Museum Guide

European Museums

Our armchair tour of museums around the world with holdings in the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East continues this month.

Austria

Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Cultural History)

Galleries are devoted to objects of daily life, mummies, writing and sealing in Egypt and the Near East, animal worship (including statuettes, mummies and written documents) and to specific periods (prehistory, Nubia, Hyksos). One large room focuses on mummies and the mortuary cult. The Near Eastern collection (called “oriental” in European usage) concentrates on antiquities from Yemen, including many South Arabian inscriptions.