BAF-Online: Proceedings of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum
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Polymorphic iconography common influences or individual features in the Near Eastern perspective
Full text linkTopic: polymorphic iconography in Egyptian religious iconography - special and separate types of mixed, theriomorphic and combined images / icons / forms, always with animal heads, double pairs of wings, phallus, and other magical symbols. Archaeological evidence: images appear on small size flat amulets, papyri fragments (also serving as amulets), bronze statuettes and magical healing statues. Textual evidence: lack of distinctive proper names Place: Egypt, without special area of provenance Date: Late Period (7th – 4th centuries BC), Ptolemaic and Roman Periods (from 4th century BC) Important terms:Pantheistic as an idea of all-embracing god (Pantheos)ba as an emanation / form / manifestation of a god, significantly associated with the image of the god. The animals were ba of gods.bau - strength, power, good and bad at the same time, affecting the whole world, and humans in particular. With the help of magic bau can be manipulated, to ensure people health and success. DeitesBes – Egyptian god – demon, present in magical context, protector of maternity, life, music, safety, with strong solar interpretation, often depicted as a dwarfTutu (Tithoes) – popular especially as Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt deity; main role was to repel negative powers and to protect people in danger; depicted as sphinx with mixed animal and magical attributesLamashtu – female Mesopotamian goddess / demon, who preys on mothers and children, depicted in magical context with animal elementsPazuzu – male Babylonian and Assyrian demonic god with rather beneficent, magical role, depicted with animal elementsNine–Shaped (Enneamorfos) – figure present in written Greek Magical Papyri, defined as composed of nine forms, especially of animal origin with magic function and Egyptian genesis Key problem: distribution of polymorphic iconography in other cultures, parallels, influences on the visual level (codification of symbols) and also on the ideological level (magical activity hidden / symbolised in a representation) Question of the talk: to define potential influences in the Near Eastern perspective - is the polymorphic idea specific to one culture or common to all ancient religious thinking about deities
Thoughts on the possible Iranian origins of the Jemdet Nasr painting style
Full text linkDates: ca. 3150-2900 B.C.E.Places: Western Iran and Central MesopotamiaMain argument: It is admitted that Iran had an influence on the southern Mesopotamian region during the Jemdet Nasr period, but the mechanisms of this influence are not clear. This talk would like to suggest some Iranian influence arrived in Central Mesopotamia during the collapse of the so-called "Uruk system", which coincides with the reappearance of painting on ware
The Treatment of Troublesome Regions
Full text linkIt is quite clear that after the Old Hittite Kingdom had been established, the Hittites focused their attention on gaining control of Syria. At the same time, they also tried to expand to western Anatolia but soon learned that too great an involvement in the west left them vulnerable to attacks. From that time on, the kings of Hatti sought to keep their military involvement in western Anatolia to a minimum, while thwarting the emergence of any hostile coalitions there.I find this subject fascinating—namely, how an empire that was founded on an ideology of expansion came to realize its natural boundaries and adjusted its ideology and practical strategy to extricate itself from a problematic region that could not be annexed or conquered. This specific case has been discussed only in part by Bryce (1986), so I decided to research it again in my dissertation
Space and Narrativity in Menna\u27s Tomb Chapel (Theban Tomb 69)
Full text linkTackling the issue of „Space and narrativity in two-dimensional images of the Egyptian New Kingdom“, the tomb of Menna (Theban Tomb 69) will serve as an example. The tomb of Menna , who held offices in the administration of temple land and royal land, is situated in the non-royal necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna on the Theban West Bank. Based on architectural and stylistical criteria as well as prosopographical data, it has been dated to the reign of Amenhotep III. (ca. 1390–1353 B.C.).The decorated tomb chapel is the part of the monument that was open to visitors and where the rituals for the deceased were performed as opposed to the burial chambers which were not intended to be re-opened after the burial except for the burial of the spouse or children of the deceased. In most cases they are undecorated
The Iron Age I in the Northern Levant: New perspectives from Lebanon
Full text linkThe beginning of the Iron Age in the Levant has been for the past three decades the focus of intense studies and debates. The main reason that had triggered this interest is the turmoil characterizing the end of the Late Bronze Age coupled with the migration of newcomers dubbed the “Sea People” to the coastal Levant. This phenomenon has been studied to a length in the southern Levant where evidence of destructions followed by a new culture is attested on many coastal sites. However, in neighboring Lebanon, few studies focused on this period mainly due to the paucity of archaeological sites dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age/beginning of the Iron Age. In recent years, remains uncovered at major sites such as Tell Arqa (Irqata of the Amarna Tablets), Sarepta, Tyre, or Kamid el-Loz (Kumidi of the Amarna Tablets) gave no evidence for destructions at the end of the Late Bronze Age in this country. On the contrary, the architectural and material culture found at sites such as Tell Arqa and Sarepta points to a smooth transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age. While the exposed architecture is usually flimsy and is characterized by a widespread use of pits and silos (a phenomenon equally observed on other neighboring sites such as Tell Afis in Syria or Tell Tayinat in Turkey), the pottery still retains old characteristics; yet integrated into a few new shapes and fabrics. The patterns of archaism observed in the material cultural in Lebanon challenges the established understanding of the Iron Age I in the southern Levant where it is characterized as a period of turmoil and transformation.This presentation analyses the architectural and material characteristics of the end of the Late Bronze Age I/beginning of the Iron Age I in Lebanon with the aim at isolating both local characteristics and regional influences
Linking a rural sanctuary with ancient metallurgy at Kataliondas Kourvellos (Cyprus)
No full textKataliondas Kourvellos is located at the base of an unusual rock knob, in the lower Troodos foothills, about 20 kilometers south of Nicosia. Recent excavations by the University of Geneva revealed that the site was occupied both in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, at the end of the 8th millennium BCE, and in the Cypro-Classical period, in the 4th century BCE.During the Cypro-Classical period, the site seems to have functioned as a rural sanctuary, but the purpose of its location there is not clear: among other explanations, one could be its link with the mining, smelting, and/or trade of metal resources (the lower Troodos foothills have been exploited since the Bronze Age for their copper and other mineralogical resources)
Following the Collapse: Regeneration or Transformation of the Urban Societies?
