Download or read book The Master of Animals in Old World Iconography written by Derek B. Counts and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Old World iconography from the Upper Paleolithic to the Christian era consistently features symbolic representations of both female and male protagonists in conflict with, accompanied by or transmuted partly or completely into, animals. Adversarial relationships are made explicit through hunting and sacrifice scenes, including heraldic compositions featuring a central figure grasping beasts arrayed on either side, while more implicit expressions are manifested in zoomorphic attributes (horns, headdresses, skins, etc.) and composite or hybrid figures that blend animal and human elements into a single image. While the so-called Mistress of Animals has attracted significant scholarly attention, her male counterpart, the Master of Animals, so far has not been accorded a correspondingly comprehensive synthetic study. In an effort to fill this gap in scholarship, The Master of Animals in Old World Iconography assembles archaeological, iconographical, and literary evidence for the Master of Animals from a variety of cultural contexts and disparate chronological horizons throughout the Old World, with a particular focus on Europe and the Mediterranean basin as well as the Indus Valley and Eurasia. The volume does not seek to demonstrate relatedness between different manifestations of this fi gure, even though some are clearly ontologically and geographically linked, but rather to interpret the role of this iconographic construct within each cultural context. In doing so, it provides an important resource for scholars confronting similar symbolic paradigms across the Old World landscape that foregrounds comparative interpretation in diverse ritual and socio-political environments.

Download or read book Mesopotamia in the Ancient World written by Robert Rollinger and published by Ugarit-Verlag. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 678 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Melammu Project, founded in 1998, organized five successive conferences and a sixth in 2008. Melammu Symposia 7 now represents a new dawn for the project publishing the contributions of the meeting in Obergurgl in November 2013. This time it will not be an isolated event: Further conferences have already taken place and been planned (Kiel 2014, Helsinki and Tartu 2015, Kassel 2016, and Beirut 2017), the project board has been renewed, reinvigorated and rejuvenated, and plans are underway for a thorough reworking and updating of the project database. Its focus (now slightly reworded to be somewhat wider) is to investigate "the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian and Ancient Near Eastern culture from the third millennium BCE through the ancient world until Islamic times" (quoted from the Melammu Project website). Of course, Mesopotamia was not the source of all culture; but it was an important area in ancient history, that without doubt deserves such a project, dedicated to the study of its cultural impact and heritage. This volume assembles 42 contributions devoted to the topics "Prayers and Incantations", "Foreign Reception of Mesopotamian Objects", "The Use of Literary Figures of Speech", "Mesopotamia and the World", "The World of Politics", "Iran and Early Islam", and "Representations of Power".

Download or read book Animals and their Relation to Gods Humans and Things in the Ancient World written by Raija Mattila and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-11 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While Human-Animal Studies is a rapidly growing field in modern history, studies on this topic that focus on the Ancient World are few. The present volume aims at closing this gap. It investigates the relation between humans, animals, gods, and things with a special focus on the structure of these categories. An improved understanding of the ancient categories themselves is a precondition for any investigation into the relation between them. The focus of the volume lies on the Ancient Near East, but it also provides studies on Ancient Greece, Asia Minor, Mesoamerica, the Far East, and Arabia.

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 Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology written by Amy Gansell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-06 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology invites readers to reconsider the contents and agendas of the art historical and world-culture canons by looking at one of their most historically enduring components: the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. Ann Shafer, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and other top researchers in the field examine and critique the formation and historical transformation of the ancient Near Eastern canon of art, architecture, and material culture. Contributors flesh out the current boundaries of regional and typological sub-canons, analyze the technologies of canon production (such as museum practices and classroom pedagogies), and voice first-hand heritage perspectives. Each chapter, thereby, critically engages with the historiography behind our approach to the Near East and proposes alternative constructs. Collectively, the essays confront and critique the ancient Near Eastern canon's present configuration and re-imagine its future role in the canon of world art as a whole. This expansive collection of essays covers the Near East's many regions, eras, and types of visual and archaeological materials, offering specific and actionable proposals for its study. Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology stands as a vital benchmark and offers a collective path forward for the study and appreciation of Near Eastern cultural heritage. This book acts as a model for similar inquiries across global art historical and archaeological fields and disciplines.

Download or read book Eurasia at the Dawn of History written by Manuel Fernández-Götz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-16 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our current world is characterized by life in cities, the existence of social inequalities, and increasing individualization. When and how did these phenomena arise? What was the social and economic background for the development of hierarchies and the first cities? The authors of this volume analyze the processes of centralization, cultural interaction, and social differentiation that led to the development of the first urban centres and early state formations of ancient Eurasia, from the Atlantic coasts to China. The chronological framework spans a period from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, with a special focus on the early first millennium BC. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach structured around the concepts of identity and materiality, this book addresses the appearance of a range of key phenomena that continue to shape our world.

