Tag: mesopotamia

book cover showing ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology

New Book: Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology (OUP, 2020)

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Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, edited by Amy Rebecca Gansell and Ann Shafer (Oxford University Press, $99).

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book cover showing ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology
Cover art by Jessica Levine, 2019.

With this volume, Gansell, Shafer, and their expert contributors confront canons, as established icons of culture, and ask how they come to be, of what use they are today, and whether they might transform or disintegrate in the future. In particular, this book investigates the ancient Near Eastern canon (Hammurabi’s Code, the gates of Babylon, the biblical sites of Ur and Nineveh…) from academic and native, Middle Eastern perspectives. Ultimately, it proposes to expand and transform the canon from a colonial artifact into a global tool for sharing, celebrating, and preserving the region’s diverse cultural heritage. We hope that this book offers not only seminal academic papers, but hope and a path to peace between people and cultures.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword Irene J. Winter

Chapter 1: Perspectives on the Ancient Near Eastern Canon: More than Mesopotamia’s Greatest Hits Amy Rebecca Gansell and Ann Shafer

Boundaries
Chapter 2: The Southern Levant and the Ancient Near Eastern Canon Rachel Hallote
Chapter 3: Archaeological Research in Pre-Classical Syria and the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology Marina Pucci
Chapter 4: The Past, Present, and Future of the Canon of Ancient Anatolian Art Susan Helft
Chapter 5:The Canon of Ancient Iranian Art: From Grand Narratives to Local Perspectives Henry P. Colburn
Chapter 6: “Classical” vs. “Ancient” in the Near Eastern Canon: The Position of Graeco-Roman Art from the Levant, c. 330 BCE-636 CE Elise A. Friedland

Typologies
Chapter 7: Defining the Canon of Funerary Archaeology in the Ancient Near East Nicola Laneri
Chapter 8: The Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Glyptic on a Roll: Leaps, Hurdles, and Goals Diana L. Stein
Chapter 9: The Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Palaces David Kertai

Technologies
Chapter 10: How Ancient and Modern Memory Shapes the Past: A Canon of Assyrian Memory Davide Nadali
Chapter 11: Museums as Vehicles for Defining Artistic Canons: The Case of the Ancient Near East in the British Museum Paul Collins
Chapter 12: Beyond the Canon: The Future of the Past in Museum Exhibitions of Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Art Rachel P. Kreiter
Chapter 13: The Ancient Near Eastern Canon in the University Classroom, and Beyond: My Colleagues Speak Ann Shafer

Heritage Perspectives
Chapter 14: The Lucrative Business of the Cyrus Cylinder: Commodification of an Iranian Icon Kamyar Abdi
Chapter 15: Between Hazor and Masada-Iconic archaeological sites as symbols of collective memories in modern Israeli identities Gideon Avni
Chapter 16: Past Resurrections Tamara Chalabi
Chapter 17: Earth, Rocks, and Blood: A Wandering Home Sargon George Donabed
Chapter 18: 6,000 Years Maymanah Farhat
Chapter 19: Cultural Heritage Attrition in Egypt Monica Hanna
Chapter 20: Crafting the Ancient Near Eastern Canon: A Personal Reflection Zena Kamash
Chapter 21: The Consequences of the Destruction of Syrian Heritage on the Syrian Identity and Future Generations Youssef Kanjou, translated from Arabic by Nadia Barakat
Chapter 22: Contemporary Art and Archaeology in the Arab World Salwa Mikdadi
Chapter 23: The Assyrians-Then and Now Ramsen Shamon
Chapter 24: Bringing the Past to a Living Room Near You: The Archaeological Heritage of Anatolia on Glass Oya Topçuoglu

Bibliography

Index

white haired woman smiling - Lamia Al Gailani Werr

Dr. Lamia Al-Gailani Werr

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lamia

Dr. Lamia Al-Gailani Werr, scholar of Mesopotamian Art and tireless defender of Iraqi Cultural Heritage, passed away January 18, 2019, in Jordan. Here is a video of her 2017 lecture,”Four Wars and the Museums in Iraq“.

