The great, ninth century palace which Ashurnasirpal II (883-859) built at his new capital of Kalhu/Nimrud has been excavated over 150 years by various expeditions. Each has been rewarded with remarkable antiquities, including the finest ivories found in the ancient Near East, many of which had been brought to Kalhu by the Assyrian kings. The first ivories were discovered by Austen Henry Layard, followed a century later by Max Mallowan, who found superb ivories in Well NN. Neither Layard nor Mallowan was able to empty Well AJ: this was achieved by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage, who retrieved arguably the finest pieces found at Nimrud. Finally, an interesting collection of ivory and bone tubes was found by Muzahim Mahmud, the discoverer of the famous Royal Tombs, in Well 4. This volume publishes for the first time the majority of the ivories found in the Palace by location. These include superb examples carved in Assyria proper and across the Levant from North Syria to Phoenicia and provide an outstanding illustration of the minor arts of the early first millennium. In addition ivories found in the Central Palace of Tiglath-pileser III and fragmentary pieces found in the domestic contexts of the Town Wall Houses are also included. In addition to a detailed catalogue, this book also aims to assess the present state of ivory studies, discussing the political situation in the Levant, the excavation of the palace, the history of study, the various style-groups of ivories and their possible time and place of production. This volume is the sixth in the Ivories from Nimrud series published by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq now known as the British Institute for the Study of Iraq.
Exemplars of Kingship conveys the astonishing life of the art of the Akkadian kings by assessing ancient and modern responses to its dynamic forms and transformative ideologies of kingship.
Provides a broad view of the history and current state of scholarship on the art of the ancient Near East This book covers the aesthetic traditions of Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant, from Neolithic times to the end of the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 330 BCE. It describes and examines the field from a variety of critical perspectives: across approaches and interpretive frameworks, key explanatory concepts, materials and selected media and formats, and zones of interaction. This important work also addresses both traditional and emerging categories of material, intellectual perspectives, and research priorities. The book covers geography and chronology, context and setting, medium and scale, while acknowledging the diversity of regional and cultural traditions and the uneven survival of evidence. Part One of the book considers the methodologies and approaches that the field has drawn on and refined. Part Two addresses terms and concepts critical to understanding the subjects and formal characteristics of the Near Eastern material record, including the intellectual frameworks within which monuments have been approached and interpreted. Part Three surveys the field’s most distinctive and characteristic genres, with special reference to Mesopotamian art and architecture. Part Four considers involvement with artistic traditions across a broader reach, examining connections with Egypt, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean. And finally, Part Five addresses intersections with the closely allied discipline of archaeology and the institutional stewardship of cultural heritage in the modern Middle East. Told from multiple perspectives, A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art is an enlightening, must-have book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of ancient Near East art and Near East history as well as those interested in history and art history.
Miniature and fragmentary objects are both eye-catching and yet easily dismissed. Tiny scale entices users with visions of Lilliputian worlds. The ambiguity of fragments intrigues us, offering tactile reminders of reality's transience. Yet, the standard scholarly approach to such objects has been to see them as secondary, incomplete things, whose principal purpose was to refer to a complete and often life-size whole. The Tiny and the Fragmented offers a series of fresh perspectives on the familiar concepts of the tiny and the fragmented. Written by a prestigious group of internationally-acclaimed scholars, the volume presents a remarkable diversity of case studies that range from Neolithic Europe to pre-Colombian Honduras to the classical Mediterranean and ancient Near East. Each scholar takes a different approach to issues of miniaturization and fragmentation but is united in considering the little and broken things of the past as objects in their own right. Whether a life-size or whole thing is made in a scaled-down form, deliberately broken as part of its use, or only considered successful in the eyes of ancient users if it shows some signs of wear, it challenges our expectations of representation and wholeness, of what it means for a work of art to be "finished" and "affective." Overall, The Tiny and the Fragmented demands a reconsideration of the social and contextual nature of miniaturization, fragmentation, and incompleteness, making the case that it was because of, rather than in spite of, their small or partial state that these objects were valued parts of the personal and social worlds they inhabited.
Antiguo Oriente (abbreviated as AntOr) is the annual, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published by the Center of Studies of Ancient Near Eastern History (CEHAO), Catholic University of Argentina.
Addressing topics of production and distribution, iconography, regional studies, and museum collections, this volume sheds new and important light on perspectives in the fields of ancient pottery studies. The articles, substantial and well-illustrated, cover a wide span of time from the Geometric period and into the Roman period, including new results and material from excavations as well as new methodological approaches. The range of vessels and their varieties discussed include Campana A pottery from the southern Levant and the Black Sea areas; Oinotrian-Euboian pottery in a sanctuary context in Timpone della Motta near Sybaris in the Middle to Late Geometric periods; Early Proto Corinthian aryballos in the western Mediterranean; Greek imported and local pottery from the earliest times in Crotone’s history; iconographic history of the myth of Iphigenia from Athens to southern Italian vase-painting; small terracotta figurines from Peloponnesian sanctuaries; anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures on Etruscan impasto vessels; Cypro-Arcaic pottery; and objects – red-gloss relief decorated sherds and Geometric pottery – housed in Danish museum collections. The articles represent recent Danish archaeological research of the Mediterranean and constitute an important contribution to the ongoing international debate on the roles of pottery in ancient societies.
