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Kunian Gallery

Art of Antiquity

Although the Mead’s collection of Classical and Near Eastern antiquities is modest in quantity, it includes rare and important examples of monumental wall sculpture from the palace of the Assyrian king, Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.) at Nimrud (modern-day Iraq). Acquired in 1855, shortly after their excavation, these reliefs were the first works of art brought to Amherst College. The Mead’s Assyrian reliefs include full figures of the King and winged genii, flanking a Tree of Life, and containing the cuneiform text of the standard inscription. Other highlights of the collection include examples of Greek vase painting, Greek funerary sculptures and Roman portrait heads, and a Bronze Age marble figure from the Cycladic Islands.