Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin

The Vorderasiatisches Museum stands in the basement of the south wing of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. It holds one of the world’s largest collections of Southwest Asian art. Fourteen halls cover 2,000 square metres and display objects from six millennia, from the 6th millennium BCE to the Muslim conquests. The exhibits come mainly from modern Iraq, Syria and Turkey, with key finds from Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria. Northern Syria and eastern Anatolia are also strongly represented. The museum’s collection grew from excavations in cities such as Uruk, Assur, Hattusha and Babylon. Many pieces reached Berlin through the German Oriental Society after 1899. The Middle East Department opened in 1899 and moved into the Pergamon Museum in 1930. During the Second World War losses were light, and looted items were returned from the Soviet Union in 1958. The museum reopened in 1953 under its current name. Visitors find the Ishtar Gate and Procession Way of Babylon, parts of temples in Uruk, and over 200 Amarna letters. The collection includes thousands of cylinder seals and cuneiform tablets, including a major fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Barbara Helwing leads the museum today, following earlier directors such as Walter Andrae and Beate Salje. The Multaka project offers guided tours in Arabic and Persian for refugees and migrants, linking past and present.