Primeval Waters

Crossed by the only two biblical ‘rivers of paradise’ known today, whose importance and danger may have inspired the Flood myth, ancient Mesopotamia was also the place where irrigation was first invented and developed. These early experiments in mastering water through artificial transformations of the natural environment led to the invention and development of the earliest known hydraulic structures (canals, bridges, aqueducts, pipe systems, artificial lakes and more) in Mesopotamia. These resulted in wide-ranging changes to the land and its inhabitants, whose long-term consequences, both positive and negative, will be explored in the exhibition. This exhibition draws from the extensive collection of the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities, which lends itself well to this subject, and winds through the department’s galleries to raise the issue of water within the Near Eastern antiquities collection and to explore what environmental lessons can be drawn there in both the past and the present.