Description

Edited by Ben-Dov Jonathan; Edited by Rojas, Felipe

Short /annotation:
This volume gathers articles by archeologists, art historians, and philologists concerned with the afterlives of ancient rock-cut monuments throughout the Near East. Contributions analyze how such monuments were actively reinterpreted and manipulated long after they were first carved.

:
This book concerns the ancient rock-cut monuments carved throughout the Near East, paying particular attention to the fate of these monuments in the centuries after their initial production. As parts of the landscapes in which they were carved, they acquired new meanings in the cultural memory of the people living around them. The volume joins numerous recent studies on the reception of historical texts and artefacts, exploring the peculiar affordances of these long-lasting and often salient monuments. The volume gathers articles by archeologists, art historians, and philologists, covering the entire Near East, from Iran to Lebanon and from Turkey to Egypt. It also analyzes long-lasting textual traditions that aim to explain the origins and meaning of rock-cut monuments and other related carvings.

Table of contents:
PrefaceList of Figures and TablesNotes on Contributors1 Introduction Felipe Rojas and Jonathan Ben-Dov2 Entangled Images: Royal Memory, Posthumous Presence, and the Afterlives of Assyrian Rock Reliefs Karen Sonik and David Kertai3 Narrating Temporality: Three Short Stories about Egyptian Royal Living-Rock Stelae Jen Thum and Anne-Claire Salmas4 Forgetting an Empire, Creating a New Order: Trajectories of Rock-Cut Monuments from Hittite into Post-Hittite Anatolia, and the Afterlife of the “Throne” of Kızıldağ Lorenzo d’Alfonso and Matteo Pedrinazzi5 A Carving in Antioch: History, Magic, Antiquarianism, Archaeology Felipe Rojas6 Herodotus and Empire: Ancient Near Eastern Monuments and Their Cultural Recycling in Herodotus’ Histories Robert Rollinger7 Sculpting in Time: Rock Reliefs, Inscriptions and the Transformation of Iranian Memory and Identity Matthew P. Canepa8 Éminences grises: Emergent Antiquities in Seventeenth-Century Iran Lindsay Allen and Moya Carey9 Neo-Babylonian Rock Reliefs and the Jewish Literary Imagination Jonathan Ben-Dov10 Translatio studii: Stelae Traditions in Second Temple Judaism and Their Legacy in Byzantium William Adler11 The Long History of an Imaginary Inscription: Josephus’s Two Pillars in Early Modern European Histories of Astronomy John SteeleIndex

Review quote:
“The volume’s contents are thus wide-ranging and the main message to learn is that ancient rock-cut monuments triggered vivid yet very varied reactions throughout their existence. (…) The editors’ intent to consider the “afterlives” of monuments in this inclusive way is to be praised”
– Marc Van De Mieroop, Columbia University, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.04.26

“This is an interesting collection on how inscriptions were interpreted before modern scholarship and who was interested in doing so.”
– Lester L. Grabbe, in The Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2022

“The volume’s contents are thus wide-ranging and the main message to learn is that ancient rock-cut monuments triggered vivid yet very varied reactions throughout their existence. (…) The editors’ intent to consider the “afterlives” of monuments in this inclusive way is to be praised, and I hope that the chapters that do so successfully will inspire others to pursue the same path.”
– Marc Van De Mieroop, Columbia University, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.04.26.

Biographical note:

Jonathan Ben-Dov, Ph.D. (2005), is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Tel Aviv University. He has published widely on the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls