Antiquities Exhibits

Yesterday when I was researching the post about horses in the ancient world, I was intrigued by the detail image of a Persian horseman on the so-called Pazyryk carpet that Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones included in his blog post. The Pazyryk carpet is considered the oldest surviving example of a pile carpet in the world and is thought to have been made around 400 BCE in Armenia or Persia. It was discovered in a Scythian kurgan burial in the Pazyryk Valley of the Ukok plateau in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, Russia. The tomb mounds discovered there are now part of the  Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The horseman of the Pazyryk culture apparently  accumulated great wealth through horse trading with merchants in Persia, India and China as evidenced by the variety of grave goods including Chinese silk, the pile carpet,  horses decked out in elaborate trappings, and wooden furniture and a full-sized burial chariot fo...

Most of the knowledge regarding Urartu comes from a series of clay tablets found among ancient Assyrian ruins.  They hold the reports from Assyrian intelligence agents that were sent to various cities in Urartu. These clay tablets give us a record of history for a period of time around 714 BCE.  The people of Urartu referred to themselves as “Biainili.” Urartian texts have shown that the kings of Urartu often called themselves the “king of the land of Biaini,” and in Assyrian texts, Urartian kings were labeled the “king of the land of Nairi.” The land of Nairi/Biaini is known to be the land surrounding Lake Van (or the Sea of Nairi). Hebrew texts referred to Urartu as the “Kingdom of Ararat.” Historians believe that over the entire span of the kingdom’s life, people of Mitanni, Khurry, Khaldea, and Hittite blood lived among the Urartians during its early history. Its later inhabitants, those that eventually brought the kingdom to its end, were the Phrygians, Moskes, Armens, Sc...

Cultural heritage of Urartu. Ongoing. At the History Museum of Armenia In Yerevan, Armenia. The museum's Urartian collection includes cuneiform inscriptions, bronze statuettes, wall-paintings, painted ceramics, arms, and weapons with sculptural ornamentation, excavated from the archaeological sites of Karmir Blur, Arin-Berd, and Argishtikhinili. The museum also houses a large collection of 3rd to 2nd millennia BCE bronze item s, wooden carts and chariots from the 15th-14th century BCE excavated from Lchashen, a collection of Miletian, Greek-Macedonian, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, Sasanid, Byzantine, Arabic, and Seljuk gold, silver, and copper coins and 4th-5th century CE Christian finds from the cities of Dvin, Ani, and the fortress of Amberd. Urartian Shield of Sarduri II 753-735 BCE. Image courtesy of Wikimedia contributor Evgeny Genkin.

Armenia. Through January 13, 2019 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Bronze censor with engraved and chased details. 7th-8th century CE.  Image courtesy of the History Museum of Armenia, Yerevan (1265) This is the first major exhibition to explore the remarkable artistic and cultural achievements of the Armenian people in a global context over fourteen centuries—from the fourth century, when the Armenians converted to Christianity in their homeland at the base of Mount Ararat, to the seventeenth century, when Armenian control of global trade routes first brought books printed in Armenian into the region. Through some 140 objects - including opulent gilded reliquaries, richly illuminated manuscripts, rare textiles, cross stones (khachkars), precious liturgical furnishings, church models, and printed books.