Download or read book Human Iconography and Symbolic Meaning in Near Eastern Prehistory written by Jörg Becker and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human iconography in Near Eastern prehistory has so far only examined specific themes. Iconographic research has mainly focused on aspects of fertility cults and images of the divine, both of which are strongly correlated with the beginning of sedentism in the Early Neolithic. Fieldwork over the last 30 years in South-west Asia has significantly expanded the spectrum of prehistoric anthropomorphic representations. This not only requires a re-evaluation of hitherto standard interpretation models, but also new approaches towards research on themes such as self-perception and self-expression of the human. The contributions in this volume will present a new and comprehensive understanding of prehistoric anthropomorphic iconography which will supplement the conventional thematic canon that is usually applied to the analyses of anthropomorphic representations. The contributions include detailed considerations of contexts containing anthropogenic images, burial practices, and anthropological data regarding health and nutrition. The chronological focus of the volume is the period from the late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) to the Chalcolithic (c. 14,900 to 5700 cal.BP) covering the 'fertile crescent' region of South-west Asia. This period and region provide the broad context of the development of agriculture and animal husbandry as well as further essential foundations for social coexistence, all of which profoundly influence our modern society. The chapters show that the human iconography provides evidence for social hierarchies and complex gender relations from prehistory on. Further, they show early tendencies towards a canonisation of the principles of presentation in gestures. Magic-religious practices become visible, and the basic question regarding whether human beings or supernatural creatures are depicted is discussed in several contributions, although the meaning of their symbolic contents remains to be deciphered by future research.
Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World written by Diana Stein and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-31 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art. Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.
Download or read book Anthropomorphism Anthropogenesis Cognition written by Dragoş Gheorghiu and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2024-06-27 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropomorphism could be described as a production of analogies generated by human cognition. It is present in the imaginary, mythologies, religions, and material culture of all ages. This book approaches anthropomorphism from the moment of anthropogenesis, tracing its presence in nature and material culture in prehistory and Antiquity.
Download or read book The Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt written by Nicola Laneri and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-06-29 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions spanning from the Neolithic Age to the Iron Age, this book offers important insights into the religions and ritual practices in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern communities through the lenses of their material remains. The book begins with a theoretical introduction to the concept of material religion and features editor introductions to each of its six parts, which tackle the following themes: the human body; religious architecture; the written word; sacred images; the spirituality of animals; and the sacred role of the landscape. Illustrated with over 100 images, chapters provide insight into every element of religion and materiality, from the largest building to the smallest amulet. This is a benchmark work for further studies on material religion in the ancient Near East and Egypt.
Download or read book Monumentalising Life in the Neolithic written by Anne Birgitte Gebaer and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the principal characteristics of the European Neolithic is the development of monumentality in association with innovations in material culture and changes in subsistence from hunting and gathering to farming and pastoralism. The papers in this volume discuss the latest insights into why monumental architecture became an integral part of early farming societies in Europe and beyond. One of the topics is how we define monuments and how our arguments and recent research on temporality impacts on our interpretation of the Neolithic period. Different interpretations of Göbekli Tepe are examples of this discussion as well as our understanding of special landmarks such as flint mines. The latest evidence on the economic and paleoenvironmental context, carbon 14 dates as well as analytical methods are employed in illuminating the emergence of monumentalism in Neolithic Europe. Studies are taking place on a macro and micro scale in areas as diverse as Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany, the Dutch wetlands, Portugal and Malta involving a range of monuments from long barrows and megalithic tombs to roundels and enclosures. Transformation from a natural to a built environment by monumentalizing part of the landscape is discussed as well as changes in megalithic architecture in relation to shifts in the social structure. An ethnographic study of megaliths in Nagaland discuss monument building as an act of social construction. Other studies look into the role of monuments as expressions of cosmology and active loci of ceremonial performances. Also, a couple of papers analyse the social processes in the transformation of society in the aftermath of the initial boom in monument construction and the related changes in subsistence and social structure in northern Europe. The aim of the publication is to explore different theories about the relationship between monumentality and the Neolithic way of life through these studies encompassing a wide range of types of monuments over vast areas of Europe and beyond.
