Ancient Near Eastern Temple Inventories in the Third and Second Millennia BCE: Integrating Archaeological, Textual, and Visual Sources.. Proceedings of a conference held at the LMU Centre for Advanced Studies, November 14–15, 2016.
With contributions of Ilya Arkhipov, Dominique Charpin, Sophie Cluzan, Albert Dietz, Berthold Einwag, Jean M. Evans, Helen Gries, Suzanne Herbordt, Michèle Maggio, Adelheid Otto, Frances Pinnock, Elisa Roßberger, Aaron Schmitt und Lorenzo Verderame.
Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient, Band 4 (MAAO-4)
In cooperation with Paola Paoletti
The contributions in this volume — resulting from an international conference held in 2016 at the Center for Advanced Studies of Ludwig- Maximilians-University Munich and supported by the LMU Graduate School for Ancient Studies ‘Distant Worlds’ — aim to integrate material remains, textual sources, and the visual record regarding ancient Near Eastern temple inventories of the third and second millennia BCE. The conference encouraged researchers with archaeological and philolo- gical backgrounds to engage in holistic approaches to the constitution of sacred space and to the societal function as well as ideological and economic impacts of sacred gifting. Its focus on objects and practices led to a fruitful exchange with increased emphasis on entire assem- blages instead of exclusive treatments of distinct object categories or text genres.
Several contributions in this volume build on archaeological and tex- tual evidence that was excavated in the early twentieth century but re- mains in continuous need for contextual and synthetic analyses. Others discuss more recent excavations undertaken with closer attention to contextual and stratigraphic details and exploiting new opportunities for scientific analyses. The temples under consideration range geogra- phically from modern-day Iraq (Ur, Nippur, Khafajeh, Iščali, Assur) and Syria (Mari, Tell Bazi, Aleppo) to Turkey (Boğazköy), and chronologically from the Early to the Late Bronze Age (c. 2800–1200 BCE). Discussions start off from diverse sources such as administrative texts, votive in- scriptions, small-scale finds, architectural installations, or three- and two-dimensional figurative artefacts but all contribute to an overall goal: To better understand the entwinement of the things, images, and practices that changed a physical space into a locus of encounter between humans and the divine.
Tall Bazi – I. Die römerzeitliche Bebauung von Tall Bazi im syrischen Euphrattal. Ein befestigtes einheimisches Heiligtum im Vorfeld der römischen Provinz Syria.
Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient, Band 5 (MAAO-5)
Mit einem Beitrag von Stefan Heidemann
The site Tall Bazi on the left bank of the Syrian Euphrates has so far been known mainly for its Bronze Age occupation. But the Tall yielded also remains of later architecture, namely from the 2nd century AD. This volume will first present and analyse the respective finds and findings. The ensuing archaeological and historical evaluation will consider the function of Tall Bazi against the background of the political and cultural situation. In this context, the border location of the site - a part of the kingdom of Osrhoene situated between the superpowers Rome and Parthia - is of the utmost importance.
Tall Bazi is a fortified sanctuary with an irregular ground plan. Framed by two gate towers the main access lay on the side fronting the Euphrates. Inside, several buildings could be ascertained one of which may be regarded as a central ritual building. Based on the dating of the partly stratified finds the monumental sanctuary was presumably erected in the late 1st / early 2nd century AD. It existed until the second half of the 2nd century AD.
The careful and comprehensive analysis of finds and findings allows us to address various questions connected with the sanctuary of Tall Bazi. For example, a great number of pits in an open courtyard point to ritual activities inside the sacred area. The shape and construction of the temple stand fast within the Mesopotamian tradition; despite its location right on the Euphrates river and thus at the frontier of the Roman Empire the architecture does not show any Hellenistic / Roman influence. This fact as well as the analysed material enable us to draw conclusions with regard to the identity of the builder of the sanctuary and its visitors.
Ritual places that might be comparable to the sanctuary of Tall Bazi are so far hardly known in the Middle East. It is therefore highly important that the information to be gained from this unique site on the borderline between the Roman Empire and the sphere of Parthian power is evaluated and published.
Merenptah V. Konservierungsarbeiten und Herrichtung des Grabungsplatzes.
With contributions of Hans Ettl und Horst Schuh.
