Ornamental Wall Painting in the Art of the Assyrian Empire

Ornamental Wall Painting in the Art of the Assyrian Empire
Author: Pauline Albenda
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2022-01-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047406591

This study provides the archaeological record and pictorial documentation of ornamental wall painting produced for Assyrian royal residences. It examines the changing trends in the decorative designs and selection of motifs, some with symbolic meaning. Many illustrations are from the excavation reports.

Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia

Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia
Author: Gwendolyn Leick
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2009-11-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 0810863243

The Greek name Mesopotamia means 'land between the rivers.' The Romans used this term for an area that they controlled only briefly (between 115 and 117 A.D.): the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, from the south Anatolian mountains ranges to the Persian Gulf. It comprises the civilizations of Sumer and Akkad (third millennium B.C.) as well as the later Babylonian and Assyrian empires of the second and first millennium. Although the 'history' of Mesopotamia in the strict sense of the term only begins with the inscriptions of Sumerian rulers around the 27th century B.C., the foundations for Mesopotamian civilization, especially the beginnings of irrigation and the emergence of large permanent settlements, were laid much earlier, in the fifth and fourth millennium. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia defines concepts, customs, and notions peculiar to the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia, from adult adoption to ziggurats. This is accomplished through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, appendixes, and hundreds of cross-reference dictionary entries on religion, economy, society, geography, and important kings and rulers.

Glazed Brick Decoration in the Ancient Near East

Glazed Brick Decoration in the Ancient Near East
Author: Anja Fügert
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2020-06-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789696062

Glazed bricks applied as a new form of colourful and glossy architectural decor first started to appear in the early Iron Age on monumental buildings of the Ancient Near East. This volume provides an updated overview of the development of glazed bricks and scientific research on the topic.

Mesopotamian Sculpture in Colour

Mesopotamian Sculpture in Colour
Author: Astrid Nunn
Publisher: PeWe-Verlag
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2020-12-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 3689850193

We can now be sure that Mesopotamian sculpture of the human form was typically coloured. Our project, which set out to reconstruct the polychromy of Mesopotamian stone statues dating from the fourth to the first millennium BCE, is a part of a slow shift to incorporate more visual evidence in research about colour and perception in the ancient world that has long been dominated by ethno-linguistic studies. Our scientifically grounded reconstructions serve as a prelude to a more comprehensive exploration of the materiality and aesthetics of Mesopotamian sculpture, which open many windows onto historical, cultural, and symbolic issues. In this study, we trace the chronological development of the use of colours and consider why they changed over time. The manner in which colours served as social markers - of gender, ethnicity and class for example - are explored from the material culture and textual perspectives. When used to describe hair, skin, and garments, Sumerian and Akkadian words for colour denote more than just physical properties. They also evoke qualities such as lightness or darkness, dullness or glossiness, and encode specific symbolic values that impinge on many aspects of society. In all cultures, the notion of skin colour is subject to social concepts, prejudices, and ideals, and is thus a matter of convention. Our discovery that the face and body in particular were so vibrantly coloured provides an entirely new and unexpected view of ancient Near Eastern effigies. Through such luminous, radiant and lucid colours, we are now able to recognise the true faces of the statues, and to visualise what was considered beautiful and acceptable to the gods.

Civilizations of Ancient Iraq

Civilizations of Ancient Iraq
Author: Benjamin R. Foster
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2021-06-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 140083287X

In Civilizations of Ancient Iraq, Benjamin and Karen Foster tell the fascinating story of ancient Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements ten thousand years ago to the Arab conquest in the seventh century. Accessible and concise, this is the most up-to-date and authoritative book on the subject. With illustrations of important works of art and architecture in every chapter, the narrative traces the rise and fall of successive civilizations and peoples in Iraq over the course of millennia--from the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians to the Persians, Seleucids, Parthians, and Sassanians. Ancient Iraq was home to remarkable achievements. One of the birthplaces of civilization, it saw the world's earliest cities and empires, writing and literature, science and mathematics, monumental art, and innumerable other innovations. Civilizations of Ancient Iraq gives special attention to these milestones, as well as to political, social, and economic history. And because archaeology is the source of almost everything we know about ancient Iraq, the book includes an epilogue on the discovery and fate of its antiquities. Compelling and timely, Civilizations of Ancient Iraq is an essential guide to understanding Mesopotamia's central role in the development of human culture.

Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age

Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age
Author: Joan Aruz
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2014-09-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0300208081

Bringing together the research of internationally renowned scholars, Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age contributes significantly to our understanding of the epoch-making artistic and cultural exchanges that took place across the Near East and Mediterranean in the early first millennium B.C. This was the world of Odysseus, in which seafaring Phoenician merchants charted new nautical trade routes and established prosperous trading posts and colonies on the shores of three continents; of kings Midas and Croesus, legendary for their wealth; and of the Hebrew Bible, whose stories are brought vividly to life by archaeological discoveries. Objects drawn from collections in the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and the United States, reproduced here in sumptuous detail, reflect the cultural encounters of diverse populations interacting through trade, travel, and migration as well as war and displacement. Together, they tell a compelling story of the origins and development of Western artistic traditions that trace their roots to the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean world. Among the masterpieces brought together in this volume are stone reliefs that adorned the majestic palaces of ancient Assyria; expertly crafted Phonecian and Syrian bronzes and worked ivories that were stored in the treasuries of Assyria and deposited in tombs and sanctuaries in regions far to the west; and lavish personal adornments and other luxury goods, some imported and others inspired by Near Eastern craftsmanship. Accompanying texts by leading scholars position each object in cultural and historical context, weaving a narrative of crisis and conquest, worship and warfare, and epic and empire that spans both continents and millennia. Writing another chapter in the story begun in Art of the First Cities (2003) and Beyond Babylon (2008), Assyria to Iberia offers a comprehensive overview of art, diplomacy, and cultural exchange in an age of imperial and mercantile expansion in the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean in the first millennium B.C.—the dawn of the Classical age.

The Queens of the Arabs During the Neo-Assyrian Period

The Queens of the Arabs During the Neo-Assyrian Period
Author: Ellie Bennett
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2024-05-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1646023102

The title “Queen of the Arabs” is applied in Neo-Assyrian texts to five women from the Arabian Peninsula. These women led armies, offered tribute, and held religious roles in their communities from 738 to approximately 651 BCE. This book discusses what the title meant to the women who carried it and to the Assyrians who wrote about them. Whereas previous scholarship has considered the Queens of the Arabs in relation to the military and economic history of the Neo-Assyrian empire, Eleanor Bennett focuses on identity, using gender theory to locate points of the women’s alterity in Assyrian sources and to analyze how Assyrian cultural norms influenced the treatment of the “Queens of the Arabs.” This kind of analysis shows how Assyrian perceptions of the Queens of the Arabs, and of Arabian populations more generally, changed over time. As the Queens of the Arabs were located on the periphery of the Assyrian Empire, Bennett incorporates data from the Arabian Peninsula. The shift from an Assyrian lens to an Arabian one highlights inaccuracies in the Assyrian material, which brings into focus Assyrian misunderstandings of the region. The Arabian Peninsula also offers comparative models for the Queens of the Arabs based on Arabian cultures.

The Tropical Turn

The Tropical Turn
Author: Sureshkumar Muthukumaran
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2023-03-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0520390849

This book chronicles the earliest histories of familiar tropical Asian crops in the ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean, from rice and cotton to citruses and cucumbers. Drawing on archaeological materials and textual sources in over seven ancient languages, The Tropical Turn unravels the breathtaking anthropogenic peregrinations of these familiar crops from their homelands in tropical and subtropical Asia to the Middle East and the Mediterranean, showing the significant impact South Asia had on the ecologies, dietary habits, and cultural identities of peoples across the ancient world. In the process, Sureshkumar Muthukumaran offers a fresh narrative history of human connectivity across Afro-Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the late centuries BCE.

Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday

Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday
Author: Pavel S. Avetisyan
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 594
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784919446

This volume is a tribute to the career of Professor Mirjo Salvini on the occasion his 80th birthday, composed of 62 papers written by his colleagues and students. The majority of contributions deal with research in the fields of Urartian and Hittite Studies, the topics that attracted Prof. Salvini most during his long and fruitful career.

The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia

The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia
Author: Shiyanthi Thavapalan
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 523
Release: 2019-10-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004415416

"In The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia, Shiyanthi Thavapalan offers the first in-depth study of the words and expressions for colors in the Akkadian language (c. 2500-500 BCE). By combining philological analysis with the technical investigation of materials, she debunks the misconception that people in Mesopotamia had a limited sense of color and convincingly positions the development of Akkadian color language as a corollary of the history of materials and techniques in the ancient Near East"--