Ur in the Twenty-First Century: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Philadelphia, July 11-15, 2016, edited by Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman. Eisenbrauns, an imprint of PSU Press, 2021
Pdf available on request. The banquet scene is a recurrent theme in ancient Near Eastern art. Fro... more Pdf available on request. The banquet scene is a recurrent theme in ancient Near Eastern art. From its oldest known depiction on painted pottery of the Halaf period to large-scale representations on relief panels of the neo-Assyrian period, the theme comes and goes in and out of fashion as the subject of decoration on a wide variety of artifacts from Anatolia to Iran. There have been many attempts at interpretation. Most begin in the third millennium B.C.E. with the cylinder seals from the Royal Cemetery at Ur and look to the textual record for corroborative evidence of a festive occasion that accounts for the theme’s many manifestations through space and time. Suggestions range from ritual to secular events and from specific to generic ones, but they all revolve around the consumption of food and drink. This underlying premise, based largely on the evidence from Ur, serves as a starting point for comparative studies on the banquet scene. It also constitutes the basis for recent contributions to cross-cultural inquiries into the politics of feasting, and that subject, in turn, has prompted a targeted search for evidence of feasting in the archaeological record.
There is no question that commensal festivities of various kinds occurred regularly and marked the public and private lives of the elite not just during the EDIII period in Mesopotamia but throughout the history and area of the ancient world. The textual record provides ample evidence of real and mythical banquets and feasts that were held in honor of all manner of occasions including royal investitures, military victories and political alliances in addition to monthly festivals celebrating the multiple gods of the pantheon. Important though banquets and feasting were in the socio-economic and political life of the ancient Near East, I question their relevance to the banquet scene and suggest that this iconic Near Eastern theme belongs in cross-cultural debate of an altogether different nature.
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The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art.
Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.
https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Ecstatic-Experience-in-the-Ancient-World/Stein-Costello-Foster/p/book/9780367480325
For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East.
The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were its rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art.
Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.
Pdf available on request.
There is no question that commensal festivities of various kinds occurred regularly and marked the public and private lives of the elite not just during the EDIII period in Mesopotamia but throughout the history and area of the ancient world. The textual record provides ample evidence of real and mythical banquets and feasts that were held in honor of all manner of occasions including royal investitures, military victories and political alliances in addition to monthly festivals celebrating the multiple gods of the pantheon. Important though banquets and feasting were in the socio-economic and political life of the ancient Near East, I question their relevance to the banquet scene and suggest that this iconic Near Eastern theme belongs in cross-cultural debate of an altogether different nature.
figures of the past.
The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art.
Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.
https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Ecstatic-Experience-in-the-Ancient-World/Stein-Costello-Foster/p/book/9780367480325
For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East.
The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were its rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art.
Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.
Pdf available on request.
There is no question that commensal festivities of various kinds occurred regularly and marked the public and private lives of the elite not just during the EDIII period in Mesopotamia but throughout the history and area of the ancient world. The textual record provides ample evidence of real and mythical banquets and feasts that were held in honor of all manner of occasions including royal investitures, military victories and political alliances in addition to monthly festivals celebrating the multiple gods of the pantheon. Important though banquets and feasting were in the socio-economic and political life of the ancient Near East, I question their relevance to the banquet scene and suggest that this iconic Near Eastern theme belongs in cross-cultural debate of an altogether different nature.
figures of the past.