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my name is Sarah Collins I'm the curator of Early Mesopotamia
in the Middle East department at the British Museum. I've been really happy to
be working here in Toronto
with staff here at the ROM to install this exhibition
the object that we've brought here from the British Museum come from the
collections in the middle east department
and they all come from the region a Mesopotamia which today
we know as Iraq. Western civilization traditionally
thoughts it owed its origins to the classical world
- to the Greeks and Romans
and we knew biblical stories and the writing some other people
but we didn't have the evidence from Mesopotamia itself
and remarkably because of the way that they wrote on clay
the writings of the people of Mesopotamia have been preserved
and this writing is the oldest known script
and so I always say that Mesopotamia lies at the beginning of the
written history of our world and anyone who's interested in the history of
our world and how we got to where we are today
should be interested in this exhibition