Collecting guide: the ancient Near East

When collecting ancient objects, it is often the history that speaks to us. Whether it is from one, two, three thousand years ago, it carries with it a long-forgotten tale. The societies that made up the ancient Near East, beginning with the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia, which dates back to more than 5,000 years ago, produced the first written language — a system of writing consisting of wedge-shaped characters we call cuneiform (coming from the Latin word cuneus for wedge).

From massive stone wall panels to more intimate gold images of deities, there is much more than meets the eye when looking this deep into the past.

Near Eastern art refers to works created in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant, as well as the South Arabian peninsula, Iran and Afghanistan, from the 6th millennium BC until the Arab conquest in the 7th century AD. In present-day terms, this is the area bounded by the Mediterranean sea to the West, Turkey to the North, Afghanistan in the East and Yemen in the South.

Perhaps the most typical type of objects that one sees on today's art market are stamp and cylinder seals. These had figural scenes engraved onto their surfaces that were designed to be viewed in relief once the seal was pressed or rolled into clay. Stamp seals appeared first, with the earliest examples dating to the 6th millennium BC, while cylinder seals emerged a bit later, during the second half of the 4th millennium BC, around when cuneiform writing was developed.

The usage of cylinder seals was a direct response to the needs of a growing bureaucracy that was increasingly involved with long-distance trade. Many of them are of the highest artistic quality, illustrating mythological subjects and often accompanied by cuneiform inscriptions identifying the owner. They can be carved from colourful stones such as jasper, chalcedony, agate, hematite and limestone, while less common examples are made from shell, bronze and frit.

Another class of object encountered on today's market are cuneiform tablets, typically in clay but copper, stone and even gold examples are known. Most clay tablets are humble documents that focus on an aspect of the detailed administrative functions of daily life, such as the number of livestock brought to temples, allotments of agricultural fields, and crop harvests. More elaborate tablets, cylinders or barrels can record political and diplomatic letters sent by rulers to their counterparts, mythological stories such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, or the exploits and lineages of a king. 

Other objects such as stone vessels, amulets and even bronze weapons were prominent throughout the region, all of which can be found engraved with cuneiform dedicatory inscriptions. Small votive sculptures of deities, monsters and animals are also prominent, albeit often without inscriptions.

By the early first millennium BC, much of the region was conquered by the Assyrians. The huge palaces of successive kings were decorated throughout with large relief panels sculpted in gypsum. Many reliefs from the palaces at Ninevah, first excavated by the English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in the 19th century, are now dispersed in museums throughout Europe and North America.

Very rarely do these panels come to market, however one superb example from the Virginia Theological Seminary, depicting a winged deity known as an Apkallu, achieved the world-record price of $30,968,750 when it sold at Christie’s New York in 2018. More often it is smaller fragments, such as a group of reliefs from the Collection of Vallo Benjamin to be sold in January 2023.

Gold was used throughout the ancient Near East, primarily for jewellery but also for small votive statues. Silver was also used, especially for various vessel types ranging from bowls to rhyta. Following the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, the region was briefly ruled from Babylon, until the rise of Achaemenid Persians in the mid-6th century BC. Two exceptional gold plaques, similar in style to the palace reliefs at the capital of Persepolis, were sold at Christie’s London in December 2021 for £1,402,500 and £1,642,500. These exquisite plaques were likely sewn onto the robes of an Achaemenid nobleman. More common on the art market are gold bracelets with animal head terminals, goats, calves or lions, sometimes surviving in pairs.

The nomadic peoples from the Eurasian steppes, such as the Scythians and later the Sarmatians, were noted by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus as being particularly rich with gold. Elaborate jewellery and vessels from this region appear on the market from time to time, such as the sheet-gold elements once attached to a rhyton of horn or wood, embossed with winged monsters and foliate motifs in the unmistakable Scythian style. ‘Since precious metal was often melted down and re-used in later periods,’ says Bernheimer, ‘it is all the more incredible that any ancient gold has survived to the present day.’

Fragments from larger objects often allow the viewer to focus on minute details, as they zero in on the carefully incised details of the work. Such is the case in a wall relief fragment from Sennacherib’s palace offered in Christie's upcoming Antiquities sale on 26 January, which preserves the head of an Assyrian warrior, focusing in on his helmet and armour in a way which would be more difficult when looking at a larger battle scene comprising hundreds of warriors.

The translation of the cuneiform text on another small fragment revealed that it was once on the reverse of a large panel from Ashurnasirpal II’s palace at Ninevah, part of the so-called ‘Slab Back Text’ that was cut away in the 19th century to allow for easier transport of the figural scene on the front.

Most of the works of art from the ancient Near East can be assigned to a specific period based on their style, as each successive period and place developed unique and recognizable formulae for depicting animals, monsters and gods.

‘Stylistic analyses of seal impressions allows them to be assigned with confidence to their correct epoch,’ says Bernheimer. Objects with cuneiform inscriptions offer further opportunities to pinpoint the date of manufacture, as these frequently mention the names of local or regional rulers, whose reign dates are well known. Works made of metal, terracotta or organic materials can be additionally subjected to scientific analysis.

Museums such as The Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Oriental Institute in Chicago, and the University Museum in Philadelphia have some of the largest collections of ancient Near Eastern art in the United States, but many smaller institutions throughout the country also have significant holdings. When exceptional examples do come to auction, they tend to fetch incredible prices, as evinced by the Assyrian relief in 2018.

Some of the highest prices for work from the ancient Near East have been achieved within the past five years, so it is a market to watch. But ultimately when acquiring objects from one of the earliest organized civilizations, you are collecting pieces of history. They tell stories of commerce, of society, that resonate even 6,000 years after they were made.