MULLER B., 2014 b, « 'Architectural models' of the Near-East and Eastern Mediterranean: a Global Approach Introduction (Neolithic-Ist millenium BC) » (original) (raw)
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AH 209 The Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East
Who lived in the Tower of Babel? Who was buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? How were the ziggurats built? Peoples of the Ancient Near East produced a unique body of works of art, artifacts, and monuments, using a remarkable variety of materials and technologies, and created a long-lasting and diverse visual and material culture. This introductory lecture course investigates the art, architecture, and visual culture of Near Eastern societies from prehistoric times to the time of Alexander the Great (ca. 330 BC). The art and architecture of the earliest urban centers in ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, Iran and the Levant will be studied. We will explore not only how modern scholars make sense of pictorial, sculptural and architectural forms of Near Eastern art, but will also investigate various technologies of production. Art can be broadly described as the creative and imaginative work of human communities and individuals using their material skills and acquired bodies of knowledge, in order to build a meaningful world around them. Architecture involves the building arts that on the one hand allow human communities to construct shelters, houses, and public monuments, while on the other hand characterizes the culturally specific way that they shape the space, the landscape, and the environment around them. Material culture includes everything that one uses in everyday life from kitchen utensils to writing implements, from clothing to cell phones. These are our intimate companions as we live in and make sense of the world. We tend to categorize them as fetishes, souvenirs, heirlooms, tools, knick knacks, voodoo dolls, marionettes, toys, furniture, relics, fossils, pots and pans, amounting to what we cumulatively call “material culture”. Visual culture is the culture of looking at and seeing the world in a particular way and producing images that reflect and embody those specific ways of seeing. In this course, we explore these different categories of things, monuments, and art that are produced by the ancient Near Eastern cultures. We will start with a discussion of the history of research in/on the Middle East, by the antiquarians, the first archaeologists in the 19th century and the establishment of the first museums to exhibit their finds. The chronological journey of the course starts with the Palaeolithic cave paintings and Neolithic figurines from the oldest, prehistoric communities in the Middle East, and take us all the way to the time when the Middle East was gradually Hellenized after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the collapse of the last Near Eastern empire- the Achaemenid Persian Empire. The survey will highlight precious, sacred objects such as the Uruk Vase, burial goods such as the Royal Tombs of Ur, public monuments such as the Stele of Naram Sin or the Law Stele of Hammurabi, architectural complexes such as the Assyrian Palaces, legendary wonders such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Tower of Babel.
On the Characteristic of Temple Complexes in the Near East in the 4 th – 3 rd Millennia BC
Investigation of metal is important for understanding relationship between production and ideology in ancient Near East. Metal production in the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age stimulated transformation of egalitarian society into stratified one. The author traces relation of objects of social and religious significance (interior decorations, anthropo- and zoomorphic sculpture, symbolic weapons and implements) with certain types of sites. From the Neolithic onward metal was used in mortuary practice. In the Early Bronze Age metal production shows relationship with the process of urbanization and formation of early polities. The Middle Bronze Age sees dramatic rise of metal production; valuable and symbolically important finds originate from royal tombs, temples, and treasures. When considering metal finds' context, the author concludes that in the Near East in the late prehistory, urban civilization, and early states metal actively functioned in sacral sphere. Moreover, ideology to a great extent determined development of metal production.
Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on the Archeology of the Ancient Near East _Volume 1
HARRASSOWITZ, 2023
The two volumes include 142 selected lectures presented at the “12th International Congress on the Archeology of the Ancient Near East” (ICAANE) at the University of Bologna in April 2021. This congress takes place every other year and is the platform for all archaeologists worldwide to present the current results of their research in and on the Near East. The timeframe extends from the Neolithic through the Bronze and Iron ages down to the Achaemenid, Seleuco-Parthian and up to the Islamic period. The geographical frame spans the area from the eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia, and from the Black Sea to the Arabian peninsula. Researchers coming from 43 countries have summarized their latest discoveries mostly in English: Volume 1, edited by N Marchetti, M Campeggi, F Cavaliere, C D'Orazio, G Giacosa, E Mariani, comprises 73 contributions related to the conference themes of Environmental Archaeology; hammering the material world; cognitive archaeology; modeling the past; networked archaeology; Endangered cultural heritage.