Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 12. (Budapest, 1970)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Meyer, G. R.: The Museum of Western Asiatic Antiquity in Berlin (G.D.R.) Rebuilt and Reorganized

This hall was given some mural ornamentation, the elements of which were taken from figures of animals and symbolic ornaments inlaid with clay. The originals, after which the frieze was designed, belong to a period about 2600 years before our era, and can be seen in a showcase. It is in Room 6 that we meet remnants of the culture and art of Old Babylon for the first time (fig. 1). The passage from Room 5 to Room 6 has been designed as a doorway, reminding us of the Gate of the goddess Ishtar in Babylon as re-built in room 9. The masonry has a decoration of burnt loam bricks with animal sculptures (bulls and dragons) projecting from the background. A part of the longitudinal wall of the room presents the same animal designs, though not in relief, but in multicoloured, glazed tiles, with bands of rosettes and marginal decorations of the same material added. Apart from many valuable and instructive items, mainly from Babylon during the first millennium before our era, a choice from our collection of approximately 2000 cylinder seals and stamp seals is shown in this room. Room 7 takes us to Persia. The antiques mainly date back to the time of the Achaemenian Empire (in the fifth and fourth century before our era). It is a particularly strong impression that any visitor gets from the Processional Way of Babylon in Room 8 (fig. 2). This section of the street, once leading through the Royal Castle, as well as the front of the Ishtar Gate in Room 9, was rebuilt in 1930 from many thousands of fragments under the direction of W. Andrae. following the information gained during the excavations, and restored 1951. This was a scientific achievement of the very first order. Both these structures could not be rebuilt in full size, however, as space in the Museum was limited. But it has been tried to reconstruct, on approximately the original scale, the ancient appearance of at least one section of the Processional Way and of the Ishtar Gate (fig. 3). Costly coloured relief-tile ornamentation (lions or bulls and dragons) is typical of these massive buildings of the time of Nebuchadrezzar II (about 580 before our era). In Room 9 a, a model of one section of the Processional Way together with the Ishtar Gate has been built up. Besides, a selection of original photographs will be found here which were taken during excavations on various sites of ancient West Asian cities (Uruk, Babylon, and Assur). Special attention should be given to the northern suite of rooms in our Museum (Rooms 10 a to 12), which have been completely reorganized and dedicated to the remains from Assyria. Enormous relief panels about 7 feet high have been fitted into the front wall of Room 10. They represent mythical figures (winged Genii) and once decorated the walls of the palace of Assur-nasir-pal II (883 to 859 before our era) in Kalchu (Nimrud). — Immense foundation deposits from Assur inscribed in cuneiform by Tukulti-Ninurta I (about 1220 before our era) as well as three sculptures in the round of the twentieth to the eighteenth centuries B.C. have been placed in the centre of the hall. A number of built-in, perfectly lighted showcases contain a choice of finds, among them many stone sculptures from the archaic Ishtar Temple, besides weapons, tools, personal ornaments, and pottery, partly of later periods. On one of the shorter walls of the room we find a lion-hunt relief of Assurnasir-pal II; then the so-called "Fountain Relief" from Assur with the image