Download or read book Wandering Myths written by Lucy Gaynor Audley-Miller and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In spite of the growing amount of important new work being carried out on uses of myth in particular ancient contexts, their appeal and reception beyond the framework of one culture have rarely been the primary object of enquiry in contemporary debate. Highlighting the fact that ancient societies were linked by their shared use of mythological narratives, Wandering Myths aims to advance our understanding of the mechanisms by which such tales were disseminated cross-culturally and to investigate how they gained local resonances. In order to assess both wider geographic circulations and to explore specific local features and interpretations, a regional approach is adopted, with a particular focus on Anatolia, the Near East and Italy. Contributions are drawn from a range of disciplines, and cross a wide chronological span, but all are interlinked by their engagement with questions focusing on the factors that guided the processes of reception and steered the facets of local interpretation. The Preface and Epilogue evaluate the material in a synoptic way and frame the challenging questions and views expressed in the Introduction.

Download or read book Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art written by Brian A. Brown and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 842 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Archaeology of Empire in Achaemenid Egypt written by Colburn Henry P. Colburn and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-11 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the material culture of Egypt during the period of Achaemenid Persian rule, c. 526-404 BCEProvides a clear overview of the archaeological evidence for Achaemenid Egypt, including temples, tombs, irrigation works, statues, stelae, seals and coinsDemonstrates how different types of evidence, both textual and archaeological - including material of uncertain provenance - can be used to address a single historical questionOffers critical discussion of the dating criteria used by archaeologists for Egyptian Late Period materialElucidates strategies used by the Persians to establish and maintain control of EgyptExamines how these strategies may have affected the lives of people living in Egypt during the 27th DynastyCreates a new explanatory model for the introduction of coinage to ancient EgyptPrevious studies have characterised Achaemenid rule of Egypt either as ephemeral and weak or oppressive and harsh. These characterisations, however, are based on the perceived lack of evidence for this period, filtered through ancient and modern preconceptions about the Persians.Henry Colburn challenges these views by assembling and analyzing the archaeological remains from this period, including temples, tombs, irrigation works, statues, stelae, sealings, drinking vessels and coins. By looking at the decisions made about material culture - by Egyptians, Persians and others - it becomes possible to see both how the Persians integrated Egypt into their empire and the full range of experiences people had as a result.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines written by Timothy Insoll and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-13 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Figurines dating from prehistory have been found across the world but have never before been considered globally. The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines is the first book to offer a comparative survey of this kind, bringing together approaches from across the landscape of contemporary research into a definitive resource in the field. The volume is comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible, with dedicated and fully illustrated chapters covering figurines from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia and the Pacific laid out by geographical location and written by the foremost scholars in figurine studies; wherever prehistoric figurines are found they have been expertly described and examined in relation to their subject matter, form, function, context, chronology, meaning, and interpretation. Specific themes that are discussed by contributors include, for example, theories of figurine interpretation, meaning in processes and contexts of figurine production, use, destruction and disposal, and the cognitive and social implications of representation. Chronologically, the coverage ranges from the Middle Palaeolithic through to areas and periods where an absence of historical sources renders figurines 'prehistoric' even though they might have been produced in the mid-2nd millennium AD, as in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The result is a synthesis of invaluable insights into past thinking on the human body, gender, identity, and how the figurines might have been used, either practically, ritually, or even playfully.

Download or read book Approaching Cyprus written by Jane Chick and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does the sea separate or connect? Are islands isolated or are they the stepping stones of connectivity? The Mediterranean is an all-but closed sea of seas, of marine locales around which ‘its inhabitants live like ants and frogs around a pond’. Cyprus, at its eastern end, is tucked between Asia Minor to the North, the Levant to the east, to Africa further south, and the wider Mediterranean to the west. From its vantage point, this island panopticon established connections across the Mediterranean in which it was either incorporated or remote in proportion to its integration into a variety of networks of exchange. The seventeen chapters in this volume explore aspects of the relationship between the island as an immutable geographical entity and its surrounding sea as an essentially transactional space. The chapters are grouped under four headings: Approaching Cyprus – Sea and Overseas; Artefacts – Production and Function; Sacralities – Practice and Setting; and finally, Collections – Private and Public. Chapters range from the Late Bronze Age to the twentieth century, and from Greece, the Aegean, Syro-Palestine, Egypt to Lusignan France. Approaching Cyprus describes and evokes a multi-directional convergence on the island in terms of both a physical and an intellectual journey – an inside viewed from an outside through the research of an international group of scholars, each of whom, however varied their viewpoint, period and topic, offers a contribution to our wider understanding of this remarkable island.

Download or read book Salamis of Cyprus written by Sabine Rogge and published by Waxmann Verlag. This book was released on 2019 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 2015 an international conference organised by the University of Cyprus and the Cypriot Department of Antiquities was held in Nicosia - a conference, which could well be called the largest ever symposium on ancient Salamis. During the three-day event some 60 scholars from many countries presented their current research on this important and spectacular archaeological site on the east coast of the island of Cyprus. Two generations of scholars met in Nicosia during the conference: an older one, whose relationship with ancient Salamis can be characterized as very direct, since many representatives of that generation had actively participated in the extremely productive excavations at that spot, until these activities came to an abrupt end in the summer of 1974 due to the Turkish invasion - and a younger generation, which is of course lacking this very direct contact. The conference successfully connected the older with the younger generation, and thus contributed to maintaining and renewing the interest in ancient Salamis. This richly illustrated book compiles most of the lectures presented during the conference. It might be regarded as a tribute to Salamis, an outstanding ancient city, which existed for more than one and a half millennia - eventually under the name of Constantia.

