Notes on Contributors ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Abbreviations xix 1 The “Art” of the “Ancient Near East” 1Ann C. Gunter PART I Approaches and Methods of Analysis and Interpretation 23 2 Art and Material Culture 25David Wengrow 3 Meaning and Interpretation 49Astrid Nunn 4 Style 75Margaret Cool Root 5 Connoisseurship and Classification 103Eleonora Pappalardo 6 Visual Culture 129Sarah B. Graff 7 Technical Examination and Material Analysis 153Deborah Schorsch 8 Gender and Sexuality 179John D. M. Green 9 Semiotics, Reception Theory, and Poststructuralism 209Marlies Heinz PART II Critical Terms and Concepts 231 10 Representation 233Dominik Bonatz and Marlies Heinz 11 Narrative 261Paul Collins 12 Ideology 283Beate Pongratz‐Leisten 13 Ritual 309Carolyn Nakamura 14 Agency 333Sophy Downes15 Aesthetics 359Gebhard J. Selz PART III Materials, Media, and Artistic Environments 383 16 Statuary and Reliefs 385Claudia E. Suter 17 Glyptic 411Adelheid Otto 18 Religious Architecture 433Jean M. Evans 19 Palaces and Elite Houses 457Andreas Schachner 20 Rock Reliefs and Landscape Monuments 483Ömür Harmansa̧ h 21 Reconstructing Artistic Environments 507Mehmet‐Ali Ataç PART IV Interactions with Neighboring Regions and Artistic Traditions 531 22 The Ancient Near East and Egypt 533Betsy M. Bryan 23 The Ancient Near East and the Bronze Age Aegean 565Marian H. Feldman 24 Near Eastern Art in the Iron Age Mediterranean 585James Whitley PART V Intersections with Archaeology, Collecting, and Cultural Heritage 613 25 Archaeology and the Art of the Ancient Near East 615D. T. Potts 26 Cultural Heritage across the Middle East, Ancient and Modern 637Geoff Emberling and Katharyn Hanson Index 661

A COMPANION TO ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN ART Provides a broad view of the history and current state of scholarship on the art of the ancient Near East This book covers the aesthetic traditions of Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant, from Neolithic times to the end of the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 330 BCE. It describes and examines the field from a variety of critical perspectives: across approaches and interpretive frameworks, key explanatory concepts, materials and selected media and formats, and zones of interaction. This important work also addresses both traditional and emerging categories of material, intellectual perspectives, and research priorities. The book covers geography and chronology, context and setting, medium and scale, while acknowledging the diversity of regional and cultural traditions and the uneven survival of evidence. Part One of the book considers the methodologies and approaches that the field has drawn on and refined. Part Two addresses terms and concepts critical to understanding the subjects and formal characteristics of the Near Eastern material record, including the intellectual frameworks within which monuments have been approached and interpreted. Part Three surveys the field's most distinctive and characteristic genres, with special reference to Mesopotamian art and architecture. Part Four considers involvement with artistic traditions across a broader reach, examining connections with Egypt, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean. And finally, Part Five addresses intersections with the closely allied discipline of archaeology and the institutional stewardship of cultural heritage in the modern Middle East. Told from multiple perspectives, A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art is an enlightening, must-have book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of ancient Near East art and Near East history as well as those interested in history and art history.