Oriental Institute Museum

I have always been obsessed with ancient Egypt and it’s history. I cannot get enough of mummies, pharaohs and hieroglyphs. Given this I cannot believe I went this long without having discovered the Oriental Institute Museum right here in Chicago.  Though it’s name is quite dated, it comes from the time in which the University had excavations from ancient Egypt, Nubia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Anatolia, and the ancient site of Megiddo. I have visited Many of the larger more well known museums in various cities and none of them come close to the quantity, variety and size of the artifacts at the Oriental Institute from this area and period. I think you would have to go to Egypt itself to find anything comparable.

The Oriental Institute is a part of the University of Chicago Campus located on Chicago’s south side. You can reach by road or public transport. We Found parking easily on the street for free on a Saturday afternoon. As it is on the college campus I would expect weekday parking to be much more difficult. Suggested admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children. You can pay an extra $5 for audio tours on IPOD nanos which we tried but you can probably just skip it. Trying to remember (and explain to my parents) how to use the older technology was a pain and the audio didn’t seem to match up with the museum artifacts, or I just struggled to find them.

The Oriental Institute Museum is the place to go in Chicago for the Ancient Egypt enthusiast. They have a plethora of artifacts and hieroglyphs including  a 17-foot tall statue of king Tutankhamun (pictured center). And of course mummies! They also have many lesser known types of artifacts and Egyptian history which I particularly enjoyed.

Some of my personal favorite artifacts are picture above. I loved the look of the Lion mosaic and the votive statues in the large picture below it both from the Mesopotamian Gallery. The almost creepy couple statues meant to commemorate important persons after their death in ancient Egypt were a practice I had not heard of before. In contrast, the animal renderings in the Megdido pottery are quite cutesy in the picture below that. The eyes painted on the sarcophagus in the bottom right corner really drew me in; they remind me of the eyes from the great Gatsby and are iconic Egyptian imagery. My absolute favorite artifact is the board game on the bottom left picture complete with the game board, game pieces and ancient dice. All items I ignorantly assumed were invented much later in time. These are truly just a small sampling of the numerous artifacts on display.

I am so glad that my dad introduced us to the Oriental Museum. There aren’t many places in the United States where you can see artifacts from 10,000 BC. And to think this amazing museum is hidden amongst the lovely campus buildings of the University of Chicago. If you are looking to make a day of it there is also an art museum on campus and it is within walking distance of the Dusable Museum of African American History. Either way you will not regret your choice to come for a visit.