Berlin, Pergamon Museum

Q157298

The Pergamonmuseum is probably Berlin’s most famous cultural institution. It contains three major collections which, each in itself, might have been fine museums: a classical department, a department of ancient Near Eastern art, and a department of Islamic art. What they have in common is their connection to the former Ottoman Empire. In each of these departments, you will see splendid works of art.

The museum is named after the city of Pergamon, where German archaeologists found the famous altar that now stands in the central room of the museum. (In fact, the museum was built around the altar.) The north wing is devoted to Greek and Roman art, and you will find archaic sphinxes, classical reliefs, and so on.

The south wing contains the department of ancient Near Eastern art, which includes the famous Ištar Gate from Babylon and the ancient procession road, which appears to date back to the Seleucid age. Among the other objects are orthostats from Tell Halaf, prehistoric finds from Uruk, the royal tombs of Assur, bronzes from Luristan, objects from Nineveh, and of course lots of cuneiform tablets. Among the most fascinating documents is a tablet that mentions the Judaean king Jehoiachin.

If you go upstairs, you will find yourself in the department of Islamic art. Again, a complete building has been moved from its original location to the German capital: this time, a substantial part of the wall of the early Islamic Mshatta, one of Jordan’s desert castles. But there’s a lot more to see. I must have been gazing at a splendid manuscript of Saadi’s Rose Garden for at least half an hour.

It is easy to spend a day in the Pergamonmuseum, and that is also a problem: it can be extremely crowded. When I was there last June, I could easily enter the building, but last week, early August, there was a long queue. When I entered the museum, it felt muggy, and I wondered whether the humidity wasn’t dangerous for the objects.

This museum was visited in 1988, 1989, 2000, 2010.

63 pictures related to this museum

Esarhaddon Stela, cast, detail	Aššur, Glazed pottery	The Pergamon Altar on a coin	Nineveh, Palace of Aššurbanipal, Soldier with a captured bull and a female slave from Elam
Esarhaddon Stela from Zincirli	Model of Babylon's Esagila Temple	Relief of Apollo	Babylon's Ishtar Gate
Aššur, Royal Tombs, Sarcophagus of Aššurnasirpal II	Aššur, Glazed brick panel with a capricorn	Aššur, Temple of Aššur, Old-Assyrian relief of three deities (and two goats)	Procession Street, decoration
Terracotta Heracles from Babylon	Aššur, Royal Tombs, Sarcophagus of Šamši-Adad V	Aššur, statue of an early king	Samos, Temple of Hera, Statue of three goddesses and a lion
Rhodes, Relief with the Rape of Brygindis	Pergamene copy of Phidias' Athena	Detail of a stone vase from Uruk	Magnesia, Temple of Zeus
Aššur, Statuette of Aššur	Temple of Apollo, archaic column base	Aššur, Royal Tombs, Glazed pottery	Boar, late Sasanian age
Babylonian tablet mentioning King Jehoiachin	Tarentum, Seated Persephone	Zincirli, Inner gate, lions	Zincirli, Egyptian ivory
Aezani, Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices (EDCS-20200011)	Pergamon Altar, Athena	Assyrian amulet	Pergamon Altar, detail
Sam'al: king Barrakib receiving a scribe	Aššur-šarrat	Boeotia, Tombstone of Polyxena	Pergamon Altar, detail
Inscription from Justinian	Amarna, Letter from King Abdi-Hepa of Jerusalem	Samos, Temple of Hera, Column	Pergamon Altar, Model
Northern basin, fountainhouse	Pergamon Altar, Zeus	Nineveh, Palace of Senacherib, Two soldiers	Megara, Funerary relief of an athlete
Aššur, Basin of Sennacherib	Miletus, Model of the harbor area	Kition, Relief of Sargon II	Pergamon Altar, Auge establishes the cult of Athena
Nineveh, Palace of Senacherib, Assyrian soldiers	Orpheus	Capital from Aššur	Model of the citadel of Pergamon (Roman age)
Sam'al, column base: a double sphinx	Urartaean bowl from Van-Rusahinili	Piraeus, Relief of Cybele, Hecate, and Hermes	Statue of Hadad
A royal procession. Water color by W. Anger. In front: the Procession Street; center: the Ištar Gate; on the horizon: the Etemenanki.	ZIncirli, Palace, Orthostats	Hattusa, Statuette of a warrior	Zincirli, Statuette of a warrior
Pergamene capital	Aššur, Glazed brick panel with the god Aššur	Persian (?) statue of a man