Architecture and Linear Measurement During the Ubaid Period in Mesopotamia

Architecture and Linear Measurement During the Ubaid Period in Mesopotamia
Author: Shamil A. A. Kubba
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN:

A comprehensive survey of Ubaid architecture, with special focus on the later material. It includes a detailed catalogue of Ubaid sites and analysis of building materials and methods used in their construction, architectural and structural elements.

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art
Author: Ann C. Gunter
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 711
Release: 2018-09-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1118336739

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.

The Iraqi Marshlands and the Marsh Arabs

The Iraqi Marshlands and the Marsh Arabs
Author: Sam Kubba
Publisher: Trans Pacific Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780863723339

This text is for those wishing to develop an understanding of a cultural legacy and lifestyle that survives today only as a fragmented cultural inheritance. The book illustrates how the economy and lives of the Ma'dan (Marsh Arabs) that spans over 5000 years remained similar to the ancient practices of their Sumerian forebears.

Building between the Two Rivers: An Introduction to the Building Archaeology of Ancient Mesopotamia

Building between the Two Rivers: An Introduction to the Building Archaeology of Ancient Mesopotamia
Author: Stefano Anastasio
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2020-08-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789696046

This volume introduces university students and scholars of Near Eastern archaeology to 'Building archaeology' methods as applied to the context of Ancient Mesopotamia. It helps the reader understand the principles underlying this discipline and to realise what knowledge and skills are needed, beyond those that are specific to archaeologists.

The Power of the Line

The Power of the Line
Author: Aleksander Dzbyński
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2014-07-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 144386448X

Extensive research in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and cognitive science clearly suggests that the development of a material culture in prehistory was a serious contribution to the mathematization of the human mind. An underestimated interface in this process, as cognitive and philosophical studies suggest, was the capability to perceive the external world in a metaphorical way. This book uses several examples to tell this story. It does not claim the right to present a universal story, applicable for the whole human species, although it also questions that universality. The cornerstone of the story is structured by the relationship between body, language, and material culture. The examples presented in this book, however, also allow us to contemplate a less universal phenomenon; the similarities and differences between Near Eastern and European culture in the period of the development of farming. As such, this book also investigates whether clay tokens – an invention originated from Near Eastern societies – were also responsible for the development of mathematical abilities in prehistoric societies in Europe. In Europe, however, the lack of material representations of numbers in the form of small objects was replaced by linear concepts. Linearity, from its simple manifestations in the monumental form to its complex use in later megalithic structures, requires more thought because it served not only as an ephemeral symbol and a metaphor, but also as a practical tool in building anthropogenic spaces. Only when we see a metaphor in the omnipresent linearity can we understand it properly in combination with the cosmologic aspects of architecture, the role of the human body, and the concept of numbers. As such, the book distinguishes between two dichotomous development paths of mathematization and numerosity in Europe and the Near East – the birthplace of farming: the measuring stick metaphor and the object collection metaphor. The book also discusses further transformations of the measuring stick metaphor into more rational concepts throughout the course of technological developments in Europe.

Mesopotamian Furniture

Mesopotamian Furniture
Author: Shamil A. A. Kubba
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN:

The aim of this monograph is to define and clarify some of the ambiguities surrounding the development of Mesopotamian furniture from about 10,000 BC to the sack of Nineveh and Babylon. Presented as an illustrated documentary, and compiled by an architect, interior designer and furniture manufacturer, with extensive experience in furniture design and woodworking techniques, it traces the development of Mesopotamian furniture from its early beginnings and delineates its spheres of influence on contemporary and future societies. Most traditional cabinet-making techniques in Mesopotamia and Egypt were perfected long before the great Greek and Roman empires, and basic joinery has changed little during the past 5000 years. While the book is addressed to scholars of antiquity in general, and the Mesopotamian archaeologist in particular, a minimum of technical language and a large number of hand-drawn illustrations are used, so that the general reader and serious student will find it equally enjoyable and informative.

Tell Kosak Shamali

Tell Kosak Shamali
Author: Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN:

The four seasons of excavation at Tell Kosak Shamali yielded around 33,000 flaked stone artefacts from the Chalcolithic perid. These discoveries have allowed archaeologists their first oportunity to study lithic manufacturing activities and their development over this period in the Upper Euphrates valley, Syria. The tools are described and documented within their chronological context, and their functional and morphological properties discussed. There are also chapters devoted to bone objects and small finds, as well as some archaeobotanical and archaeozoological observations. This book is a companion title to Volume I, which documents the Chalcolithic architecture and earlier prehistoric remains.