Losing One's Head in the Ancient Near East: Interpretation and Meaning of Decapitation

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Rita Dolce

Losing One's Head in the Ancient Near East

Interpretation and Meaning of Decapitation

Rita Dolce

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
19 December 2017

Series: Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East

In the Ancient Near East, cutting off someone’s head was a unique act, not comparable to other types of mutilation, and therefore charged with a special symbolic and communicative significance. This book examines representations of decapitation in both images and texts, particularly in the context of war, from a trans-chronological perspective that aims to shed light on some of the conditions, relationships and meanings of this specific act. The severed head is a “coveted object” for the many individuals who interact with it and determine its fate, and the act itself appears to take on the hallmarks of a ritual. Drawing mainly on the evidence from Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia between the third and first millennia BC, and with reference to examples from prehistory to the Neo-Assyrian Period, this fascinating study will be of interest not only to art historians, but to anyone interested in the dynamics of war in the ancient world.

By: Rita Dolce
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 317g
ISBN: 9781138067486
ISBN 10: 1138067482
Series: Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East
Pages: 92
Publication Date: 19 December 2017
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

"List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Image Credits Abbreviations Introduction Chapter I I.1. From the Distant Past to the Recent Past I.2. An Unrepeatable Act I.3. The Headless Body: Anonymity/Identity Chapter II II.1. Exclusivity/Multiplicity II.2. Exhibition/Quantification Chapter III III.1. What Happens to the ""Coveted Object""? III.2. Destinations/Motivations III.3. Exhibition and Multivalence Chapter IV IV.1. Severed Heads and Birds of Prey IV.2. Eannatum of Lagash and the Birds of Prey IV.3. Mari and the Birds of Prey IV.4. Sargon I of Akkad and the Birds of Prey IV.5. Dadusha of Eshnunna and the Birds of Prey IV.6. The Assyrians and the Birds of Prey Chapter V V.1. Moving Through Space and Time V.2. How Does the Head Travel? Chapter VI VI.1. ""Other"" Decapitations in Times of War VI.2. What Happens to the Severed Heads of Statues? VI.3. Moving Through Space and Time VI.4. Annihilation/Catharsis Bibliography Index"

Rita Dolce is Associate Professor of Archaeology and History of Near Eastern Cultures and Fine Arts at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy, and a member of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Syria, where she has excavated for 40 years at the site of Tell Mardikh-Ebla. Her research interests lie mainly in the figurative art, urban topography and architecture of the third millennium BC in Mesopotamia and Syria. She has written numerous books and articles focusing particularly on visual communication as the language of power and a means of dissemination in the societies of the Ancient Near East, and on the urban origins of Ebla, its palatial culture and the structure and significance of cult places in this important Early Syrian kingdom.

Reviews for Losing One's Head in the Ancient Near East: Interpretation and Meaning of Decapitation

Building on a vast documentary record that covers the entire Syro-Mesopotamian tradition, Dolce's analysis offers an in-depth study in visual semiotics. She identifies specific 'semantic codes' and an explicit syntactical organization, through which a strong message was conveyed by means of visual imagery. This is iconology at its best: by highlighting the coherence of a representational program, and drawing on parallel written statements, our sensitivity is trained to appreciate the 'intrinsic meaning' of a topos such as the action of beheading - a topos with a valence that goes well beyond that of other types of mutilation precisely because of its ideological import. George Buccellati, University of California Los Angeles, USA