Description
Book SynopsisProvides 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
Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Abbreviations xix
1 The “Art” of the “Ancient Near East” 1
Ann C. Gunter
PART I Approaches and Methods of Analysis and Interpretation 23
2 Art and Material Culture 25
David Wengrow
3 Meaning and Interpretation 49
Astrid Nunn
4 Style 75
Margaret Cool Root
5 Connoisseurship and Classification 103
Eleonora Pappalardo
6 Visual Culture 129
Sarah B. Graff
7 Technical Examination and Material Analysis 153
Deborah Schorsch
8 Gender and Sexuality 179
John D. M. Green
9 Semiotics, Reception Theory, and Poststructuralism 209
Marlies Heinz
PART II Critical Terms and Concepts 231
10 Representation 233
Dominik Bonatz and Marlies Heinz
11 Narrative 261
Paul Collins
12 Ideology 283
Beate Pongratz‐Leisten
13 Ritual 309
Carolyn Nakamura
14 Agency 333
Sophy Downes
15 Aesthetics 359
Gebhard J. Selz
PART III Materials, Media, and Artistic Environments 383
16 Statuary and Reliefs 385
Claudia E. Suter
17 Glyptic 411
Adelheid Otto
18 Religious Architecture 433
Jean M. Evans
19 Palaces and Elite Houses 457
Andreas Schachner
20 Rock Reliefs and Landscape Monuments 483
Ömür Harmansa̧ h
21 Reconstructing Artistic Environments 507
Mehmet‐Ali Ataç
PART IV Interactions with Neighboring Regions and Artistic Traditions 531
22 The Ancient Near East and Egypt 533
Betsy M. Bryan
23 The Ancient Near East and the Bronze Age Aegean 565
Marian H. Feldman
24 Near Eastern Art in the Iron Age Mediterranean 585
James Whitley
PART V Intersections with Archaeology, Collecting, and Cultural Heritage 613
25 Archaeology and the Art of the Ancient Near East 615
D. T. Potts
26 Cultural Heritage across the Middle East, Ancient and Modern 637
Geoff Emberling and Katharyn Hanson
Index 661
