Mortals, Deities and Divine Symbols: Rethinking Ancient Images from the Levant to Mesopotamia

Benjamin Sass is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University. Among his books are Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals (1997), The Alphabet at the Turn of the Millennium (2005), and Aramaic and Figural Stamp Impressions on Bricks of the Sixth Century B.C. from Babylon (2010). For the last decade he has been writing extensively about the alphabet in the earlier Iron Age, frequently in collaboration with Israel Finkelstein.Laura Battini is a researcher at the French National Centre of Scientific Research. Among her books are L'espace domestique en Mésopotamie (1999), Making Pictures of War (2016), and La déesse aux oies (forthcoming, 2025). She is director of the journal Ash Sharq, and is editor of the series Archaeopress Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, as well as a blog (https://ane.hypotheses.org/). Her principle areas of research are Mesopotamian architecture and urbanism, materiality and the body, and violence.

• IntroductionPhotographic Souvenirs of Tali’s CareerTallay Ornan’s Publications through May 2024 FIRST PART: NEW MATERIALS AND APPROACHESChapter 1: Closed Case: An Iron Age Trove of Jewellery from the Israel Museum Collection and the Identification of Its Provenance at Tel ‘Ira (Israel) – Eran ArieChapter 2: Articulating Foundation Myths in Milesian Festivals: A Diachronic Perspective – Mary R. BachvarovaChapter 3: Ancient Images in Mesopotamia: Ancient Gaze and Present Observation between Visual Sources and Textual Sources. Questions and Limitations – Rita DolceChapter 4: Naturalism, Photography, and Empire in the Old Akkadian Period – Marian H. FeldmanChapter 5: A Reassesment: Is the Cone-Shaped Object Held by the Genii in Aššurnaṣirpal II’s Palace at Kalḫu a Citron? – Norma FranklinChapter 6: The Reception of the Law Code Stele of Hammurabi in Spain: From a Treatise on Ophthalmology to a White Plaster Cast – Agnès Garcia-Ventura Chapter 7: New Gleanings at the Temples of Sidon, Tyre and Jerusalem (Decoding Phoenician Art – II) – Eric GubelChapter 8: The Imagery of the Neo-Assyrian Seals Belonging to the Palace. An Interpretation of the Scene on a Stamp Seal Formerly Kept in the Southesk Collection – Zoltán NiederreiterChapter 9: Gods, Rulers, and Death. Nonverbal Expressions and Group Identity in Syro–Anatolian and Assyrian Monumental Art – Ludovico PortueseChapter 10: Inscribed Bullae from the Samaria Excavations Forgotten for Ninety Years – Benjamin Sass and Eythan LevyChapter 11: The Impact of Models and Prototypes in Carving and Sculpturing. How Craftspeople Referred to Prototypes and Conventions. Two Various Examples – Silvia Schroer Chapter 12: How Meaning Evolves. Proto-Cuneiform Signs: Considerations on Their Origins at the Intersection of Visual and Oral Communication – Gebhard J. Selz SECOND PART: THE HUMAN WORLDChapter 13: The Threat of the Women Warriors: From the Arab Women to the Amazons – Débora V. Ben-AmiChapter 14: Ideological Differences between Representations of the Pharaoh during the 18th and 19th Dynasties Reflected on Scarabs and Stamp-Seals – Daphna Ben-Tor and Othmar KeelChapter 15: In a Masked World: On the Physiognomy of Assyrian Faces – Dominik BonatzChapter 16: The “Lady at the Window” from Arslan Tash – Annie CaubetChapter 17: Revisiting the Seated Figure on Wall Painting No. 9 from Kuntillet Ajrud … Once Again – Izak CorneliusChapter 18: Sennacherib’s Open-Air Sanctuary at Khinis/Bavian: Quarries, Quarry Workers, Recarved Panels, and Polylithic Bulls – Stephanie DalleyChapter 19: Akhenaten’s Divine Crop – Arlette DavidChapter 20: Two Iron Age Female Figurines from Tel Rekhesh – Shuichi Hasegawa and Shizuka MitoChapter 21: In the Sign of the Scorpion: The Administrative Seals of the Neo-Assyrian Queen and the Queen’s Household  – Suzanne Herbordt Chapter 22: The Image of the City as a Symbol and Scene in Assyrian Representation – Maria Grazia Masetti-RouaultChapter 23: Whose Head is Hanging from the Tree? – Natalie Naomi MayChapter 24: Back to Life. On a Lifelike Female Statue Head from Assur? – Astrid Nunn, Heinrich Piening and Becca Saladin Segovia Chapter 25: On Goats, Mountains and the Elusive Babylonian Royal Seal – Rocío Da Riva Chapter 26: A Preliminary Survey of the Documentation from Dilbat and Several Other Places in Central and Northern Babylonia Chiefly during the Long 6th Century BCE – Ran Zadok THIRD PART:THE DIVINE WORLDChapter 27: The Meaning and Sense of the Ugaritic Baal–Mot Conflict Narrative – Tzvi Abusch and David P. WrightChapter 28: A Confidential Message: Divine Combat and Death in a Forgotten Akkadian Seal from Ur – Laura BattiniChapter 29: Three Kassite Seals in the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem – Yigal BlochChapter 30: “I Have Set My Bow in the Cloud” – Symbolism and Myth – Ruhama Bonfil and Robert BonfilChapter 31: The Symbol of the Triumph – Baruch BrandlChapter 32: The Soldier and the Exorcist: A Cylinder Seal in the Ashmolean Museum – Paul CollinsChapter 33: Birds and Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia – Uri Gabbay Chapter 34: For Whom the Bell Tolls: Horse Harnesses at Megiddo and Beyond – Yosef GarfinkelChapter 35: The Late Babylonian Worship Scene at Persepolis – Mark B. GarrisonChapter 36: A New Look at the Hittite Silver Vessel in the Shape of a Fist – Clement HazanChapter 37: The Tale of “Nergal and Ereškigal” Revisited – Dina KatzChapter 38: In His Image: God or Ruler? A Stone Relief from the Iron IIA Cultic Precinct at Tel Moẓa – Shua Kisilevitz, Amotz Agnon, Nuphar Gedulter and Oded Lipschits Chapter 39: The Sanctuary of Ataroth and Its Inscriptions – Nadav Na’amanChapter 40: Beyond the Visible. Feeling the Divine Presence in Ancient Mesopotamia – Anne-Caroline Rendu LoiselChapter 41: The Hunters’ Palette. A Guide to Weapons Used in Egypt in the Late Predynastic Period – Michael SebbaneChapter 42: The Repertoire of Motifs and Their Composition on Ivory Furniture from Samaria. An Updated Inventory and Reflections on Egyptianizing Trends in Ancient Israel – Claudia E. SuterChapter 43: An Unprovenanced Inscribed Stone Macehead – Nathan Wasserman Chapter 44: Topographic Imagery in Pictorial Art – Irit Ziffer