exhibitionspeculates on the past and the way it has been interpreted by historians andarchaeologists from different periods.
This is the first major exhibition dedicated to a period and a cultural space whichwere discovered in the late 19th century and are a cause for concern today.Recent wars, invasions and looting have devastated the fragile archaeologicalsites. The kind of building materials used (adobe and mud), the filtrations ofwater which have soaked the buildings since Antiquity and saltpetre haveseriously damaged the foundations and walls.
Works of art and craft, jewels and ritual objects, texts and symbols show theway of understanding the world and society in the delta of the Tigris and theEuphrates: the divine origin of the city, the clash between the old gods and thenew deities, the creation of humanity, the myth of the Flood, the reconstructionof the earth and the birth of culture as a consequence of a pact between godsand men. The Mesopotamian cities exerted a great influence over the Greekand Judaeo-Christian world and were decisive in the emergence of Europeancivilisation. The exhibition pays attention to that connection through the myth ofthe founding of the first city and the survival of the legends of the Near East inbiblical texts.
The exhibition has brought together a unique group of 400 archaeologicalpieces from leading international museums and collectors, among them thePenn Museum in Philadelphia, the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, theMusées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels, the Musée du Louvre in Paris,the Field Museum in Chicago, the Oriental Institute in Chicago, the RoyalOntario Museum in Toronto, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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Teotihuacan. Art from the City of Gods at the Caixaforum Barcelona (exhibition, 2011)
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