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 ...
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In the late 1920s, large quantities <strong>of</strong> bronze<br />
artifacts began to circulate in the art<br />
market, and by 1930 their source was<br />
recognized as Luristan, a mountainous<br />
region in western Iran, bordering Mesopotamia<br />
and Elam. Aside from a few<br />
archaeological campaigns, especially<br />
those <strong>of</strong> Erich Schmidt at Surkh Dum in<br />
1938 and Louis Vanden Berghe at many<br />
sites from 1965 to 1979, the great majority<br />
<strong>of</strong> Luristan bronzes derive from clandestine<br />
digging. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong><br />
has in its collection forty-one objects,<br />
twenty-four <strong>of</strong> them bronzes, from Surkh<br />
Dum. Because so many bronzes have<br />
been dispersed so widely, it is impossible<br />
to estimate the number in existence, but<br />
there must be thousands.<br />
We do not know the ancient name and<br />
language <strong>of</strong> Luristan, or why the bronzes<br />
were made, or what constituted the economy<br />
that supported their manufacture. It<br />
is also difficulto identify the full range <strong>of</strong><br />
cultural artifacts and to establish their<br />
56<br />
40