Exhibits THIS NEEDS TO BE A DROP DOWN FROM OUTREACH
In addition to maintaining displays on the third floor of Sterling Library, the Collection frequently contributes materials to permanent and special exhibitions in the libraries, Art Gallery, Peabody Museum, and elsewhere on campus. The Collection’s tablets, seals, and other objects have appeared in such exhibits as Exotic Animals in Ancient Near Eastern Art (1977), Incantations and Medical Texts (1979), Ancient Syria at Yale (1983), A Great Assemblage: An Exhibit of Judaica (1995), Yale and the Ancient Holy Land: Archaeology and Exploration in the Yale Collections (1999), From Bactria to Afghanistan (2002), Lost Treasures from Iraq (2003), Oil in the Ancient Near East (2006), Globalization (2007), The Silk Road (2008), and Echoes of Egypt (2013). The culinary tablets were featured in Middle Eastern Cuisine (2007), the 10th anniversary exhibit of the Yale Sustainable Food Project (2014), and the _______holiday card of the University Library, as well as on a _____BBC television program. Exhibits on the origins of writing, Western civilization, and Yale’s collections and international interests regularly include Babylonian Collection artifacts.
From 2002 to 2012, the Collection mounted a series of exhibits that explored in depth a wide range of themes, several of them coordinated with conferences and other events being held at Yale: METRON and Mesopotamia (2002), Man & Beast in Mesopotamia (2002), Love in Mesopotamia (2004), Mayhem in Mesopotamia (2005), Magic in Mesopotamia (2006), Madness in Mesopotamia (2007), Justice in Mesopotamia (2007), Birds in Babylonia (2008), School Days in Sumer (2009), Treasures of the Yale Babylonian Collection (2009), From Nineveh to New Haven (2009), and Monarchs in Mesopotamia (2012).
Museums in North America and Europe regularly ask to borrow tablets and objects from the Collection to include in exhibitions. Recent loan requests have come from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, the Oriental Institute, the Caixaforum in Madrid and Barcelona, the Palazzo delle Espeziene, Rome, among other institutions. In 2013, a cast of one of the tablets in the Collection was sent for display at the National Museum in Muscat, Oman, and a photographic exhibit was created for the American Consulate in Basra, Iraq.
Education THIS NEEDS TO BE A DROP DOWN FROM OUTREACH
The Collection annually welcomes dozens of school groups and their teachers to learn about ancient Mesopotamia through first-hand experience with tablets and other objects. Students often try their hand at rolling cylinder seals and making cuneiform signs by writing with a stylus on clay. In addition, the Collection often hosts Yale undergraduate and graduate student classes, especially in the humanities and social sciences.
In 2013, a grant from MIT supported the production of a video for teaching early mathematics to high school students, using tablets from the Collection.
Join Us THIS NEEDS TO BE A NEW DROP DOWN from outreach
Since its founding, the Collection has benefited from the generosity of many individuals and institutions. As we embark on our second century, we invite you to join the Friends of the Yale Babylonian Collection. HERE LINK TO FORM, PDF Your gifts and support will enable the Collection to continue its educational, stewardship, and research mission. Please note that the Collection’s acquisition policy abides by the terms of the 1970 UNESCO Convention. For further information, including a Wish List of immediate and long-term needs, contact the Curator, benjamin.foster@yale.edu.