The Oriental Institute (OI) is the University of Chicago's archeology museum and research center for ancient Near Eastern studies.
The Institute is housed in an unusual Art-Deco/Gothic building at the corner of 58th and University. The Museum has artifacts from digs in Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. Notable possessions are the famous Megiddo Ivories, various treasures from Persepolis, the old Persian capital, a huge 40 ton human-headed winged bull from Khorsabad, the capital of Sargon II, and finally a monumental statue of King Tutankhamun.
The giant Assyrian winged bull, or lamassu from Sargon II's palace at Khorsabad.
Even given unlimited resources and comparable archeological discoveries, the Institute's treasures could not be assembled today, since Middle Eastern governments no longer allow foreign archeologists to take home half of what they find — which was the typical arrangement the 19th and early 20th centuries, when most of the holdings were excavated.
Not only a museum, the Oriental Institute is, as its name suggests, a center of research on the ancient Near East. In addition to carrying out many digs in the Fertile Crescent, OI scholars have made many contributions to our understanding of the cradle of civilization. In fact, the term "Fertile Crescent" was coined by OI head James Henry Breasted.
Among other projects, OI scholars are currently working on a 21 volume dictionary of Assyrian, a dictionary of Hittite, and a dictionary of Demotic.
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