Opening Gala - Recasting Antiquity Student Exhibition

The public is invited to join students and faculty for the opening gala Friday, December 4th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Arts @ 29 Garden facility with the opening statement given by one of the world's leading experts in the field of ancient Near Eastern art, Professor Irene Winter. Recasting Antiquity opens to the public Thursday, December 3rd at 1:00 PM at Harvard University's Arts @ 29 Garden, Cambridge, Massachusetts and will remain open through Friday, December 11th at 4:00 PM.

About Recasting Antiquity 

Harvard students from Ancient Near East 103 “Ancient Lives” will exhibit casts of stone reliefs from two Assyrian palaces dated to the early first millennium BCE. Working with the Harvard Semitic Museum over the last year, they have created the durable resin casts from the museum’s plaster casts of the original reliefs, most of which are from Nimrud’s Northwest palace of Assurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE) in what is today Iraq, and which include scenes of royal lion hunting, cultic ritual, and warfare.

Visitors will experience what an ancient Mesopotamian would have seen when looking at the wall carvings; color projection onto a white relief will recreate the vibrant colors of the original. The soundscape of these buildings is recreated in the gallery using original compositions inspired by surviving musical notations from ancient Mesopotamia. Visitors will also get a rare look into the unique and complex process of the casting and preservation of these ancient objects, which has become even more important in light of the recent destruction of the ancient Assyrian places by Daesh iconoclasts.

“The Harvard Semitic Museum is one of the only places in New England where one can study a large variety of Mesopotamian objects ranging from archaeologically excavated artifacts to large replicas like these fragile reliefs,” said Adam Aja, assistant curator of collections. “The students’ new casts will enable further study by scholars, the community, and Harvard. And the students’ exhibition serves as a preview of a future Harvard Semitic Museum exhibition, which is currently in development. It will showcase even more casts, coupled with authentic artifacts.”