Beiträge zur ägyptischen Bauforschung und Altertumskunde, Band 21
Im Rahmen der von 1971-2002 unternommenen Nachuntersuchung des von W. M. Flinders Petrie (1896) erstmals untersuchten Millionenjahrhauses des Merenptah in Theben/Luxor (Ägypten), berichtet Band V in seinem ersten Teil von der Herrichtung der erneut freigelegten Ruine, einschließlich seiner verbliebenen Bauteile und Statuen, als öffentlich zugängliches Freilichtmuseum. Unter hauptsächlicher Verwendung von Grabungsschutt unterschiedlicher Art wurde die Gesamtanlage wieder sichtbar gemacht. Zu dieser gehören ein überdecktes Lapidarium, in dem Bauteile und Reste kolossaler Statuen aus sekundärer Herkunft aufbewahrt werden, sowie die aus polychrom gefassten Kalksteinblöcken bestehenden Fundamente des 2. Pylons eines Monumentaltors Amenophis’ III., welche zu Schauräumen umgestaltet wurden. Des weiteren gehören zu der Anlage der Bau eines archäologischen Museums, in dem Fragmente der Dekoration und Ausstattung des Tempels gezeigt werden.
Im zweiten Teil des Bandes werden, neben dem Bergen, Sanieren und Konservieren der aufgefundenen Steine und Statuen, die von verschiedenen Institutionen und Labors unternommenen Bemühungen und Voruntersuchungen vorgestellt, die schließlich die Restaurierung und Konservierung weitgehend aller aufgefundenen Bauteile und Statuen ermöglichte.
Der Baudekor des zweiten Jahrtausends v. Chr. in Mesopotamien. Formen – Motive – Perzeption.
Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient, Band 3 (MAAO-3)
This study deals with the archaeological examples of architectural ornamentation in 2nd-millennium Mesopotamia. Diverse contemporary sources have been consulted in the attempt to elucidate the differing aspects of this form of expression by architecture. The emphasis is on sacred buildings as, by abundant examples, they are shown to be the preferred – and often only – carriers of those forms of architectural ornamentation that are here treated. Besides the monumentality of construction the ornaments at the outer as well as at the courtyard façades of temples in the Ancient Near East are among the most obvious architectural formalisms that mark the sacred space off from other buildings in town. The ostentatious morphology of sacred buildings underlines the architectural differentiation between ›temples‹, ›dwelling-houses‹ and ›palaces‹, a differentiation which is far from emerging as clear-cut in the usage of the respective ancient languages. The sacred buildings tend to be carefully looked after throughout centuries, thus forming an important architectural landmark within a changeful urban environment – in contrast to more short-lived palaces and other profane buildings. In this way, sacred architecture becomes a meaningful and long-lasting reference point for the inhabitants’ orientation; sacred architecture is more than the lifeless background of a society, it is rather an active guiding system whose communicative potential has not ceased to exist, not even after millennia.
Eisenzeitliche Paläste in der nördlichen Levante. Repräsentation von Herrschaft mit architektonischen Mitteln.
Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient, Band 2 (MAAO-2)
The Iron Age in the Levant was marked, on the one hand, by the local Syro-Hittite states and, on the other hand, by the empires of the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians. The architecture created in the Syro-Hittite states impresses strongly by its monumentality and, above all, by the sculptured orthostats decorating buildings at sites such as Zincirli Höyük, Sakçagözü, Karkamiš, Ḥamāh and Tall Taʿyīnāt. The foreign powers to whom the region became subject – especially the Assyrians – installed their governors in palaces that were visible symbols of their sovereignty, for example in Til Barsip, Zincirli Höyük and Tall Taʿyīnāt.
Besides many studies concerned with sculpture, urban planning and other aspects of the Iron Age in the northern Levant, here is now the first comprehensive and comparative monograph addressing the palaces of the period. The author examines the architecture as well as the decoration with bas-reliefs and murals of Syro-Hittite, Assyrian and Persian palaces. Against the background of sociological theories of power and sovereignty he analyses the way in which architecture and sculpture were employed in the cause of representing and legitimatising the respective ruler, and he reconstructs the underlying strategies of representation. It becomes clear that locally entrenched as well as foreign rulers differ in the manner in which they present themselves, through their palaces, towards, on the one hand, the common people and, on the other hand, the members of the elite. But while, in spite of the large number of political entities, the Syro-Hittite rulers share similar ideas about architecture and iconography, the architecture of the Assyrian palaces in the provinces surprises by its heterogeneousness, sometimes widely deviating from the concepts established in the homeland.
