Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Beginning in the early 1930s and continuing<br />
to the present, the <strong>Metropolitan</strong><br />
<strong>Museum</strong> has been a sponsor <strong>of</strong> archaeological<br />
excavations in the <strong>Near</strong> East.<br />
Before World War II the <strong>Museum</strong> supported<br />
excavations at Qasr-i Abu Nasr<br />
and Nishapur in Iran, and at Ctesiphon in<br />
Iraq; during the 1950s its concern with<br />
archaeological activity increased dramatically.<br />
In the past three decades excavations<br />
and research have been conducted<br />
with other institutions at fourteen sites in<br />
Iran, five in Iraq, two each in Syria and<br />
Jordan, and one in Turkey. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Museum</strong><br />
has helped to finance these projects, and<br />
members <strong>of</strong> its curatorial staff have served<br />
as directors or codirectors <strong>of</strong> several<br />
excavations. As a result <strong>of</strong> its support,<br />
the <strong>Museum</strong> has acquired much material<br />
from many cultures and periods, but its<br />
support has not always been contingent<br />
on receiving objects in return.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> first partici-<br />
pated in excavating in the <strong>Near</strong> East in<br />
1931-32, when it joined forces with the<br />
German State <strong>Museum</strong>s at the site <strong>of</strong><br />
Ctesiphon in Iraq. And from 1932 to 1934<br />
the <strong>Museum</strong> itself sponsored three seasons<br />
<strong>of</strong> excavations at Qasr-i Abu Nasr, a<br />
few miles southeast <strong>of</strong> Shiraz in southwestern<br />
Iran. <strong>The</strong> site consists <strong>of</strong> a large<br />
town and fortress and dates from the late<br />
Sasanian and early Islamic periods from<br />
the sixth to the eighth century A.D. Remains<br />
<strong>of</strong> earlier Achaemenid architecture and<br />
carvings that had been transported from<br />
nearby Persepolis were also recovered.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Achaemenid material was subsequently<br />
restored to Persepolis, and a<br />
large number <strong>of</strong> objects came to the<br />
<strong>Museum</strong> as its share <strong>of</strong> the finds. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
include seals and sealings, coins, pottery,<br />
and objects <strong>of</strong> glass, stone, bone, and<br />
metal. One <strong>of</strong> the metal objects acquired<br />
is a bronze stand (fig. 46) that probably<br />
held a lamp or candle. Qasr-i Abu Nasr is<br />
44<br />
36