Was 1 Esdras First?

Was 1 Esdras First?
Author: Lisbeth S. Fried
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2011
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1589835441

The books of Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 Esdras tell the story of the Judean return from exile in Babylon, of rebuilding the temple, and of creating a new community in Zion. For scholars and students trying to understand the Second Temple period, there are no other contemporary narratives available, giving these books prime importance. In Was First Esdras First? world-renowned scholars fully discuss, without arriving at a consensus, the relationship between Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 Esdras. In addition, they delve into these books' dates and methods of composition, the sources used, their respective historical and social milieus, their original languages, and their authority and status in antiquity. This collection adds to our understanding of the history of Second Temple Judah, the formation of early Judaism, and the processes by which biblical books were composed. The contributors are Lisbeth S. Fried, Deirdre N. Fulton and Gary N. Knoppers, Lester L. Grabbe, Adrian Schenker, Bob Becking, Kristin De Troyer, Juha Pakkala, Zipora Talshir, James C. VanderKam, Jacob L. Wright, Sebastian Grätz, Paul B. Harvey Jr., Sylvie Honigman, Sara Japhet, Ralph W. Klein, and H. G. M. Williamson.

Negotiating Memory from the Romans to the Twenty-First Century

Negotiating Memory from the Romans to the Twenty-First Century
Author: Øivind Fuglerud
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2020-09-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000190498

Manipulation of the past and forced erasure of memories have been global phenomena throughout history, spanning a varied repertoire from the destruction or alteration of architecture, sites, and images, to the banning or imposing of old and new practices. The present volume addresses these questions comparatively across time and geography, and combines a material approach to the study of memory with cross-disciplinary empirical explorations of historical and contemporary cases. This approach positions the volume as a reference-point within several fields of humanities and social sciences. The collection brings together scholars from different fields within humanities and social science to engage with memorialization and damnatio memoriae across disciplines, using examples from their own research. The broad chronological and comparative scope makes the volume relevant for researchers and students of several historical periods and geographic regions.

Iconoclasm from Antiquity to Modernity

Iconoclasm from Antiquity to Modernity
Author: Kristine Kolrud
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1351929208

The phenomenon of iconoclasm, expressed through hostile actions towards images, has occurred in many different cultures throughout history. The destruction and mutilation of images is often motivated by a blend of political and religious ideas and beliefs, and the distinction between various kinds of ’iconoclasms’ is not absolute. In order to explore further the long and varied history of iconoclasm the contributors to this volume consider iconoclastic reactions to various types of objects, both in the very recent and distant past. The majority focus on historical periods but also on history as a backdrop for image troubles of our own day. Development over time is a central question in the volume, and cross-cultural influences are also taken into consideration. This broad approach provides a useful comparative perspective both on earlier controversies over images and relevant issues today. In the multimedia era increased awareness of the possible consequences of the use of images is of utmost importance. ’Iconoclasm from Antiquity to Modernity’ approaches some of the problems related to the display of particular kinds of images in conflicted societies and the power to decide on the use of visual means of expression. It provides a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of the phenomenon of iconoclasm. Of interest to a wide group of scholars the contributors draw upon various sources and disciplines, including art history, cultural history, religion and archaeology, as well as making use of recent research from within social and political sciences and contemporary events. Whilst the texts are addressed primarily to those researching the Western world, the volume contains material which will also be of interest to students of the Middle East.

