The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II
The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II

Author: Richard David Barnett

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13:

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This important volume publishes in full for the first time two sets of highly elaborate Neo-Assyrian bronze gate decorations from the site of Balawat (ancient Imgur-Enlil) in northern Iraq. One set, discovered by Hormuzd Rassam on a British Museum expedition in 1878, is now on permanent display in London. The other set, found by Sir Max Mallowan in 1956, was on display in the Mosul Museum in Iraq after conservation and mounting at the British Museum. The Mosul gates were largely looted and lost following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This book includes an account of their loss and provides the only complete record of their appearance and excavation. The Balawat gates were made in the reign of King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC). The figurative scenes on the 32 bands of chased and embossed bronze, sometimes supported by cuneiform inscriptions, provide a wealth of historical and art-historical information. All this material is now made publicly available in the form of a final excavation report and catalogue.

The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces
The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces

Author: David Kertai

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 0198723180

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The Late Assyrian Empire (c. 900 - 612 BCE) was the first state to rule over the major centres of the Middle East, and the Late Assyrian court inhabited some of the most monumental palaces of its time. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces is the first volume to provide an in-depth analysis of Late Assyrian palatial architecture, offering a general introduction to all key royal palaces in the major centres of the empire: Assur, Kaluhu, Dur-Sharruken, and Nineveh. Where previous research has often focused on the duality between public and private realms, this volume redefines the cultural principles governing these palaces and proposes a new historical framework, analysing the spatial organization of the palace community which placed the king front and centre. It brings together the architecture of such palaces as currently understood within the broader framework of textual and art-historical sources, and argues that architectural changes were guided by a need to accommodate ever larger groups as the empire grew in size.

The Iconography of Humiliation in New Kingdom Egypt
The Iconography of Humiliation in New Kingdom Egypt

Author: Mark D. Janzen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-11-26

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1040252508

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This volume analyzes the iconography of bound foreigners on New Kingdom monuments and artifacts to better understand Egyptian perspectives on foreigners and their treatment of prisoners of war. Depictions of foreign captives in humiliating or torturous poses are ubiquitous in Egyptian iconography and reflect the celebratory nature of royal ideology, in this case by degrading enemies. Egyptologists have scrutinized these scenes for details regarding various military matters, but existing scholarly literature offers few studies focused on enemy captives and the sheer physical brutality of the depictions of their bindings. Janzen examines the bound foreigner motif in New Kingdom sources, demonstrating that these prisoners of war played vital roles in Egyptian ideology and religion. Their depictions in bizarre or torturous poses served to reinforce ideological underpinnings of pharaoh’s right to rule, perpetually ritualizing their defeat and/or punishment through the presence of this iconography on ceremonial objects used primarily by the king and on temple walls and monuments. The subjugation of foreigners also constituted an important economic function, as incorporating prisoners of war into the Egyptian workforce was crucial for economic prosperity and growth in New Kingdom Egypt. The volume also explores cross-cultural and anthropological parallels, placing Egyptian treatment of foreign prisoners in its ancient context. The book provides a fascinating study of the subject suitable for scholars and students of Egyptology and ancient history, particularly that of New Kingdom Egypt, as well as those working on power, warfare, and violence in the ancient world more broadly.

Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology
Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology

Author: Mattias Karlsson

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2016-03-07

Total Pages: 541

ISBN-13: 1614519684

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This volume examines the state ideology of Assyria in the Early Neo-Assyrian period (934-745 BCE) focusing on how power relations between the Mesopotamian deities, the Assyrian king, and foreign lands are described and depicted. It undertakes a close reading of delimited royal inscriptions and iconography making use of postcolonial and gender theory, and addresses such topics as royal deification, “religious imperialism”, ethnicity and empire, and gendered imagery. The important contribution of this study lies especially in its identification of patterns of ideological continuity and variation within the reigns of individual rulers, between various localities, and between the different rulers of this period, and in its discussion of the place of Early Neo-Assyrian state ideology in the overall development of Assyrian propaganda. It includes several indexed appendices, which list all primary sources, present all divine and royal epithets, and provide all of the “royal visual representations,” and incorporates numerous illustrations, such as maps, plans, and royal iconography.

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art
A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art

Author: Ann C. Gunter

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2018-11-20

Total Pages: 704

ISBN-13: 1118301250

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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.

Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art
Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art

Author: Brian A. Brown

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-12-13

Total Pages: 842

ISBN-13: 1614510350

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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.

After 1177 B.C.
After 1177 B.C.

Author: Eric Cline

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2024-04-16

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0691192138

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"In a follow-up to 1177 BC, this book provides a portrait of the 400 years following the collapse of the Bronze Age, a period referred to as the First Dark Age, but which Cline will show was also an era of rebirth and resilience"--

Assyrian Stone Vessels and Related Material in the British Museum
Assyrian Stone Vessels and Related Material in the British Museum

Author: Ann Searight

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2008-07-17

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 1782975209

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This catalogue makes available more than 600 complete or fragmentary stone vessels kept in the British Museum. Most of them were excavated at Nineveh and other major sites in northern Iraq and Syria, and are presented here for the first time. They range in date from prehistory down to the Persian and Hellenistic periods; the bulk belong in the eighth and seventh centuries, when the Near East under Assyrian rule grew increasingly cosmopolitan. The collection includes luxury items made for palaces and temples, often bearing royal inscriptions, besides many perfume-jars, mortars and other vessels for practical use. The catalogue incorporates extensive information on material culture, art, technology, economic relationships, and social and religious practices, and will be used by historians, archaeologists, philologists and anthropologists alike.

The Bone and Ivory Objects from Gordion
The Bone and Ivory Objects from Gordion

Author: Phoebe A. Sheftel

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum

Published: 2023-07-18

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 1949057186

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Gordion is a paramount site for understanding the culture of central Anatolia over more than 3,000 years, from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period, but is most renowned for its Iron Age horizon, when it was royal capital of the mighty Phrygian kingdom. The hundreds of bone and ivory artifacts excavated at Gordion constitute a highly diverse body of material, and this publication presents one of the largest and most important assemblages of its kind in the Near East. The artifacts give remarkable insight into the tools used in crafts and manufacturing processes, a variety of decorative items, the artistic developments among local craftspeople, as well as indications of trading connections with other regions to the east and west. Ivory was a highly valued material used for decorative pieces in many areas around the eastern Mediterranean. The objects from Gordion are a significant addition to this corpus and illustrate both widely dispersed features common in other contemporary ivory-working centers, as well as the singular motifs and styles that developed in the Phrygian milieu. A unique assemblage of ivory horse trappings from the Early Phrygian Citadel are an important illustration of this cultural confluence. While bone was primarily used for strictly utilitarian objects, there are numerous pieces that show this lowly material could be used for high quality items such as inlays set into the wooden furniture exceptionally attested at Gordion. Even the sheep knuckle bone (astragal), decorated with incised designs and letters, gives a glimpse into the daily life in the community.