Paul Collins

Paul Collins is the Jaleh Hearn Curator for Ancient Near East at the Ashmolean Museum, and a Fellow of Jesus College and Wolfson College, Oxford University

Reclining cow, Jemdet Nasr period, 3300–3000 BC, Uruk, Iraq. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Photo: Olaf M. Tessmer; © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museen

The Mesopotamian city that can claim to be the cradle of civilisation

Uruk may not be as well known as Babylon or Ninevah, but layers of complex, urban life have been uncovered there over the course of the 20th century

7 Feb 2020

’Ram caught in thicket’, from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, (c. 2500–2400 BC), Sumerian, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.

Mythical beasts in Mesopotamia

What do sculpted animals in Mesopotamian art tell us about the relationship between gods and men?

3 Jun 2017

First Look: ‘Discovering Tutankhamun’ at the Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum will offer a new perspective on a famous archaeological find this summer

20 Jul 2014