Download or read book Dynamics and Developments of Social Structures and Networks in Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus written by Teresa Bürge and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-18 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume substantiates the island of Cyprus as an important player in the history of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, and presents new theoretical and analytical approaches. The Cypriot Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age are characterised by an increasing complexity of social and political organisation, economic systems and networks. The book discusses and defines how specific types of material datasets and assemblages, such as architecture, artefacts, and ecofacts, and their contextualisation can form the basis of interpretative models of social structures and networks in ancient Cyprus. This is explored through four main themes: approaches to social dynamics; social and economic networks and connectivity; adaptability and agency; and social dynamics and inequality. The variety and transition of social structures on the island are discussed on multiple scales, from the local and relatively short-term to island-wide and eastern Mediterranean-wide and the longue durée. The focus of study ranges from urban to non-urban contexts, and are reflected in settlement, funerary, and other ritual contexts. Connections, both within the island and to the broader Eastern Mediterranean, and how these impact social and economic developments on the island, are explored. Discussions revolve around the potential of consolidating the models based on specialised studies into a cohesive interpretation of society on ancient Cyprus and its strategic connections with surrounding regions in a diachronic perspective from the Neolithic through the end of the Bronze Age, i.e. from roughly the seventh millennium to the eleventh century BCE. Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus is intended for researchers and students of the archaeology and history of ancient Cyprus, the Aegean, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume IV written by Sharon R. Steadman and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fourth volume in the Archaeology of Anatolia series offers reports on the most recent discoveries from across the Anatolian peninsula. Periods covered span the Epipalaeolithic to the Medieval Age, and sites and regions range from the western Anatolian coast to Van, and on to the southeast. The breadth and depth of work reported within these pages testifies to the contributors’ dedication and love of their work even during a global pandemic period. The volume includes reviews of recent work at on-going excavations and data retrieved from the last several years of survey projects. In addition, a “State of the Field” section offers up-to-the-moment data on specialized fields in Anatolian archaeology.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology written by Costas Papadopoulos and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Light plays a crucial role in mediating relationships between people, things, and spaces, yet lightscapes have been largely neglected in archaeology study. This volume offers a full consideration of light in archaeology and beyond, exploring diverse aspects of illumination in different spatial and temporal contexts from prehistory to the present.
Download or read book Talking Images written by Silvia Ferrara and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-09-30 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative collection offers a holistic portrait of the multimodal communication potential of images from the Upper Paleolithic through to today, showcasing image-based creativity throughout the centuries. The volume seeks to extend the boundaries of our understanding of what language and writing can do to show how language can be understood as part of broader codes, as well as how images and figural objects can contribute to meaning-making in communication. The book is divided into four parts, each exploring a different dimension of the interplay between representation, symbolic meaning, and perception in the study of images, drawing on case studies from around the world. The first part looks at cognitive approaches to the earliest symbol-making while the second considers the interaction between images and writing in early scripts. The third part addresses images outside their boxes, showcasing how ancient communication devices can be reinterpreted. The final part features chapters reflecting on embodied semiotic approaches to the representation of images. This book will be of interest to scholars in semiotics, archaeology, cognitive psychology, and linguistic and cultural anthropology.
