Mesopotamian art from University of Pennsylvania continues US tour

One result of the continuing US and British engagement in Iraq and the constant news coverage of events is a growing curiosity among American audiences about Iraq’s ancient heritage. The University of Pennsylvania Museum has announced that, due to continuing demand, it is to extend the tour of an exhibition drawn from its Mesopotamian collection. “Treasures from the royal tombs of Ur” has been travelling since 1998 and has already been seen in 10 US cities including New York, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas. It returns to the University of Pennsylvania Museum in March and then, in September, it will be on the road again, travelling to at least three additional cities. The university’s collection, which includes a gilded, bull-headed lyre inlaid with lapis lazuli, was excavated in Iraq in the late 1920s by the British archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley in a joint University of Pennsylvania Museum/British Museum expedition at the royal tombs of Ur, the Sumerian site which dates to 2600-2500 BC.