The Ruins Lesson

The Ruins Lesson
Author: Susan Stewart
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2021-06-02
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 022679220X

"In 'The Ruins Lesson,' the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning poet-critic Susan Stewart explores the West's fascination with ruins in literature, visual art, and architecture, covering a vast chronological and geographical range from the ancient Egyptians to T. S. Eliot. In the multiplication of images of ruins, artists, and writers she surveys, Stewart shows how these thinkers struggled to recover lessons out of the fragility or our cultural remains. She tries to understand the appeal in the West of ruins and ruination, particularly Roman ruins, in the work and thought of Goethe, Piranesi, Blake, and Wordsworth, whom she returns to throughout the book. Her sweeping, deeply felt study encompasses the founding legends of broken covenants and original sin; Christian transformations of the classical past; the myths and rituals of human fertility; images of ruins in Renaissance allegory, eighteenth-century melancholy, and nineteenth-century cataloguing; and new gardens that eventually emerged from ancient sites of disaster"--

Using Images in Late Antiquity

Using Images in Late Antiquity
Author: Stine Birk
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2014-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782972641

Fifteen papers focus on the active and dynamic uses of images during the first millennium AD. They bring together an international group of scholars who situate the period’s visual practices within their political, religious, and social contexts. The contributors present a diverse range of evidence, including mosaics, sculpture, and architecture from all parts of the Mediterranean, from Spain in the west to Jordan in the east. Contributions span from the depiction of individuals on funerary monuments through monumental epigraphy, Constantine’s expropriation and symbolic re-use of earlier monuments, late antique collections of Classical statuary, and city personifications in mosaics to the topic of civic prosperity during the Theodosian period and dynastic representation during the Umayyad dynasty. Together they provide new insights into the central role of visual culture in the constitution of late antique societies.

The Emperor Commodus

The Emperor Commodus
Author: John S. McHugh
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2015-08-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473871670

This historical biography goes beyond popular legend to present a nuanced portrait of the first century Roman emperor. Commodus, who ruled over Rome from 177 to 192, is generally remembered as a debaucherous megalomaniac who fought as a gladiator. Ridiculed and maligned by historians since his own time, modern popular culture knows him as the patricidal villain in Ridley Scott’s film Gladiator. Much of his infamy is clearly based on fact, but John McHugh reveals a more complex story in the first full-length biography of Commodus to appear in English. McHugh sets Commodus’s twelve-year reign in its historical context, showing that the ‘kingdom of gold’ he supposedly inherited was actually an empire devastated by plague and war. Openly autocratic, Commodus compromised the privileges and vested interests of the senatorial clique, who therefore plotted to murder him. Surviving repeated conspiracies only convinced Commodus that he was under divine protection, increasingly identifying himself as Hercules reincarnate. This and his antics in the arena allowed his senatorial enemies to present Commodus as a mad tyrant—thereby justifying his eventual murder.

From Face to Face

From Face to Face
Author: Marina Prusac
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2016-08-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9004324550

This book is based on an investigation of more than 2000 portraits of which around 500 have proven to be recarved. It provides thorough analyses of the different recarving methods, some of which can be attributed to geographically localized workshops, establishing classifiable categories, and an analytical text with special regard to the cultural historical changes in Late Antiquity. The investigation underpins a hypothesis on the late antique portraits style as a consequence of the many recarved portraits at the time, which relied on a syncretism of politics, religion and ideology. The conclusion gives a new understanding of how broad-scoped, culturally and politically encoded and comprehensive the practice of recarving was.

Monumenta graeca et romana: Civil and military architecture

Monumenta graeca et romana: Civil and military architecture
Author: David A. Caccioli
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2009
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9004172300

The Villanovan and Etruscan collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts not only represent an important source of Classical Antiquity in the United States, but also serve as a historical model of how such artifacts were acquired by large American museums from the late-nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. These collections provide museum visitors, scholars, and students with an indepth view into one of antiquity's most fascinating peoples, the Etruscans and their predecessors. The wide-ranging collections contain artifacts from every aspect of Etruscan life such as utilitarian tools and weapons, objects for personal adornment, votive statuettes, and cinerary urns to house the dead. One statuette, the Detroit Rider, is considered to be among the finest surviving examples of Etruscan small sculpture. The catalogue brings together all of these pieces for the first time with photographs and relevant bibliographic sources on their cultural and religious functions in antiquity.