On until 19th June this free exhibition at the Djanogly Gallery on the University of Nottingham campus is on tour from the British Museum. It’s aim is to highlight the challenges of protecting Iraq’s cultural heritage following decades of conflict. It had some very interesting objects on display such as this statue of Gudea who was the king of Girsu, one of Ancient Iraq’s earliest cities. Gudea had the statue of himself placed in one of the city’s temples as evidence that he worshipped the gods.
The British Museum’s Iraq Scheme which ran from 2015-2020 trained Iraqis in archaeology techniques and the rescue of important artefacts through two field work projects in the Ancient Iraqi cities of Girsu and Qalatga Darband.
This clay tablet dating to 2130BC records quantities of grain that were paid out to temple officials at Girsu.
This gold face mask was found in Nineveh which was once one of the largest cities in the world. Dating from around AD100-200 it would have been placed on the deceased before the body was wrapped in shrouds, possibly to offer protection and so the spirits could see and speak in the after life.
I don’t know a lot about Ancient Iraq so it was an interesting exhibition in that it gave a decent overview of some of the key points and gave a lot of information about the work currently going on there. Well worth a visit you can find some more photos here.
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