Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...

Beginning in the early 1930s and continuing
to the present, the Metropolitan
Museum has been a sponsor of archaeological
excavations in the Near East.
Before World War II the Museum supported
excavations at Qasr-i Abu Nasr
and Nishapur in Iran, and at Ctesiphon in
Iraq; during the 1950s its concern with
archaeological activity increased dramatically.
In the past three decades excavations
and research have been conducted
with other institutions at fourteen sites in
Iran, five in Iraq, two each in Syria and
Jordan, and one in Turkey. The Museum
has helped to finance these projects, and
members of its curatorial staff have served
as directors or codirectors of several
excavations. As a result of its support,
the Museum has acquired much material
from many cultures and periods, but its
support has not always been contingent
on receiving objects in return.
The Metropolitan Museum first partici-
pated in excavating in the Near East in
1931-32, when it joined forces with the
German State Museums at the site of
Ctesiphon in Iraq. And from 1932 to 1934
the Museum itself sponsored three seasons
of excavations at Qasr-i Abu Nasr, a
few miles southeast of Shiraz in southwestern
Iran. The site consists of a large
town and fortress and dates from the late
Sasanian and early Islamic periods from
the sixth to the eighth century A.D. Remains
of earlier Achaemenid architecture and
carvings that had been transported from
nearby Persepolis were also recovered.
The Achaemenid material was subsequently
restored to Persepolis, and a
large number of objects came to the
Museum as its share of the finds. These
include seals and sealings, coins, pottery,
and objects of glass, stone, bone, and
metal. One of the metal objects acquired
is a bronze stand (fig. 46) that probably
held a lamp or candle. Qasr-i Abu Nasr is
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