Gudea and His Dynasty

Gudea and His Dynasty

Author: Sibylle Edzard

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780802041876

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This volume of RIM focuses on the Second Dynasty of Lagas, and concentrates mainly on the inscriptions of Cylinders A and B of the most important king of that dynasty, Gudea.


The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture

The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture

Author: Jean M. Evans

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-10-08

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1139789422

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This book examines the sculptures created during the Early Dynastic period (2900–2350 BC) of Sumer, a region corresponding to present-day southern Iraq. Featured almost exclusively in temple complexes, some 550 Early Dynastic stone statues of human figures carved in an abstract style have survived. Chronicling the intellectual history of ancient Near Eastern art history and archaeology at the intersection of sculpture and aesthetics, this book argues that the early modern reception of Sumer still influences ideas about these sculptures. Engaging also with the archaeology of the Early Dynastic temple, the book ultimately considers what a stone statue of a human figure has signified, both in modern times and in antiquity.


The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction

The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Amanda H. Podany

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 0195377990

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This book explores the lands of the ancient Near East from around 3200 BCE to 539 BCE. The earth-shaking changes that marked this era include such fundamental inventions as the wheel and the plow and intellectual feats such as the inventions of astronomy, law, and diplomacy.


Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East

Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East

Author: Oscar White Muscarella

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-06-15

Total Pages: 1094

ISBN-13: 9004236694

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Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East follows the evolution of the author’s scholarly work and interests and is divided into several categories of interrelated fields. The first part deals primarily with excavations and associated artifacts, issues in ancient geography and the identification of ancient sites in northwest Iran, the author’s research involving the culture and chronology of the Phrygian capital at Gordion in Anatolia, and the chronology and Iranian cultural relations of a site in the Emirate of Sharjah. Part two is wide-ranging and includes chapters on Aegean and ancient Near Eastern cultural and political interconnections, the role of fibulae in revealing cultural and chronological matters, and the gender-determined usage of parasols and their recognition in excavated contexts. There are also articles specifically concerned with “Plunder Culture” and the forgery of both objects and their alleged proveniences. "At 1,088 pages, this volume provides a wonderful sample– chosen by Muscarella himself – of forty papers spanning the author’s career and many interests...This volume is so rich that it contains something for everyone." D.T. Potts, NYU, Bibliotheca Orientalis lxxIII n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2016


The Body

The Body

Author: Angela Roskop Erisman

Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press

Published: 2022-10-20

Total Pages: 551

ISBN-13: 0878207058

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The clothed and adorned body has been at the forefront of Nili S. Fox's scholarship. In her hallmark approach, she draws on theoretical models from anthropology and archaeology, and locates the text within its native cultural environment in conversation with ancient Near Eastern literary and iconographic sources. This volume is a tribute to her, a collection of essays on dress and the body with original research by Fox's students. With the field of dress now garnering the attention of biblical and Ancient Near Eastern scholars alike, this book adds to the growing literature on the topic, demonstrating ways in which both dress and the body communicate cultural and religious beliefs and practices. The body's lived experience is the topic of section one, the body lived. The body and the social construction of identity is discussed in section two, the body cultured, while section three, the body adorned, analyzes the performative nature of dress in the biblical text.


Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Author: Gojko Barjamovic

Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press

Published: 2016-04-24

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 8763543729

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The term ‘canonicity’ implies the recognition that the domain of literature and of the library is also a cultural and political one, related to various forms of identity formation, maintenance, and change. Scribes and benefactors ‘create’ canon in as much as they teach, analyze, preserve, prom¬ulgate and change ‘canonical’ texts according to prevailing norms. From early on, texts from the written traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt were accumulated, codified, and to some extent canonized, as various collections developed mainly in the environment of the temple and the palace. These written traditions represent sets of formal and informal cultures that all speak in their own ways of canonicity, normativity, and other forms of cultural expertise. Some forms of literature were used not only in scholarly contexts, but also in political ones, and they served purposes of identity formation. This volume addresses the interrelations between various forms of ‘canon’ and identity formation in different time periods, genres, regions, and contexts, as well as the application of contemporary conceptions of ‘canon’ to ancient texts.


The Heavenly Writing

The Heavenly Writing

Author: Francesca Rochberg

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-09-27

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9781139455855

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In antiquity, the expertise of the Babylonians in matters of the heavens was legendary and the roots of both western astronomy and astrology are traceable in cuneiform tablets going back to the second and first millennia BC. The Heavenly Writing, first publsiehd in 2004, discusses the place of Babylonian celestial divination, horoscopy, and astronomy in Mesopotamian intellectual culture. Focusing chiefly on celestial divination and horoscopes, it traces the emergence of personal astrology from the tradition of celestial divination and the use of astronomical methods in horoscopes. It further takes up the historiographical and philosophical issue of the nature of these Mesopotamian 'celestial sciences' by examining elements traditionally of concern to the philosophy of science, without sacrificing the ancient methods, goals, and interests to a modern image of science. This book will be of particular interest to those concerned with the early history of science.