The Prehistoriography of Mesopotamian Art
The study of Mesopotamian art is often said to have begun in the 19th century, when spectacular sculptures were uncovered in the Assyrian capital cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Khorsabad. However, examples of Mesopotamian art had been in European collections of art and antiquities since the Renaissance. During the 17th and 18th centuries, these artifacts, mostly cylinder and stamp seals, were not recognized as Mesopotamian. Instead, they were collected alongside the gems of Greece and Rome, among which they were thought to belong, or classified as Egyptian amulets.