Embodying the Memory of the Royal Ancestors in western Syria during the third and second millennia BC: The case of Ebla and Qatna. In Envisioning the Past Through Memories (D. Nadali ed.). Bloomsbury Academy, pp.53-68. (original) (raw)
The relationship between objects, people, and places can be fundamental when the aim is to create forms of memorialization for the dead among the living. This is especially the case of ancient societies who left behind numerous traces that can be useful for scholars in reconstructing ancient religious beliefs and practices. In particular, archaeologists have used a social memory theoretical framework to enlarge the field of research to a broader agenda that, as emphasized by Andrew Jones, can help researchers in defining ‘how things and places helped societies remember’. Regarding funerary contexts, researchers have primarily directed their interest towards the definition of archaeological correlates that can help identify tangible elements to be associated with ancient cults of the ancestors. Even though the search for the cult of the ancestors can be both risky and tricky, this exercise can be particularly fruitful if the archaeological data are supported by written sources that better explain the role of the ancestors and how they were venerated and memorialized by a given society. For example, in the case of the ancient Near East the proliferation of texts dedicated to this topic can be found starting from the third millennium BCE. These texts are mostly concerned with the subject of royal or elite ancestor worship and it therefore appears of great importance to confront these textual evidences with archaeological data helpful for interpreting and reconstructing the ritual practices involved in the memorialization of royal ancestors. Of particular relevance for the topic investigated in this paper is the appearance of Royal Hypogea built underneath palaces, as well as mausolea that have marked the urban fabric of numerous ancient Near Eastern cities starting from the third and continuing until the first millennia BC. Thus, in this paper I will use a social memory theoretical framework as a tenet to be used in analysing two specific case studies from western Syria: the third millennium example available from Ebla, and the second millennium Royal Hypogeum discovered at Qatna. In this epistemological process I will use the written data to support my theoretical tenet that is based on the assumption that the creation of the memory of royal ancestors is pivotal for constructing the ‘charismatic authority’ of royal families and linking them to a cosmic dimension; because, as I mentioned in a previous publication, ‘in order to establish this authority, the leader’s charisma has to be communicated through a language based on the performance of rituals that assist the observer in connecting the royal domain with the divine one’. In this paper, I will especially focus on the investigation of the role of body memories in constructing forms of memorialization with an emphasis on how memories were incorporated by the social body through the practice of ritual journeys and convivial eating.
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