I was in Chicago recently and had a chance, at long last, to visit the Oriental Museum, and its world-renowned collection of art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. The museum is part of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and displays objects recovered by the Oriental Institute excavations in Egypt, Mesopotamia and ancient Israel. Historian and archaeologist James Henry Breasted founded the museum in 1919 to house the fruits of his numerous expeditions to Egypt and the Middle East. Breasted was a contemporary of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. He aided Carter in deciphering inscriptions and seals from the recently discovered Tomb of Tutankhamun.

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