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Openwork plaque with a striding sphinx

Syrian-style openwork plaque with a striding sphinx, ca. 9th–8th century B.C. Neo-Assyrian period. Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Ivory. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1964 (64.37.1)

"A tale of absolutely stunning human invention."—New York Times

"A glorious view onto a distant epochal cycle that feels, at times, uncannily close."—Wall Street Journal

"The artistic legacy of the early first millennium B.C. ... proves as complex, as arresting, and as essential to civilization as the classical Greek culture it gave rise to."—New Yorker

Major support is provided by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund,
the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman.

Stavros Niarchos Foundation logo

Additional support is provided by an Anonymous Foundation and the Friends of Inanna.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts
and the Humanities.

The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
The Hagop Kevorkian Fund, and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.

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Sunday at the Met: Navigating the Mediterranean

Program information

Discover how Phoenician sailors built a trading network spanning the entire Mediterranean.

Welcome and Introduction:
Joan Aruz, Curator in Charge, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lectures:
"Foreign Exchange: Phoenician Maritime Trade in the Western Mediterranean"
Mark Polzer, Research Associate, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, College Station, Texas 

"Recreating an Ancient Phoenician Voyage"
Philip Beale, Expedition Leader, The Phoenician Ship Expedition 

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age, on view September 22, 2014–January 4, 2015.

Recorded October 5, 2014

Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age

September 22, 2014–January 4, 2015

#AssyriaToIberia

Exhibition Programs (PDF)

Purchase advance tickets to avoid waiting in admission lines. Exhibitions are free with Museum admission.

At its height in the eighth to seventh century b.c., the Assyrian Empire was the dominant power of the ancient Near East and the largest empire the world had yet seen, reaching from Assyria (present-day northern Iraq) to the Mediterranean. As Assyria expanded, the Phoenician city-states of the Levant—precariously located along the edge of Assyrian territory—were compelled to expand and strengthen their maritime trade networks to the west. The mercantile connections they established along the northern coast of Africa and the southern coast of Europe to the Strait of Gibraltar and beyond, to the Atlantic, became conduits for raw materials, luxury goods, images, and ideas between the Near East and the Mediterranean.

This landmark exhibition traces—through some 260 works of art on loan from major collections in Western Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, North Africa, and the United States—the deep roots of interaction between the ancient Near East and the lands along the shores of the Mediterranean and their impact on the artistic traditions that developed in the region. Parallels are also drawn between works in the exhibition and those in the Metropolitan Museum's permanent collection of ancient Near Eastern art.

Slideshow of Exhibition Highlights

Accompanied by an Audio Guide

More about the Exhibition

Exhibition Catalogue

Catalogue cover

Masterpieces of the early first millennium B.C. are showcased in this essential new volume.

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From the Blog

Assyria to Iberia: Reflections
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Feasting in Cyprus during the Heroic Age
Posted on December 15, 2014 by Annie Caubet