Marble stele with a Lydian inscription

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Excavated at Sardis This stele once stood in a row of such monuments at the west end of the temple of Artemis at Sardis. The inscription is one of the best preserved and most important documents in the Lydian script. Although the letters are akin to those of Greek, the language itself was quite different and has not yet been completely deciphered. The inscription may be a judicial document related to the transfer of goods from an individual named Mlimnas to the sanctuary of Artemis.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art