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Kish Collection
The ancient city of Kish was occupied from at least as early as 3200 B.C. through the 7th century A.D. Located on the floodplain of the Euphrates River eighty kilometers south of modern Baghdad, Kish held an extraordinary position during the formative periods of Mesopotamian history. At that time, it seems to have been the only important city in the northern part of the alluvium, while there were several major centers in the south.
Learn moreThe ancient city of Kish was occupied from at least as early as 3200 B.C. through the 7th century A.D. Located on the floodplain of the Euphrates River eighty kilometers south of modern Baghdad, Kish held an extraordinary position during the formative periods of Mesopotamian history. At that time, it seems to have been the only important city in the northern part of the alluvium, while there were several major centers in the south. The ancient Mesopotamians regarded Kish as the first city to which "kingship descended from heaven" after the great flood that had destroyed the world. During the third millennium B.C., rule over Kish implied dominance over the entire northern part of the plain, and the title "King of Kish" bestowed prestige analogous to that of the medieval "Holy Roman Emperor."
From 1923 through 1933, joint archaeological expeditions of The Field Museum of Natural History and Oxford University explored many of the twenty-four-square-kilometer site's forty mounds, uncovering significant evidence of Kish's extremely early urbanization and its prominence as a dominant regional polity. However, no final site report of the work of those seasons was ever published.
The lack of a final site report for Kish stands as a significant lacuna in the archaeological record of Mesopotamia, effectively precluding an understanding of the true historical significance of this crucial Mesopotamian city. The Field Museum, along with the Ashmolean Museum and the Iraq Museum, hope to make such a final publication of the Kish excavations a reality. Roger Moorey, in the preface to his 1978 work Kish Excavations 1923-1933, undertaken to produce a catalogue of the Ashmolean's Kish holdings, concisely encapsulates the necessity of this endeavor:
"In undertaking this project, nearly fifty years after the excavations were started, I have been very conscious that the original work was inspired by aims no longer recognized as viable and executed by methods which were largely inadequate...It would be to confound the evil if the results of this excavation were for these reasons ignored and the finds, with what is left of the records, allowed to suffer further neglect. It would be particularly so at a time when fresh excavations at Kish on this scale are unlikely, though modern development there is radically modifying the site. Ideally all three collections should be fully published as a single unit..." (pp. viii, xxi)
The Kish web site details the history, progress, and future prospects of the Kish Project, a federally funded effort to virtually reconcile and publish, in both print and digital formats, the expansive—and divided—collection of ancient material culture from the Mesopotamian city of Kish.
Continue to Kish: Past, Present, and Future >
Image above: Akkadian period shell cylinder seal with its impression from Kish, Iraq. Catalog Number 1497.156670. © The Field Museum.
View lessThe Kish web site details the history, progress, and future prospects of the Kish Project, a federally funded effort to virtually reconcile and publish, in both print and digital formats, the expansive—and divided—collection of ancient material culture from the Mesopotamian city of Kish.
The work of the Kish Project, 2004-2006, was generously funded by a grant (PI-500014-04) from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the "Recovering Iraq's Past" initiative, with additional funds from Joyce Chelberg and other private donors. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
From August 2006 through July 2009, the project is being funded by a grant from the office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of Administration and Management. The content of this web site does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
The work of the Kish Project would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of a number of key institutions and individuals. The list of partners provided herein is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather an indication of the enormous number of talented individuals required to make an undertaking of this sort possible.
- The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. Deborah Bekken, Janice Bell, Bennet Bronson, Sarah Coleman, Becky D'Angelo, Kelly Eldridge, Gary Feinman, Alexis Jordan, Daniel Maratto, Greg Mercer, Ally Meyer, Steve Nash, William Pestle, James Phillips, Emily Olsen, Leslie Schramer, Katie Skorpinski, Karen Wilson, Neil Young.
- The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Suzanne Anderson, Chezzy Brownen, Julie Clements, Geraldine Glynn, Arthur MacGregor, Roger Moorey (deceased), Mark Norman, Alison Roberts, Andrew Sherratt (deceased), Susan Walker, Helen Whitehouse.
- The Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Amira Edan Al-Thahab, Safiya Ismael Abdulaal.
- The Oriental Institute, Chicago. McGuire Gibson, Clemens Reichel, Gil Stein.
- University of Illinois at Chicago. Michael Colvard, Richard Jurevic.
- University of Oxford. Stephanie Dalley.
- University of Michigan. Norman Yoffee.
- Colorado College. Christina Torres-Rouff.
- State University of New York at Stony Brook. Elizabeth Stone, Donny George Youkhana.
- Yale University. David Reese.
- Columbia University. Zainab Bahrani.
- Arthur M. Sackler Foundation. Trudy Kawami.
