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.
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vii | |
| Preface |
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xiii | |
| Acknowledgements |
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xiv | |
| Image credits |
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xv | |
| Abbreviations |
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xvi | |
| Introduction |
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1 | (2) |
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3 | (9) |
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1.1 From the distant past to the recen Past |
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3 | (3) |
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6 | (1) |
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1.3 The headless body: anonymity/identity |
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7 | (5) |
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12 | (10) |
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2.1 Exclusivity/multiplicity |
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12 | (3) |
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2.2 Exhibition/quantification |
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15 | (7) |
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22 | (13) |
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3.1 What happens to the "coveted object"? |
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22 | (3) |
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3.2 Destinations/motivations |
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25 | (3) |
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3.3 Exhibition and multivalence |
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28 | (7) |
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35 | (21) |
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4.1 Human heads and birds of prey |
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35 | (3) |
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4.2 Eannatum ofLagash and the birds of prey |
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38 | (2) |
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4.3 Mart and the birds of prey |
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40 | (3) |
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4.4 Sargon I of Akkad and the birds of prey |
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43 | (1) |
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4.5 Dadusha of Eshnunna and the birds of prey |
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44 | (3) |
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4.6 The Assyrians and the birds of prey |
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47 | (9) |
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56 | (8) |
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5.2 Moving through space and time |
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56 | (3) |
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5.2 How does the head travel? |
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59 | (5) |
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64 | (15) |
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6.1 "Other" decapitations in times of war |
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64 | (2) |
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6.2 What happens to the severed heads of statues? |
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66 | (6) |
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6.3 Moving through space and time |
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72 | (1) |
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6.4 Annihilation/catharsis |
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73 | (6) |
| Bibliography |
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79 | (10) |
| Index |
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89 | |
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.
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