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Past Exhibitions
Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus
May 8, 2003–August 17, 2003
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, 2nd floor
View a special, in-depth feature designed to complement the exhibition.
Read an essay from the exhibition catalogue.
Listen to samples from the accompanying Audio Guide.
Learn more about the exhibition.
This exhibition explores through art the emergence of the world’s first city-states and empires in Syria and Mesopotamia during the third millennium B.C. and relates these developments to artistic and cultural connections stretching from the eastern Aegean to the Indus valley and Central Asia. The works of art, many brought together for the first time, illustrate the splendor of the most famous sites of the ancient world including the Royal Graves of Ur, the palace and temples of Mari, the citadel of Troy, and the great cities of the Indus Valley civilization. The exhibition includes approximately 400 works of extraordinary sculpture, jewelry, seals, relief carving, metalwork, and cuneiform tablets.

The exhibition is made possible by Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman.
Additional support has been provided by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.