drawing of three figures in long dresses standing around abstract tree - Cylinder seal impression from Nimrud

The day I received news of her passing I had been looking at some seal carvings she illustrated from the Nimrud tombs. I am inspired to continue my research on those seals in her honor. Thank you Lamia for always generously sharing your knowledge with us.

yellow book cover with title Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East

Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East (eds. Saana Svärd and Agnes Garcia-Ventura), 2018

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many people standing in group smiling - Helsinki Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East Workshop

 

Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East includes papers presented at the First Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East, in Helsinki Finland, October 26-28, 2014. The contributions explore how the interpretation of material from the ancient Near East is enriched through the application of diverse methodological and theoretical approaches to studying gender.

The essays increase the visibility of women in ancient history, untangle constructions of masculinity and femininity in diverse contexts, and grapple with big-picture questions, such as the suitability of applying third-wave or postfeminist theories to the ancient Near East. Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East points to a need for—and provides a model of—a more productive agenda for gender studies in furthering our understanding of ancient Near Eastern societies.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Julia M. Asher-Greve, Stephanie Lynn Budin, Megan Cifarelli, M. Érica Couto-Ferreira, Amy Rebecca Gansell, Katrien De Graef, Amélie Kuhrt, Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper, Brigitte Lion, Natalie N. May, Beth Alpert Nakhai, Martti Nissinen, Omar N’Shea, María Rosa Oliver, Frances Pinnock, Eleonora Ravenna, Allison Karmel Thomason, Luciana Urbano, Niek Veldhuis, and Ilona Zsolnay.

For more information on the volume, see the publisher’s website: https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-770-4.html

queen dining detail_best detail clarity
Detail of relief sculpture of Neo-Assyrian queen Libbali-sharrat attending banquet with king Ashurbanipal. Stone, l.  ~140 cm. (British Museum inv. no. 124920)

My chapter “In Pursuit of Neo-Assyrian Queens: An Interdisciplinary Model for Researching Ancient Women and Engendering Ancient History” (pp. 157-81, in Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East, ed. S. Svärd and A. Garcia-Ventura, University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, an imprint of Penn State University Press, 2018). Download the chapter here. 

Summary: Here I present an interdisciplinary methodology combining art historical, textual, archaeological, ethnographic, experimental fashion design, and virtual reality approaches to uncovering the presence and power of ancient Assyrian queens.

Abstract: This study aims to reintegrate queens into Neo-Assyrian history. Archaeologically, the Nimrud tombs provide evidence for the appearance, treatment, and personal identities of deceased women. Art historical analysis of large- and small-scale images of queens considers not only the nature of the queenly image, but the significance of the contexts in which these artworks would have been viewed. In addition, the royal use of divine and fantastical, often nude, female figures provides a window onto elite concepts of ideal feminine beauty, which royal women would have emulated and embodied. Enhancing the standard triad of textual, archaeological, and art historical evidence, ethnographic comparison can provide models to enliven and reinforce ancient sources, and digital reconstructions can be used to visually hypothesize and more actively analyze ancient realities. Finally, because neither male nor female histories exist independently, the relationship between king and queen is interpreted in the context of the palace, court, empire, and cosmos.

 

 

Third Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East, April 2019

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Looking forward to the Third Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East, in Ghent, Belgium this April! I’ll be presenting “Images of Divinely Sanctioned Neo-Assyrian Queenship at Nimrud’s Northwest Palace.” The preliminary program is here: http://www.gemane3.ugent.be/programme/.

The mission of the Workshop is to “bring together both established and up-and-coming scholars whose work brings gender studies theory to bear on various materials and contexts in order to discuss different methodological approaches to gender studies within the framework of Ancient Near Eastern studies.” http://www.gemane3.ugent.be/call-for-papers/

I’m looking forward to seeing so many international colleagues again and continuing our conversations from the first two Workshops, held in Helsinki (October 2014) and Barcelona (February 2017). It has been an incredible experience to participate in these very rigorous yet highly constructive and professionally supportive Workshops. Since 2014, our collective knowledge and methodologies have grown substantially, and many exciting new collaborations have been established among participants.