News

Semitic Museum Fundraises to Increase Digitization, Harvard Crimson 3/7/2016

March 7, 2016

Between $10 and $50 million would be needed to renovate the museum building and gallery spaces, increase digitization efforts, and pursue international collaborations among other initiatives, according to Semitic Museum Director and Egyptology professor Peter Der Manuelian ’81. “My goal is to revitalize the place further,” Der Manuelian said. “So I want to make this an exciting destination on campus. I’d love it if every undergraduate would set foot in the building at least once, and preferably more than once before they graduate.”...

Read more about Semitic Museum Fundraises to Increase Digitization, Harvard Crimson 3/7/2016

"Age-old enchantments" Harvard Gazette, 10/27/2015

October 28, 2015

"Last semester, students in Gojko Barjamovic’s general education course “Ancient Near East 103: Ancient Lives” touched the ancient past. For class credit, undergrads spent hours helping recreate plaster casts of ancient reliefs that once hung in the Assyrian royal palaces at Nimrud and Nineveh, territory in Northern Iraq today controlled by ISIL."  See complete article and video.

Read more about "Age-old enchantments" Harvard Gazette, 10/27/2015

The old, made new: Refurbished Semitic Museum celebrates... Harvard Gazette, 12/18/2014

January 6, 2015

The old, made new: Refurbished Semitic Museum celebrates the past while reorienting for the future

The Harvard Semitic Museum opened at its Divinity Avenue location in 1903 on land bought for a dollar from a benefactor.

The sturdy, granite-trimmed, brick building was at the edge of a Cambridge demi-wilderness called Norton Woods. It was next to a residence that has since been moved to Ware Street. Further down was a boardinghouse for immigrant Irishwomen, who cleaned and made beds in Harvard dormitories....

Read more about The old, made new: Refurbished Semitic Museum celebrates... Harvard Gazette, 12/18/2014

Semitic Museum honors founder - Boston Globe 12/18/2014

December 19, 2014

Semitic Museum honors founder in compelling exhibition

By Sebastian Smee, Globe Staff

"Harvard University’s Semitic Museum, lately undergoing an exciting resurgence, was founded in 1889 by Professor David Gordon Lyon. A southern Baptist from Alabama, Lyon was a charismatic scholar of ancient Mesopotamian scripts, and one of Harvard’s more dynamic and vital figures in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."...

Read more about Semitic Museum honors founder - Boston Globe 12/18/2014