Download or read book Alcohol and Humans written by Kimberley Hockings and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alcohol use has a long and ubiquitous history. The prevailing tendency to view alcohol merely as a 'social problem' or the popular notion that alcohol only serves to provide us with a 'hedonic' high, masks its importance in the social fabric of many human societies both past and present. To understand alcohol use, as a complex social practice that has been exploited by humans for thousands of years, requires cross-disciplinary insight from social/cultural anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, psychologists, primatologists, and biologists. This multi-disciplinary volume examines the broad use of alcohol in the human lineage and its wider relationship to social contexts such as feasting, sacred rituals, and social bonding. Alcohol abuse is a small part of a much more complex and social pattern of widespread alcohol use by humans. This alone should prompt us to explore the evolutionary origins of this ancient practice and the socially functional reasons for its continued popularity. The objectives of this volume are: (1) to understand how and why nonhuman primates and other animals use alcohol in the wild, and its relevance to understanding the social consumption of alcohol in humans; (2) to understand the social function of alcohol in human prehistory; (3) to understand the sociocultural significance of alcohol across human societies; and (4) to explore the social functions of alcohol consumption in contemporary society. 'Alcohol in Humans' will be fascinating reading for those in the fields of biology, psychology, anthropology, archaeology, as well as those with a broader interest in addiction.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Contextual Meanings written by Ian Hodder and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1987-08-06 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This companion volume to Archaeology as Long-term History focuses on the symbolism of artefacts. It seeks at once to refine the theory and method relating to interpretation and show, with examples, how to conduct this sort of archaeological work. Some contributors work with the material culture of modern times or the historic period, areas in which the symbolism of mute artefacts has traditionally been thought most accessible. However, the book also contains a good number of applications in prehistory to demonstrate the feasibility of symbolic interpretation where good contextual data survive from the distant past. In relation to wider debates within the social sciences, the volume is characterised by a concern to place abstract symbolic codes within their historical context and within the contexts of social actions. In this respect, it develops further some of the ideas presented in Dr Hodder's Symbolic and Structural Archaeology, an earlier volume in this series.
Download or read book Iconographic Method in New World Prehistory written by Vernon J. Knight and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an overview of iconographic methods and their application to archaeological analysis. It offers a truly interdisciplinary approach that draws equally from art history and anthropology. Vernon James Knight, Jr., begins with a historigraphical overview, addressing the methodologies and theories that underpin both archaeology and art history. He then demonstrates how iconographic methods can be integrated with the scientific methods that are at the core of much archaeological inquiry. Focusing on artifacts from the pre-Columbian civilizations of North and Meso-American sites, Knight shows how the use of iconographic analysis yields new insights into these objects and civilizations.
Download or read book Archaeological Interpretations written by Peter Eeckhout and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting studies in Andean archaeology and iconography by leading specialists in the field, this volume tackles the question of how researchers can come to understand the intangible, intellectual worlds of ancient peoples. Archaeological Interpretations is a fascinating ontological journey through Andean cultures from the fourth millennium BC to the sixteenth century, A.D. Through evidence-based case studies, theoretical models, and methodological reflections, contributors discuss the various interpretations that can be derived from the traces of ritual activity that remain in the material record. They discuss how to accurately comprehend the social significance of artifacts beyond their practical use and how to decode the symbolism of sacred images. Addressing topics including the earliest evidence of shamanism in Ecuador, the meaning of masks among the Mochicas in Peru, the value of metal in the Recuay culture, and ceremonies of voluntary abandonment among the Incas, contributors propose original and innovative ways of interpreting the rich Andean archaeological heritage. Contributors: Luis Jaime Castillo Butters | Peter Eeckhout | Christine Hastorf | Abigail Levine | Geroge F. Lau | Frank Meddens | Charles S. Stanish | Edward Swenson | Gary Urton | Francisco Valdez
Download or read book 6000 BC written by Peter F. Biehl and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-05 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a comprehensive review of archaeological and environmental data between Syria and the Balkans around 6000 BC.
