PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The University of Pennsylvania Museum is extending its touring show, "Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur."
The show has been traveling since 1998 but will return to Philadelphia in March and then hit the road again to exhibit in at least three more U.S. cities in September, the museum announced Monday.
A spokesman said the tour will be extended due to great public interest in antiquities from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas of the Middle East considered the cradle of civilization. The exhibit displays artifiactfrom those areas that have recently been involved in armed conflict, resulting in widespread looting of archaeological sites.
Ur, a Sumerian site in Iraq, dates to about 2600 B.C.
The exhibit already has toured 10 U.S. cities, including New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Dallas. The cities on the new tour list will be announced later.
The exhibit includes golden royal diadems, sculptures of gods and rulers, and a bull-headed gilded lyre inlaid with lapis lazuli excavated in the 1920s by a joint University of Pennsylvania Museum-British Museum expedition.
