Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East director Peter Der Manuelian describes the museum's history and how its collections are connected by the family of Semitic languages. Exhibitions include a full-scale replica of an ancient Iron Age II home, life sized casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy coffins, and tablets containing the earliest forms of writing. Like the artifacts it displays, the museum itself has a rich and nuanced history.
Recorded: 2025
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East director Peter Der Manuelian describes the museum's history and how its collections are connected by the family of Semitic languages. Exhibitions include a full-scale replica of an ancient Iron Age II home, life sized casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy coffins, and tablets containing the earliest forms of writing. Like the artifacts it displays, the museum itself has a rich and nuanced history.
Recorded: 2025
