Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
As a crucial component of the materiality of the first world empire, textile culture documented in archival cuneiform documents, visual art, and archaeological materials from 1st-millennium BC Assyria enables historians to reconstruct the social identities, power visions, and economic systems of the people who ruled the “Land of Aššur”. Through the analysis of royal clothes, it is possible to form an idea of the clothing ensemble, the aesthetic, and power visions that shaped the presence of the king and his queen in public ceremonies and in visual art narratives, and to see how royal textile art played a role in political communication. Royal garments, combined with power accessories such as royal insignia and other objects, represented a powerful means to visualize royal personhood and what the institution of Assyrian kingship meant in the imperial phase of Assyrian history. Representations of royal scenes in visual art integrate the documentary picture from texts and archaeological materials and show how the royal costume developed over the Neo-Assyrian period and how the centrality and superior status of the royal person were emphasised by visual interaction between the king’s clothes and other textiles in the scene. Queenly garments represent another channel for the communication of the success of the Assyrian imperial project. Less represented in textual sources and material evidence are other upper-class sectors of Assyrian imperial society, in which textiles equally played an important role as markers of social identity and status. Non-royal textiles were an integral part of power narratives in the Neo-Assyrian age, contributing to create the sense of a common Assyrian identity, of elite’s unity and cohesion, and full adherence to the imperial project.
As a crucial component of the materiality of the first world empire, textile culture documented in archival cuneiform documents, visual art, and archaeological materials from 1st-millennium BC Assyria enables historians to reconstruct the social identities, power visions, and economic systems of the people who ruled the “Land of Aššur”. Through the analysis of royal clothes, it is possible to form an idea of the clothing ensemble, the aesthetic, and power visions that shaped the presence of the king and his queen in public ceremonies and in visual art narratives, and to see how royal textile art played a role in political communication. Royal garments, combined with power accessories such as royal insignia and other objects, represented a powerful means to visualize royal personhood and what the institution of Assyrian kingship meant in the imperial phase of Assyrian history. Representations of royal scenes in visual art integrate the documentary picture from texts and archaeological materials and show how the royal costume developed over the Neo-Assyrian period and how the centrality and superior status of the royal person were emphasised by visual interaction between the king’s clothes and other textiles in the scene. Queenly garments represent another channel for the communication of the success of the Assyrian imperial project. Less represented in textual sources and material evidence are other upper-class sectors of Assyrian imperial society, in which textiles equally played an important role as markers of social identity and status. Non-royal textiles were an integral part of power narratives in the Neo-Assyrian age, contributing to create the sense of a common Assyrian identity, of elite’s unity and cohesion, and full adherence to the imperial project.
La reciente reedición de un libro de David Wengrow dedicado a los “monstruos” en el arte egipcio y mesopotámico del IV milenio a.C. supone una excusa perfecta para discutir el rol de las imágenes en la historia, en las sociedades humanas y en sus interrelaciones. Mientras que su teoría, cognitivista, considera a las imágenes de animales fantásticos apenas como mecanismos de traducción del mundo circundante, otros académicos (entre los que me incluyo) le otorgan al arte y a la imaginación un papel activo en la creación de dicho mundo. En esta oportunidad me gustaría demostrar la utilidad del segundo abordaje para comprender la historia antigua de sociedades con tradición iconográfica antes que escrita. Para ello, discutiré el modelo cognitivista de “transmisión” de este tipo de imágenes impugnando la centralidad que es asignada a las ciudades, y privilegiando en cambio los espacios inter-urbanos como verdaderos ámbitos para el intercambio icónico. Pensar la imagen no como un emblema transmisor de significados, sino como un instrumento para influir sobre el paisaje y modificar lo existente, permite entender mejor las dinámicas de relacionamiento entre diferentes unidades políticas en el pasado a través de la utilización de iconografías compartidas.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.