July 22, 2022 – January 28, 2024
The National Museum of Korea has opened its Mesopotamian Gallery with an exhibition titled “Mesopotamia: Great Cultural Innovations, Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The exhibition features 66 items, including the famous “Panel with Striding Lion,” and will run from July 22, 2022, to January 28, 2024.
This marks the first exhibition of its kind to be hosted by a national museum in Korea.
The exhibition showcases the major achievements of Mesopotamian civilization in script, seals, religion, and portraiture. The Mesopotamian people’s invention of cuneiform writing was a definitive cultural innovation. The script was used to record trade and business transactions, develop abstract concepts, and systematically organize knowledge of the surrounding world.
Visitors will be introduced to the birth of cities and the development of a hierarchical society headed by priests and government officials. Additionally, the exhibition presents a seal and a bowl that hint at the collection and redistribution of goods through temples.
The exhibition is divided into three sections: Cultural Innovation, Art and Identity, and The Age of Empires. Visitors will learn about the Mesopotamian world’s major deities, temple architecture, and ritual practices, as well as works expressing individual identity. The exhibit also features Mesopotamian figurative sculptures and art from the two major Mesopotamian empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Overall, “Mesopotamia: Great Cultural Innovations, Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art” presents an important opportunity for visitors to explore the Mesopotamian cultural heritage and appreciate its influence on contemporary society.
For more information about this exhibition make sure to check out this link!
For more art, check out 4 Art Museums In Seoul You Should Visit