Closing soon! The World Between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through June 23, 2019

Closing soon! The World Between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through June 23, 2019.
For over three centuries, the territories and trading networks of the Middle East were contested between the Roman and Parthian Empires (ca. 100 B.C.–A.D. 250), yet across the region life was not defined by these two superpowers alone. Local cultural and religious traditions flourished, and sculptures, wall paintings, jewelry, and other objects reveal how ancient identities were expressed through art. Featuring 190 works from museums in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, this exhibition follows a journey along the great incense and silk routes that connected cities in southwestern Arabia, Nabataea, Judaea, Syria, and Mesopotamia, making the region a center of global trade.


Image: Jointed alabaster statuette of a nude goddess with gold and ruby accents from Babylon in ancient Mesopotamia 1st century BCE - 1st century CE. Image courtesy of The Louvre in Paris, France.

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