The combination of architectural and pictorial analysis arrives at new insights into the cultures of the Syro-Hittite states as well as into the Assyrian rule in the Levant.
Graben in Syrien /Digging in Syria
In ‘Graben in Syrien’ [Excavating in Syria] Theo de Feyter presents drawings, paintings and texts called forth by his observations of workers and scientists at one of the last excavations before the outbreak of the uprisings in Syria. The impressive landscape of the Euphrates reservoir forms the decorative scenery for the work of archaeologists, students and local workmen, who are exposing a Late Bronze Age town in this distant corner of the country. Archaeological field-work is a slow, laborious process carried out under difficult circumstances: De Feyter’s drawings, paintings and texts document it carefully in all its aspects.
Here is a rare view into the archaeological practice of a typical excavation in the Middle East, a practice that had to be abandoned for the time being and that, if ever taken up again, will probably never look like what de Feyter has captured. This book is already a historical document.
Theo de Feyter (born in the Netherlands, 1947) is both, an artist and an archaeologist. As archaeologist (University of Amsterdam) he has worked in Syria and in Turkey, as artist he has worked wherever his travels took him. He prefers a documentary way of drawing and has published several books of drawings and texts, e.g. ‘Mensen en ruïnes’, about a visit in Homs and Aleppo in March 2017, or ‘Syrië, een geschiedenis in ontmoetingen en plaatsen’, a book about the history and culture of Syria (both publications in Dutch).
From Pottery to Chronology: The Middle Euphrates Region in Late Bronze Age Syria. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Mainz (Germany), May 5-7, 2012.
With contributions of Felix Blocher, Annie Caubet, Costanza Coppini, Berthold Einwag, Thomas L. McClellan, Adelheid Otto, Anne Porter, Ferhan Sakal, Glenn M. Schwarz and Peter Werner.
Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient, Band 1 (MAAO-1)
This volume presents the result of an International Workshop on the Chronology of the Late Bronze Age (15th-13th Century BC) in Northern Syria, precisely of the Upper Syrian Euphrates Area with the sites Emar, Tall al-Qitar, Tall Munbaqa, Umm el-Marra and Tall Bazi. The relative and absolute chronology of each of the mentioned sites was analyzed with the help of stratified pottery and associated material as well as radiocarbon dates. New chronological anchor points for the Upper Euphrates valley were achieved, replacing the hitherto mainly used chronological fixpoint of the ‘Tablet Building’ at Hadidi. As a result, a new synchronized chronology for the LB IA, LB IB and LB II periods in Syria is proposed. On a historical level, the destruction of most of the sites can be attributed to the Hittite expansion in the mid 14th century; only Emar, el-Qitar and Karkemish were spared and flourished.
Syene III. Untersuchungen zur römischen Keramik und weiteren Funden aus Syene / Assuan (1.-7. Jahrhundert AD). Grabungen 2001 — 2004.
With contributions by Sylvia Fünfschilling, Daniel Keller and Johanna Sigl.
Beiträge zur ägyptischen Bauforschung und Altertumskunde, Band 20.
Syene (Aswan) was the southern-most town of the Roman Empire. Since the year 2000, systematic rescue excavations have been carried out by the Swiss Institute of Architectural and Archaeological Research on Ancient Egypt in Cairo, in cooperation with the Ministry of Antiquities.
The pottery studied in this volume comes from stratigraphically well-observed archaeological structures of the excavations from the 1st to 4th campaigns and was analysed within the framework of a project of the University of Berne, Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Archäologie der Römischen Provinzen.
The work is divided into four parts A-D, with a substantial summary in English:
Part A: structures, contexts, catalogue of pottery and plates.
Part B: pottery, relative and absolute chronology; types; synthesis.
Part C: glass, metal and bone artefacts, animal bones.
Part D: annex (pottery): bibliography, typological series; color plates.
For the first time for Upper Egypt, characteristic, chronologically valid contexts of pottery can now be observed. Furthermore, from the later 1st century BC up until the 7th century AD a typological development for many forms can be traced. Finally, the analysis of the pottery yields results and perspectives on trade and cultural developments.