"It does seem to indicate the balancing of forces of nature."

Yelena Rakic, associate curator in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, invites #MetKids to learn about cylinder seals at The Met.

The Metropolitan Museum Journal is issued annually and publishes original research on works of art in the Museum’s collection. Highlights of volume 53 include an exquisite pair of 17th-century Chinese birthday gift portraits of an elderly couple, a hidden painting of a Rococo-inspired nude underneath Manet’s 1862 Mademoiselle V. . . . in the Costume of an Espada, and a new identification of the central figure in Daumier’s The Third-Class Carriage.

Stamp and cylinder seals are a crucial source for the art, history, and religion of the ancient Near East. The rulers, gods, demons, and monsters that move in stately and seemingly dumb procession around the seals give us important insights into the real and magical worlds of the ancients. Cylinder and stamp seals were among the first objects to enter the Museum's collection from the Near East. In 1874 a large and interesting group was included in the Cesnola collection of ancient Cypriot art, and in 1886 cylinder and stamp seals from Mesopotamia—as well as more than three hundred cuneiform tablets—were acquired from William H. Ward. Through its participation in excavations and through gifts and purchases, the Museum has received since that time over a thousand stamp and cylinder seals from all periods and regions in the pre-Islamic Near East. This catalogue and the exhibition in the Museum's Recent Acquisitions gallery acknowledge the generous gift of more than two hundred and fifty seals from the Martin and Sarah Cherkasky collection of stamp and cylinder seals. It is an important gift—one that substantially strengthens and supplements the Museum's holdings. Additionally, the exhibition includes a number of objects from the permanent collection for comparative and illustrative purposes.

Real Alto, an archaeological site located in southwest Ecuador’s Chanduy Valley, represents one of the oldest organized villages in South America.

Artist Dustin Yellin reflects on ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals in this episode of The Artist Project.

Since only the menuisier was obliged to sign his work, the names of the other craftsmen are, unfortunately, rarely known.

Senegalese icon Baaba Maal highlights traditional instruments and musical storytelling of the Sahel in this rare acoustic performance in The Met's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.