Cyrus The Great At Getty Villa in Malibu until Dec. 8 2013

[PtolemAE]

The Getty Villa in Malibu has a great exhibition on Achaemenid history for a few more weeks.  The 'Cyrus Cylinder', a football-sized/shaped piece of clay, was inscribed (cuneiform) with a royal decree from Cyrus to the people of Babylon when he conquered the city in 539BC.  Discovered by British archaeologists in the 19th century and translated.  The 'cylinder' itself is on loan from the British Museum and a nice display of related artifacts surrounds it.  There are some Achaemenid coins (silver sigloi and gold darics, etc.) in that exhibit, too, with gold jewelry and other treasures.  There have been some special lectures during the course of this exhibition as well.  Great way to become better informed about the history of ancient Persia and the Achaemenid empire's reign over much of the 'known world' (from present-day Turkey to Afghanistan) until it was overtaken by Alexander the Great about 200 years after Cyrus conquered Babylon.  If you're in the southern California area during the next few weeks you can see it until Dec. 8 (which was extended from its original planned closure on Dec 2.)  If you visit on a Saturday expect to wait in line to get into that exhibit area.  This is a very popular exhibition and it has been very well-attended and attracted a lot of local interest.  Went to one of the lectures on Sat. Nov. 2 and the place was packed - fortunately arrived early enough to avoid lines that formed in the afternoon.  Even the lecture at 2PM was filled to SRO. 

The GV also has a simultaneous special exhibition on Roman emperor, Tiberius.  There's a huge bronze statue of him (larger than life size) of exceptional workmanship on loan from a museum in Naples.  

And of course the whole GV collection is focused on antiquities so you can take in other excellent exhibit areas while you're there.  It's *free*, too - but you pay $15 for parking and you need to go online to reserve admission tickets and parking access.

PtolemAE

[JBF]

There are two things in the Getty Villa that I think are especially neat, and should be remarked on.

1  The Garden, which might be overlooked, but one thing they have there are the spices that were used in antiquity, and if you go the right time of year it smells _wonderful_!  (the cafe also has modern food, based on the ancient Roman diet, but no garum, if I remember right.)

2  In the coin room there is a loom weight with the impression of a Metapontum medium fabric incuse stater, the barley-ear. Some nameless woman, a follower of Demeter and the Mysteries, pressed this coin into the clay of an otherwise quite mundane object, her loom weight.

I would love to see the Cyrus Cylinder , but they always have super neat visiting exhibits, and I am sure the next one will be fantastic as well.

[chuy1530]

Right now they have an exhibit on Tiberius. I'm going this weekend if my schedule works out for it.

[chuy1530]

Luckily I was able to go today, and the Villa is really beautiful. The fountains and gardens there (although the herb garden was pretty bare since I guess most things are out of season) are gorgeous. The architecture is also very cool. For anyone who isn't familiar (I wasn't) it is based partly on a Roman villa destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, with aspects of other Roman villas and buildings thrown in also. The collection of busts and sculptures is fantastic, and they had a really impressive exhibit on Roman glass that was of special interest to me since my grandfather was an art-glass blower and some of what was in there was similar to things I watched him make in almost the exact same way they did it back then.

The coin exhibit room was pretty cool. There are roughly 50 coins including a nice exhibit with a map of Greece showing where certain iconic coins (the Aegean turtle, the Athenian owl, etc) were minted. The Roman coins were laid out in chronological order with some interesting Augustus, Caesar and Pompey coins, and a very nice gold Tiberius coin.

The Tiberius exhibit was a little sparse. The huge statue is extremely impressive and there are a couple other antiquities in there, and what they have is well done and well displayed. I guess I just thought there'd be more to it, but there was plenty in the rest of the Villa that I didn't feel disappointed at all.

Here are a couple pictures. I'd rate it as a definite 'must attend' if you're going to be in the area. Just remember you have to reserve the ticket ahead of time.