Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A Lecture on the Exquisite Nimrud Treasures, April 10

The Discovery of the Nimrud Treasures

Dr. Donny George Youkhanna,

SUNY Stony Brook,

Former Director General of the Iraqi Museums

11:00 am, Saturday, April 10, 2010

Pillsbury Auditorium, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

A short commemoration of the looting of the Baghdad Museum will follow the talk.

The ancient site of Nimrud (modern Kalkhu) lies 35 km to the southeast of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. While Assyrian kings were buried beneath the palace at Assur, Assyrian queens were buried beneath the palace here. This lecture discusses the 1989 discovery by Iraqi archaeologists of four grave chambers in the family area of the Southwestern Palace of the Assyrian king Ashurnaserpal II (883-859 B.C.). The extraordinary finds from the tombs, which included over 65 kilograms of gold jewelry and a large number of precious stones, shed great light upon Assyrian royal burial practice and elite artistic production.

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