This volume assembles more than 30 articles focusing on the visual, material, and environmental arts of the Ancient Near East. Specific case studies range temporally from the fourth millennium up to the Hellenistic period and geographically from Iran to the eastern Mediterranean. Contributions apply innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to archaeological evidence and critically examine the historiography of the discipline itself. Not intended to be comprehensive, the volume instead captures a cross-section of the field of Ancient Near Eastern art history as its stands in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The volume will be of value to scholars working in the Ancient Near East as well as others interested in newer art historical and anthropological approaches to visual culture.
The Phoenicians created the Mediterranean world as we know it--yet they remain a shadowy and poorly understood group. The academic study of the Phoenicians has come to an important crossroads; the field has grown in sheer content, sophistication of analysis, and diversity of interpretation, and we now need a current overview of where the study of these ancient seafarers and craftsman stands, and where it is going. Moreover, the field of Phoenician studies is particularly fragmented and scattered. While there is growing interest in all things Phoenician and Punic, the latest advances are mostly published in specialized journals and conference volumes in a plethora of languages. This Handbook is the first of its type to appear in over two decades, and the first ever to appear in English. In these chapters, written by a wide range of prominent and promising scholars from across Europe, North America, Australia, and the Mediterranean world, readers will find summary studies on key historical moments (such as the history of Carthage); areas of culture (organized around language, religion, and material culture); regional studies and areas of contact (spanning from the Levant and the Aegean to Iberia and North Africa); and the reception of the Phoenicians as an idea, entangled with the formation of other cultural identities, both ancient and modern.
Ordet tradition kan tillægges mange betydninger, og som begreb har det en lang historie bag sig i den vestlige kultur. Selve ordet stammer fra det latinske tradere, at overlevere, og er et vigtigt begreb, når man forsøger at tolke det antikke menneskes sociale relationer ud fra arkæologiske fund. Forandring kan ikke forklares uden man kender til og er bevidst om den materielle kultur set over en længere tidsperiode. Derfor søger arkæologer ved hjælp af longue durée-perspektivet at spore vedvarende forandringer i det arkæologiske materiale. Dette rigt illustrerede værk fører læseren fra det forhistoriske Santorini til senantikkens Rom, fra detaljerede tekstilbeskrivelser til prædikantlister hugget i sten, for at undersøge, hvordan tradition har spillet en rolle i overleveringen af kultur. Hver af bogens bidragydere undersøger et specifikt aspekt af traditionens afgørende rolle i forståelsen af, hvordan identitet skabes og bevares i antikkens verden. Kultiske ritualer, brugen af magiske objekter og symboler, offerfund i græske helligdomme, begravelsesportrætter og jernalderens keramik er blandt de mange elementer, der bliver beskrevet. Tradition viser, hvordan kultur er iboende i os alle, og hvordan handlinger og objekter spiller en afgørende rolle i kulturel kontinuitet og forandring. Med sin grundige tværfaglige tilgang til emnet tilfører Tradition ny viden til forståelsen af den klassiske og antikke verden. Bidragydere: Niels Bargfeldt/Cecilie Brøns/Jane Fejfer/Solvejg Hansen/Signe Isager/Ifke van Kam-pen/Arja Karivieri/Jens Krasilnikoff/Eva Mortensen/Christian Mühlenbock/Marjatta Nielsen/Nora Petersen/Rubina Raja/Sine Grove Saxkjær & Jan Kindberg Jacobsen/Stine Schierup/Lone Wriedt Sørensen/Christina Videbech/Kristina Winther-Jacobsen. Jane Fejfer er lektor i klassisk arkæologi på Københavns Universitet Mette Moltesen er tidligere museumsinspektør ved Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Annette Rathje er lektor emerita i klassisk arkæologi ved Københavns Universitet. Tradition – from the Latin tradere, literally to hand over or hand down – has many meanings and as a concept has a long history in Western culture. When using archaeological remains to interpret the social relations of people of Antiquity, tradition becomes an important concept. We cannot explain change without knowing and being conscious of la longue durée of material culture. Thus, over a long-term perspective archaeologists seek to trace a record of continual change. This lavishly illustrated book takes readers from prehistoric Santorini to Late Antique Rome and discusses the role of tradition in the transmission of culture and the creation, maintenance and negotiation of identity in the ancient world. Covering a wide array of subjects, including cultic rituals and the use of magical objects and symbols, votive traditions in Greek sanctuaries, funerary portraits, and Iron Age pottery, Tradition reveals how culture inheres in each and how actions and objects alike play a role in the continuation and change of culture. With its thoroughly interdisciplinary approach, Tradition breaks new ground in the studies of the classical and ancient world. Contributors: Niels Bargfeldt/Cecilie Brøns/Jane Fejfer/Solvejg Hansen/Signe Isager/Ifke van Kampen/Arja Karivieri/Jens Krasilnikoff/Eva Morten-sen/Christian Mühlenbock/Marjatta Nielsen/Nora Petersen/Rubina Raja/Sine Grove Saxkjær & Jan Kindberg Jacobsen/Stine Schierup/Lone Wriedt Sørensen/Christina Videbech/Kristina Winther-Jacobsen. Jane Fejfer is associate professor of classical archaeology at the University of Copenhagen. Mette Moltesen is former curator of Ancient Sculp-ture at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. Annette Rathje is associate professor emerita of classical archaeology at the University of Copenhagen.
