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

Reviews
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
Features
’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
Previews

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

Current Issue

January 2021

In the news

The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City (1931), at the San Francisco Art Institute.

A Diego Rivera mural is the San Francisco Art Institute’s prize asset – but that doesn’t mean it should be sold

The work is central to the identity of the cash-strapped school

Keeping time – the Tunisian clock monuments that tell of a bygone regime

A decade after the uprisings that led to the downfall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the clocks he loved remain

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Podcast

The Apollo 40 under 40 podcast: Mohamad Hafez

The Syrian-born, US-based artist talks to Gabrielle Schwarz about his sculptural dioramas of cities ravaged by war – and offers a message of hope for the future

Art news daily

The week in art news – Art Basel postponed to September

The week in art news – world’s oldest animal painting found in Indonesia

The week in art news – Indian Supreme Court approves plans for new parliament complex

Latest Comment

Robert Jenrick wants to keep the mob at bay. So why is he leading it with a pitchfork?

The invasion of the Capitol fulfilled a warning from history – and will haunt us for years to come

A Diego Rivera mural is the San Francisco Art Institute’s prize asset – but that doesn’t mean it should be sold