Download or read book Heroic Bodies in Ancient Israel written by Brian R. Doak and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authors from the ancient world rarely used great detail to describe the physical features of characters in their works. When they did mention bodies, they did so with very specific goals in mind. In particular, the bodies of "heroic" figures, such as warriors, kings, and other leaders became loaded sites of meaning for encoding cultural, religious, and political values on a number of fronts. Brian Doak analyzes the way biblical authors described the bodies of some of their most iconic male figures, such as Jacob, the Judges, Saul, and David. These bodies represent not mere individuals-they communicate as national bodies, signaling the ambiguity of Israel's murky pre-history, the division during the period of settlement in the land, and the contest of leading bodies fought between Saul and David. Heroic Bodies in Ancient Israel examines the heroic world of ancient Israel within the Hebrew Bible, and shows that ancient Israelite literature operated within and against a world of heroic ideals in its ancient context. The heroic body tells a story of Israel's remembered history in the eventual making of the monarchy, marking a new kind of individual power. Not merely a textual study of the Hebrew Bible in isolation, this book also considers iconography and compares Israelite literature with other ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern materials, illustrating Israel's place among a wider construction of heroic bodies.

Download or read book Across the Corrupting Sea written by Cavan Concannon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across the Corrupting Sea: Post-Braudelian Approaches to the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean reframes current discussions of the Mediterranean world by rereading the past with new methodological approaches. The work asks readers to consider how future studies might write histories of the Mediterranean, moving from the larger pan-Mediterranean approaches of The Corrupting Sea towards locally-oriented case studies. Spanning from the Archaic period to the early Middle Ages, contributors engage the pioneering studies of the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel through the use of critical theory, GIS network analysis, and postcolonial cultural inquiries. Scholars from several time periods and disciplines rethink the Mediterranean as a geographic and cultural space shaped by human connectivity and follow the flow of ideas, ships, trade goods and pilgrims along the roads and seascapes that connected the Mediterranean across time and space. The volume thus interrogates key concepts like cabotage, seascapes, deep time, social networks, and connectivity in the light of contemporary archaeological and theoretical advances in order to create new ways of writing more diverse histories of the ancient world that bring together local contexts, literary materials, and archaeological analysis.

Download or read book Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans written by J. Donald Hughes and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2014-02-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did ancient societies change the environment and how do their actions continue to affect us today? In this dramatically revised and expanded second edition of the work entitled Pan’s Travail, J. Donald Hughes examines the environmental history of the classical period and argues that the decline of ancient civilizations resulted in part from their exploitation of the natural world. Focusing on Greece and Rome, as well as areas subject to their influences, Hughes offers a detailed look at the impact of humans and their technologies on the ecology of the Mediterranean basin. Evidence of deforestation in ancient Greece, the remains of Roman aqueducts and mines, and paintings on centuries-old pottery that depict agricultural activities document ancient actions that resulted in detrimental consequences to the environment. Hughes compares the ancient world's environmental problems to other persistent social problems and discusses attitudes toward nature expressed in Greek and Latin literature. In addition to extensive revisions based on the latest research, this new edition includes photographs from Hughes's worldwide excursions, a new chapter on warfare and the environment, and an updated bibliography.

Download or read book God written by Reza Aslan and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer explores humanity’s quest to make sense of the divine in this concise and fascinating history of our understanding of God. In Zealot, Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large. In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.” But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments. More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives. Praise for God “Timely, riveting, enlightening and necessary.”—HuffPost “Tantalizing . . . Driven by [Reza] Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God . . . helps us pan out from our troubled times, while asking us to consider a more expansive view of the divine in contemporary life.”—The Seattle Times “A fascinating exploration of the interaction of our humanity and God.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “[Aslan’s] slim, yet ambitious book [is] the story of how humans have created God with a capital G, and it’s thoroughly mind-blowing.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “Aslan is a born storyteller, and there is much to enjoy in this intelligent survey.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Download or read book Seals and Sealing in the Ancient World written by Marta Ameri and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies of seals and sealing practices have traditionally investigated aspects of social, political, economic, and ideological systems in ancient societies throughout the Old World. Previously, scholarship has focused on description and documentation, chronology and dynastic histories, administrative function, iconography, and style. More recent studies have emphasized context, production and use, and increasingly, identity, gender, and the social lives of seals, their users, and the artisans who produced them. Using several methodological and theoretical perspectives, this volume presents up-to-date research on seals that is comparative in scope and focus. The cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach advances our understanding of the significance of an important class of material culture of the ancient world. The volume will serve as an essential resource for scholars, students, and others interested in glyptic studies, seal production and use, and sealing practices in the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Ancient South Asia and the Aegean during the 4th-2nd Millennia BCE.