• Traveling Exhibitions Traveling Exhibitions
  • Traveling Works of Art Traveling Works of Art
  • Conservation Conservation Projects
  • Excavations Excavations
  • Fellows Fellows
  • Exchanges & Collaborations Exchanges & Collaborations
  • Multiple Categories Multiple Items
    About The Met Around the World

The Met Around the World presents the Met’s work via the global scope of its collection and as it extends across the nation and the world through a variety of domestic and international initiatives and programs, including exhibitions, excavations, fellowships, professional exchanges, conservation projects, and traveling works of art.
The Met Around the World is designed and maintained by the Office of the Director.

Traveling
Exhibitions

The Met organizes large and small exhibitions that travel beyond the Museum's walls, extending our scholarship to institutions across the world. See our national and international traveling exhibition program from 2009 to the present.

Traveling
Works of Art

The Met lends works of art to exhibitions and institutions worldwide to expose its collection to the broadest possible audience. See our current national and international loans program.

Conservation
Projects

The preservation of works of art is a fundamental part of the Met's mission. Our work in this area includes treating works of art from other collections. See our national and international conservation activities from 2009 to the present.

Excavations

The Met has conducted excavations for over 100 years in direct partnership with source countries at some of the most important archaeological sites in the world. Today we continue this tradition in order to gain greater understanding of our ancient collections. See our national and international excavation program from the Met's founding to the present.

Fellows

The Met hosts students, scholars, and museum professionals so that they can learn from our staff and pursue independent research in the context of the Met's exceptional resources and facilities. See the activities of our current national and international fellows.

Exchanges & Collaborations

The Met's work takes many forms, from participation in exchange programs at partnering institutions and worldwide symposia to advising on a range of museum issues. These activities contribute to our commitment to advancing the work of the larger, global community of art museums. See our national and international exchange program and other collaborations from 2009 to the present.

There are currently no international activities in this region.
Excavations throughout Met History, 1870–present
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  • Workmen clearing a trench behind the Taq-i Kisra, Ctesiphon, Iraq, 1931–32.
  • Fragments of stucco roundels in situ, Taq-i Kisra, south building, Ctesiphon, Iraq, 1931–32.

  • Roundel with radiating palmettes

    Sasanian, ca. 6th century A.D.

    Mesopotamia, Ctesiphon

    Rogers Fund, 1932 (32.150.4)

Ctesiphon

Iraq

1931–1932

The city of Ctesiphon, 20 miles south of Baghdad in Iraq, flourished for more than 800 years as the capital of the last two dynasties ruling the ancient Near East—the Parthians and the Sasanians—before the Islamic conquest in the seventh century. Identified by the British traveler and scholar Claudius James Rich in the early nineteenth century, systematic excavations at Ctesiphon were undertaken by an expedition in 1928–29 sponsored by the German Oriental Society. In 1931–32, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, undertook a joint expedition for one season under the direction of Ernst Kühnel, with Walter Hauser and Joseph M. Upton representing the Metropolitan. Ctesiphon was home to one of the marvels of the ancient world, the fabled palace of the Sasanian emperor Khusrau I (r. 531–79). Remains of its legendary vaulted throne hall, housing the largest parabolic barrel vault in the world—built without centering—still exist today. Among the finds from the site are a collection of stucco reliefs with floral, geometric, and figural designs that offer insight into the iconography and style of Sasanian architectural decoration. A selection of the stucco reliefs are on display in the Metropolitan.

Partnered with The Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
 
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