15.11.2012
Pergamonmuseum
A highlight in next year's exhibition calendar at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will be Uruk - 5000 Years of the Megacity, due to go on show at the Pergamonmuseum. The project is being organized by our Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East), in collaboration with the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim (and in particular with its Curt-Engelhorn Foundation), together with the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), and the German Oriental Society.
The initial press conference unveiling plans for the forthcoming show took place today in the Pergamonmuseum itself, where it will open in a few months. The conference was attended by Michael Eissenhauer, Director General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Margarete van Ess, Scientific Director of the DAI's Orient Department, our own Beate Salje, Director of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, and Nicola Crüsemann, a leading curator at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen's Curt-Engelhorn Foundation.
The site of Uruk, now Warka, contains one of the largest city ruins in what was once southern Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq. It is the first known city in human history and several enduring achievements of human civilization are associated with it. It is the first time an in-depth major exhibition is being dedicated to the origins and flowering of the first known city in the world. Visitors in Berlin will have the chance to see the exhibition at the Pergamonmuseum from 25 April 2013 to 8 September 2013, while visitors to Mannheim will be able to see the show at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen from 20 October 2013 to 21 April 2014. The exhibition promises to give the public unique insight into the architecture and lived realities of the inhabitants of the first major urban settlement in the ancient Near East and will trace its fascinating development over the course of several millennia.