Stretching across the historical region of Mesopotamia, the Akkadian dynasty (ca. 2334-2154 BCE) created a territorial state of unprecedented scale in the ancient Near East by uniting the city-states of Sumer and Akkad and parts of Syria and Iran. To establish and, later, cement their authority over disparate peoples and places, the kings used art and visual culture to extraordinary effect. Exemplars of Kingship conveys the astonishing life of the art of the Akkadian kings by assessing ancient and modern responses to its dynamic forms and transformative ideologies of kingship. For nearly two thousand years after their reign, the Akkadian kings were remembered as exemplary rulers. Modern assessments of ancient memories of Akkadian kingship have concentrated on textual attestations of the kings' place in cultural memory. This book considers the contributions of images to memories of Akkadian kingship. Through close readings of the visuals that remain, Melissa Eppihimer discusses how Akkadian steles, statues, and cylinder seals became models for later rulers in Mesopotamia and beyond who wished to emulate or critique the Akkadian kings-and how these rulers and their contemporaries were reminded of the Akkadian past when they looked at images. Exemplars of Kingship is, therefore, a book about Akkadian art and its reception in antiquity, but it is also concerned with the modern reception of Akkadian art and kingship. It argues that modern responses have constrained our understanding of ancient responses. Through a wide range of examples drawn from almost two millennia, the book highlights the individual decisions that prompted continuity and change during the long history of Mesopotamia and its artistic traditions.
By:
Melissa Eppihimer (Visitor Lecturer Visitor Lecturer University of Pittsburgh)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 160mm,
Width: 236mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 596g
ISBN: 9780190903015
ISBN 10: 0190903015
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 08 August 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements Notes on Names, Dates, and Languages List of Abbreviations List of Figures and Tables Map Chapter One: Behold Sargon Chapter Two: Exemplars of Kingship and the Art of Memory Chapter Three: Triumphant Kings and the Legacy of Akkadian Steles Chapter Four: Royal Bodies and the Legacy of Akkadian Statues Chapter Five: Curly-Haired Heroes and the Legacy of Akkadian Seals Chapter Six: Allusions and Illusions Bibliography Index
Melissa Eppihimer researches and teaches ancient Near Eastern art history, antiquarianism, and museum studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Reviews for Exemplars of Kingship: Art, Tradition, and the Legacy of the Akkadians
Well researched and thought-provoking. * Renate M van Dijk-Coombes, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages * This well-written book reminds the text-focused historian that royal representation was an eminently visual enterprise and that the images of the king can give us at least some clues as to what these images of kingship, produced by the king and his court in all kinds of celebrations and rituals, might have looked like. * Sebastian Fink, Universität Innsbruck *
