Art and Immortality in the Ancient Near East

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title page......Page 5
Copyright information......Page 6
Epigraph......Page 7
Table of contents......Page 9
List of Illustrastions......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 15
List of abbreviations......Page 17
Toward a Metaphysics of the Art of the Ancient Near East......Page 19
The Corpus of Images......Page 23
Questions of Text and Image......Page 26
Tammuz and Gilgamesh......Page 27
A Supra-Textual Language......Page 32
Conceptual Bases......Page 33
Conceptions of Sacral Time and Eschatology......Page 36
Defining Apocalyptic......Page 39
Out of Time, Out of History......Page 41
Artistic Production and “Regal Art”......Page 42
The Royal Destiny......Page 44
Art and the Apocalyptic......Page 45
One The “Investiture” Painting from Mari......Page 48
Archaeological Discovery and Architectural Setting......Page 51
The Mari Painting in the Context of the Art of the Ancient Near East......Page 53
The Affinity between Mari and Assyria......Page 58
Conceptions of Renewal in the Mari Painting......Page 59
Previous Interpretations......Page 60
Alternative Views......Page 63
A Critical Position......Page 66
The Ring and Rod: Beyond Legitimacy......Page 68
The Builder King......Page 72
The Flowing Vase: Beyond Fertility......Page 73
Aquatic Endlessness......Page 77
Ishtar and Ea......Page 79
An Aquatic Doorway......Page 80
The Central Panel: Beyond a Rectangular Frame......Page 81
Heaven in Earth......Page 84
The Mythical Quadrupeds: Beyond the Apotropaic......Page 89
The Blue Bird in Flight: The “Phoenix”?......Page 91
Ascent to Heaven......Page 94
Coloristic Symbolism......Page 96
Stairway to Heaven......Page 97
Three The Flood Myth as Paradigm......Page 99
A Note on Method......Page 100
The Ideal Enclosure and the Ideal Garden......Page 101
The Ideal Temple......Page 104
Numerological Symbolism......Page 106
A New Cosmic Order......Page 107
Flood Vision......Page 109
Defining Paradeigma......Page 110
The Mari Painting and the Assyrian “Sacred Tree”......Page 111
Postscript on Shamanic Lore in the Art of Ancient Mesopotamia......Page 116
Running Spirals as Symbolic Form......Page 120
The Ouroboric Serpent......Page 122
Primordial Chaos as Source of Periodic Destruction and Renewal......Page 123
Serpents, Streams, and Endless Time......Page 131
Neo-Sumerian Roots......Page 134
An Anatolian Ouroboros.?......Page 137
Temporal Cyclicality in Ancient Mesopotamia......Page 141
An Apocalyptic Perspective......Page 142
Defying Cyclicality through Ascent......Page 143
The Hittite Double Winged Disk......Page 146
Hittite Visual Formulations of Ascent......Page 152
Mountain and Water......Page 153
To Die is to Become a God......Page 155
Egyptian Roots......Page 156
Conceptions of Temporal and Astral Eternity......Page 159
Nothing Babylonian......Page 161
Conceptions of Apocalyptic Eschatology......Page 163
Closure to the Mari Painting......Page 166
Postscript: Why the Apocalyptic Would Have Been Esoteric......Page 167
Six The “Royal Destiny”:......Page 169
Description and Historical Framework......Page 170
Previous Interpretations and the Present Approach......Page 175
Paradisiac Implications......Page 176
The “Garden Scene” and its Intercultural Connections......Page 178
“The Charms of Tyranny”......Page 181
The Assyrian Queen Wearing the Mural Crown......Page 186
The Celestial City......Page 188
The Garden as a Transitional Extreme......Page 190
A Vergilian Model......Page 191
Ishtar and “Holy War”......Page 194
Closure to the “Garden Scene”......Page 195

Epilogue......Page 197
Introduction......Page 201
1 The “Investiture” Painting From Mari......Page 211
2 The Iconographic Analysis of The Mari Painting......Page 219
3 The Flood Myth as Paradigm......Page 228
4 The Semantics of The Frame of Running Spirals......Page 232
5 Implications Of Sacral Time and Eschatology......Page 238
6 The “Royal Destiny”: The “Garden Scene” of Ashurbanipal Revisited......Page 251
Epilogue......Page 263
Bibliography......Page 265
Index......Page 291