Full text link In the field of Syrian and Mesopotamian studies we must deal with many changes affecting the urban complexity and the socio-political and economic systems. In Syria, two major regional changes have been identified: one is the collapse of the Uruk system and the beginning of the second urban revolution, the other is the end of the Early Bronze Age and the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age cultures during the late third/early second millennium B.C. The terms “transition” and “collapse” are largely used in the definition of those two historical events.Many reasons could cause the collapse of any civilization: to explain the nature of any collapse we must look at the characteristics of the period that followed it. This paper will deal with the archaeological evidence from the late third and early second millennium B.C. in northern inner Syria to illustrate, on the one hand, the reason of that collapse and, on the other hand, to show how such a collapse affected the developmental trajectories of the urban systems.
Easy-Going: The Treatment of Written Records in the Ancient Syropalestine
Full text linkWho invented the Proto-Sinaitic writing? Sophisticated scribes, or unlettered workers? Orly Goldwasser, the chief advocate of the second possibility, borrowed from economic sciences the term ‘disruptive innovation’ that “describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market,’ eventually displacing established competitors.”[1] During the years spent with translations of Levantine texts for a Czech kind of „Context of Scripture“, I had an impression – however daring – that it is possible to generalize this finding for the Syropalestinian literature as a whole. Be it cuneiform or linear, narrative or Listenwissenschaft,[2] it shares the same basic tendency for simplicity and unambiguousness.DefinitionsDisruptive innovation: process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitorsCenter and Periphery: The centre–periphery model is a spatial metaphor which describes and attempts to explain the structural relationship between the advanced or metropolitan ‘centre’ and a less developed ‘periphery’[1] www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html[2] KTU 1.103 is a very special example from many points of view (and on the background of Y. Cohen, Akkadian Omens from Hattuša and Emar. The šumma immeru and šumma ālu Omens, in: Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, 97, 2007, str. 233‑251)
Evidence for early sedentism at Körtik Tepe, southeastern Turkey, during the Younger Dryas
No full textoai:ojs.bop.unibe.ch:article/3355Location: Körtik Tepe, Province Diyarbakır, Southeastern Turkey, at the confluence of the River Tigris and the Batman Creek. Period: Younger Dryas to Early Holocene (10400-9200 BCE) Focus: Archaeological evidence for permanent occupation of the site; conditions favouring early sedentism at the intersection of two ecological regimes: the riverine environments and the steppe/tree-steppe mountain ranges of the hinterland; ecological and socio-economic impact of sedentism and of climatic changes from the Younger Dryas to the Early Holocene; interpretation of burial customs comparing evidence of daily practices and emerging differentiation in burial rituals. Methods: Archaeobotany, stable isotope analyses, modelling of radiocarbon sequences; holistic approac
The Bay of Kiladha Project (Argolid, Greece): Bridging East and West
Full text linkThe project, a joint research program between the University of Geneva, under the aegis of the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece, and the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, aims at finding traces of prehistoric human activity in a small bay of the southern Argolid, near the Franchthi Cave, a major prehistoric site used from 40,000 years ago to 5,000 years ago. For most of these 35,000 years, because of global sea-level change in prehistory, the Bay of Kiladha was in fact a small coastal plain, where the sedentary farmers of the Neolithic period had probably their village.Research currently focuses on two parts of the bay: the Franchthi sector, close to the Cave (submerged Neolithic village) and the Lambayanna sector, just a few hundred meters to the north of Franchthi Cave (HA II fortified settlement)
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