Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus | Explore & Learn

Masterpieces

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Our civilization is rooted in the forms and innovations of societies that flourished in western Asia more than four thousand years ago. The earliest emerged in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Trade routes linked Mesopotamia with the surrounding regions of Anatolia, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley where distinct civilizations had emerged with their own traditions of dynamic art and architecture.

Select a region to view a masterpiece from the exhibition.

Aegean
Anatolia
Caucasus
Syria
Mesopotamia
Iran
Gulf Region
Western Central Asia
Indus Valley

The material in this section was derived from the exhibition catalogue, Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Edited by Joan Aruz with Ronald Wallenfels. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003. The catalogue is available in the Museum's bookshops and online in the Met Store.

The exhibition catalogue is made possible in part by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund and The Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund, in memory of the de Groot and Hawley families.

Many thanks to the Museum's Editorial Department for making portions of the exhibition catalogue available for online use.

Photograph Credits