Parthian Rhyton Artifact

The museum focuses on teaching and making visitors aware of the local culture that once was. Its main exhibits are farming tools and items you would see and use on a working

BOSTON, MA (June 23, 2014)—A world-class collection of jewels from ancient Nubia at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will go on view this summer in Gold and the Gods: Jewels of Ancient Nubia. The MFA’s collection of Nubian adornments is the most comprehensive outside Khartoum—the result of an early 20th-century expedition by the Museum with Harvard University. The exhibition opens on July 19, and includes works by Nubian goldsmiths and jewelers, who were among the most innovative in the ancient world. Featuring some 100 excavated ornaments dating from 1700 BC to AD 300, which will be on view in the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery, the exhibition explores the royal tombs of kings and queens, which were filled with elaborate jewelry such as necklaces, amulets, stacked bracelets and earrings. The MFA is unique in its ability to mount an exhibition of Nubian jewelry and adornment drawn exclusively from its own collection. In addition to gold––Nubia’s most important commodity––jewelry in the exhibition incorporates precious materials such as lapis lazuli (imported from Afghanistan), blue chalcedony (imported from Turkey), amethystine quartz and carnelian, as well as enamel and glass––both of which were rare and valuable new technologies at the time. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated MFA Publication on Nubian jewelry.

Description/Source: This artifact shows a ceramic bowl that was used by the Mayans in everyday life for pottery making and used in everyday art.

My item is the mummified hawk.The Museum of Anthropology describes that the remains of the hawk are wrapped in linen, which appears yellowish-brown and in relatively good condition. The size of the artifact isn’t given. The beak of the hawk is protruding from the linen wrappings. It also tells that this mummy came from Egypt sometime during the time period 1550 to 1069 B.C. It was probably made by the ancient Egyptians.

The artifact I choose this week to discuss was the hammer of Thor which dates back to the Viking Age and to Norse mythology. The history of the Mjölnir which was the hammer of Thor the Norse god related to thunder. Who was known as the indefatigable god who guarded Agard, home of the Aesir tribe of gods, and goddesses of Norse mythology. Thor was to prevent all who tried to destroy Asgard and kill Aesir and he did so with the use of his hammer. From all the symbols related to Norse mythology Thor’s hammer was among one of the most historically important and mostly the best known today.

In conclusion, I will talk about the most interesting place in the entire museum for me, The Temple of Dendur. It’s amazing how beautiful this place is. At the entrance, you encounter

The artwork that I selected is the Parthian Rhyton. It was created in Iran from the year 150 BC – AD 225. Its medium is made up of silver with mercury gilding. The Parthian Rhyton body structure includes half rampant goat and a half drinking horn. In the artwork, there is a separation mark or point of both the goat and the drinking horn this way it looks like the goat is laying down on its stomach. The artwork total dimension is approximately 535 cm.

The British Museum in London holds many ancient pieces of art. There are so many galleries and exhibits inside the museum that several pieces do not get the attention they deserve. One such piece resides in the Assyrian exhibit inside the museum. It is a collection of three alabaster panels that act as registers of a narrative story. The expertly carved reliefs illustrate the great lion hunt performed by an Assyrian king in an arena. So much emotion is portrayed in the brutal imagery of the lion hunt. These great alabaster slabs once resided in an Assyrian palace in present day Nineveh. The reliefs were excavated in the 1840’s by Hormuzd Rassam, employed by Austen Henry Layard of the British Museum. Rassum found the palace by secretly digging at night because the site was originally claimed by French archeologist Victor Place. Since the excavation, the lion hunt reliefs have been displayed in the British Museum. The lion hunt reliefs features so many qualities ranging from historical to artistic. In this report the topic of why the reliefs were made, how they represented the king, the symbolism of the lion, and artistic prowess of the piece will be exposed.

A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, The Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multiculturalism. In this talk Neil MacGregor, who is the director of the British museum, traces 2600 years of middle eastern history through this cuneiform script. Throughout this talk there are very interesting facets that emerge from Neil’s talk, including the entire text on the cylinder, being symbolic.

The Asian Art Museum offered a plethora of antique art-pieces from South Asia, the Persian world, West Asia, the Himalayas, and the Tibetan Buddhist world, covering 6000 years of art and culture. There are pieces that stand out more than others, for my case, these two pieces were The Ritual Wine Vessel (so-called yayi jia) and the Hindu Deity Vishnu. The Ritual Wine Vessel, made from bronze, dates back to 1300-1050 BCE, laying within the Chinese Shang dynasty (approx. 1600-1050 BCE). This piece was found in China, Henan province, and was made by an unidentified artist. On the other hand, the Hindu Deity Vishnu, made from phyllite stone, dates from 1100-1200 CE in the Indian Pala period (c. 850-1310,). This sculpture was found in India or Bangladesh,

The most interesting artifacts within the museum to me were the Egyptian pieces. Like many people, ancient Egypt has always fascinated me. As a child, one of my favorite shows dealt with ancient Egypt’s mythos, so it has been an interest since childhood. I got the privilege in grade school to visit the Tutankhamen Exhibit at Emory University in Atlanta, and that is by far one of the most exciting museum trips I have been on. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the Egyptian artifacts.

While perusing through the different pieces of art in the museum, the piece that really struck my eye comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, called a bow harp, produced by the Azande people in the early 20th century. Made from wood, animal hide, and fiber, the bow harp measures about 32 inches in length. As an ethnic group in North America, the Azande people primarily live in the northeastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as mentioned above. In South Sudan, the Azande prove to be the third largest ethnic group. In their culture, the practice of witchcraft and different superstitions evident. With no real origin of the Azande people, the prevailing myth explains that once these people die, they can recompense as different

Analytical investigations of archaeological objects bring us much information on the de‐ velopment and propagation of technologies on cultures. To conserve and restore these valuable and scarce objects, it is indispensable to under‐ stand their chemical constituents and crystal structures. The Egyptian‐Polish archaeological Excava‐ tion to Hawarra pyramid area, Fayoum (Fig.1A) covered many archaeological materials such as, many pieces of human bones, various skulls, two skeletons of sacred crocodiles, terracotta, and one gilded mask with many fragments of colored cartonnage. These fragments decorated with religious gods.

I chose the amphora from the Museum of Classical Archaeology that has a Roman date. During the Bronze Age was when the Greco-Roman word, amphora, developed in ancient Greek. An amphora is a large vessel used for storage and transport in pre-modern times. Amphorae (plural) were used in large numbers for the transport and storage of various products, usually wine, but it was used for both liquid and dry products. This amphora was also used for the typical purposes of storage and transport, but I believe it was used on a ship. It was obviously found sunk in the sea, as it has lime incrustations and remains of shells that cling to the surface and so, therefore, it was used on a ship. The base aided transport by ship, and the amphorae were stored upright or on their sides in layers. If it was upright, they were most likely held by a rack or ropes passed through their handles to prevent shifting during rough seas. Amphorae often indicate the age of a shipwreck and the geographic origin of the cargo so they benefit maritime archaeologist who are exploring shipwrecks.

Ancient artifact I did a little more research and it was lost a Long time ago