Art of the Ancient Middle East

The display in this gallery introduces visitors with the art of ancient peoples who inhabited the Near East, the Mediterranean region, the Indian sub-continent and Latin America. Casts taken from works of Assyrian art were used to decorate this gallery: Shedu demons depicted as doorkeepers and reliefs from royal palaces. The original works of art assembled in this room do not constitute a single systematic collection: Urartu pottery, cuneiform tablets, Parthian rhyta, Indian sculpture and vessels from pre-Columbian America are brought together here.