From Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Iraq & Kurdistan: Journey through the Cradle of Civilization
Diana McDonald, Ph.D. January 23, 2025, 4:00 pm
Lecture is sponsored by Albuquerque International Association
Botts Hall, Albuquerque Special Collections Library, at 423 Central NE, Albuquerque, NM 87102 (Central & Edith).
Register at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/my25hnt
Dr. Diana McDonald recently spent a month in Iraq and Kurdistan, traveling to the important archaeological sites that she has studied for many years – the places where cities, farming, and writing first began. She will talk about some recent archaeological discoveries and these ancient cities from the dawn of civilization, including the Biblical Uruk, home to Gilgamesh; Sumerian Ur, home of the best-preserved ziggurat and Royal Cemetery, with its Great Death Pit and fabulous gold artifacts; as well as the splendors of Babylon and the great Assyrian capital of Nimrud. She will comment on the current conditions compared to before the Iraq/Iran war, the US/Iraq war overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and the more recent destruction of ISIS in 2014-19. In Kurdistan, Dr. McDonald visited the remote mountain Temple of Lalish, to which all Yazidi people must make a pilgrimage. She will discuss these sites, the current state of Iraq, and the glittering pilgrimage mosques of the Shia Islam Shrine Cities.
Dr. Diana McDonald is an art historian and lecturer, retired from Boston College. She earned her A.B. in Fine Arts from Harvard University and Ph.D. from Columbia University, in ancient Near Eastern and Pre-Columbian art. She worked at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Indonesian National Museum in Jakarta, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and other preeminent organizations. She is one of the authors of The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Dr. McDonald’s lectures on ‘30 Masterpieces of the Ancient World’ can be found on The Great Courses.
$15 for AIA Members; $20 for Non-Members; Students– Free. Register on the website at
$15 for AIA Members; $20 for Non-Members; Students– Free.
Register at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/my25hnt or on our website at www.abqinternational.org or mail check by January 21 to: AIA, PO Box 92921, Albuquerque, NM 87199