Download or read book Animals and Religion written by Dave Aftandilian and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do animals—other than human animals—have to do with religion? How do our religious ideas about animals affect the lives of real animals in the world? How can we deepen our understanding of both animals and religion by considering them together? Animals and Religion explores how animals have crucially shaped how we understand ourselves, the other living beings around us, and our relationships with them. Through incisive analyses of religious examples from around the world, the original contributions to this volume demonstrate how animals have played key roles in every known religious tradition, whether as sacred beings, symbols, objects of concern, fellow creatures, or religious teachers. And through our religious imagination, ethics, and practices, we have deeply impacted animal lives, whether by domesticating, sacrificing, dominating, eating, refraining from eating, blessing, rescuing, releasing, commemorating, or contemplating them. Drawing primarily on perspectives from religious studies and Christian theology, augmented by cutting-edge work in anthropology, biology, philosophy, and psychology, Animals and Religion offers the reader a richer understanding of who animals are and who we humans are. Do animals have emotions? Do they think or use language? Are they persons? How we answer questions like these affects diverse aspects of religion that shape not only how we relate to other animals, but also how we perceive and misperceive each other along axes of gender, race, and (dis)ability. Accessibly written and thoughtfully argued, Animals and Religion will interest anyone who wants to learn more about animals, religion, and what it means to be a human animal.
Download or read book Initiation into Dream Mysteries written by Sarah Janes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-12-27 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A psychomagic journey to awaken lucid dream consciousness • Presents effective exercises and techniques, inspired by ancient texts, to deepen your personal awareness of the dream state and experiment with dreams for healing and divinatory purposes • Each initiatory chapter includes a psychodramatic narrative designed to generate the perfect dream for each stage in the initiation • Explains how dreaming has influenced cultural, religious, and spiritual thinking • Includes access to a seven-part hypnagogic guided journey recording Invoking Mnemosyne—Greek goddess of memory and eloquence, daughter of Heaven and Earth, mother of the Muses, and archetypal deity of the Asklepion dream temple tradition—this book initiates you into full dream consciousness, offering a lucid-dreaming ritual experience in the spirit of the Mystery Schools of antiquity. Sharing her more than a decade of research on Sleep Temples and Mystery Schools of the Esoteric Tradition, lucid-dreaming instructor Sarah Janes explores the evolution of imagination, memory, and consciousness throughout the ages and proposes that dreams have been fundamental in the creation and development of culture. Dreams play an important role in ancestor worship, afterlife beliefs, animism, religion, and wisdom traditions. Explaining how a conscious dream life is essential for self-discovery, deep integration, and healing, Sarah presents exercises, techniques, initiations, and seven guided audio meditations to help you explore the inner depths of your psyche. Sarah reveals how dreams offer us an opportunity to remember and directly experience our divinity, to transcend the limitations of our mortality and enter timeless imaginal realms. These realms, accessible through dreams, can help you to form a better understanding of who you are. Employing the power of story to affect the mind and lay down new neural pathways—as if one were really living the story—Sarah connects each initiatory chapter with a psychodramatic narrative as well as a guided audio meditation. Using symbolism and powerful imagery, these stories, combined with her meditations, help you generate the perfect dreams for each stage in the initiation. And by becoming a better dreamer, you can make better, more aware decisions in your waking life.
Download or read book Philistine Iconography written by David Ben-Shlomo and published by Saint-Paul. This book was released on 2010 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ikonographie lässt viele Rückschlüsse auf eine Gesellschaft zu. Die Ikonographie der Philister hilft, die sozialen, ethnischen, religiösen und ideologischen Aspekte dieser Kultur besser zu verstehen. Die Philister entwickelten während der Eisenzeit (ca. 1200-600 v.Chr.) eine distinguierte Kultur. David Ben-Shlomo präsentiert und diskutiert den Bestand der ikonographischen Darstellungen der Philisterkultur (Tonmalereien, Statuen, Eisenschnitzereien, Glyptik u.a.). Der figürliche Stil und der Symbolismus spiegelt sowohl die Rückbindung der Philisterkultur an die ägäische Heimat als auch den laufenden Prozess der Interaktion mit den lokalen Gastkulturen in der südlichen Levante eindrücklich wider. Die Ikonographie liefert so ein bedeutendes Zeugnis, das die sozialen, ethnischen, religiösen und ideologischen Aspekte der Philister und ihrer Nachbarn im östlichen Mittelmeerraum besser zu verstehen hilft.
