The Ancient Near East: History, Texts, Etc.

Abstract

The Ancient Near East: History, Texts, Etc. Christopher T. Begg, David A. Bosworth, John Thomas Willis, and Isaac M. Alderman 1609. Erin Walcek Averett, “Playing the Part: Masks and Ritual Performance in Rural Sanctuaries in Iron Age Cyprus,” Physicality of the Other, 305–37 [see #2016]. “Current excavations by the Athienou Archaeological Project (AAP), under the Direction of Michael K. Toumazou, Davidson College, North Carolina, have revealed a rich assemblage of terracotta masks and masked figurines from the large and wealthy sanctuary at Athienou-Malloura in the fertile Mesaoria plain in south-central Cyprus. . . . Other than the urban center of Amathous on the southern coast, this sanctuary has yielded more masks than any other site on an island known for its abundance of masks in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper presents the votive masks from the Malloura sanctuary and contextualizes them within the broader tradition of ritual masked performances in Cyprus” (p. 305). A total of 32, mostly fragmentary masks were recovered from the site of A.’s title, which she lists (pp. 307–10) and classifies under the headings of male masks, a female mask, anthropomorphic masks, zoomorphic masks and grotesque masks. On the basis of her study of this corpus and comparanda from various other Cypriot sites, A. concludes that such masks were worn by elite male figures as “stand-ins” for an array of deities during cultic ceremonies, the audience for which consisted both of the local populace and visiting dignitaries from elsewhere on the island.—C.T.B. [End Page 567] 1610. Tamás A. Báca, “The Pride of the Ramessides: A Note on a late Ramesside King-list,” Constructing Authority, 5–18 [see #2013]. A Theban tomb dating to the reign of Ramesses IX and set within a context representing the bark of Amun at rest in a royal memorial temple during the “Beautiful Feast of the Valley” features portrayals of 12 Egyptian kings. Representing Ramesses’ royal ancestors, the 12 form a carefully selected group of his ideal predecessors. As such, they are reflective of an aspect of the prevailing Egyptian royal ideology, just as they have similarities with the royal titularies that express, not merely vague and eternal ideals, but also a specific program—or at least the outlines of such. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1611. John Baines, “Epilogue: On Ancient Pictorial Representations of Emotion: Concluding Comments with Examples from Egypt,” Visualizing Emotions, 263–85 [see #2027]. B.’s concluding article in the above collection reflects on the limitations and possibilities of analyzing emotions in ancient pictorial compositions. Discussing various examples of Egyptian art, he concludes that indications of emotion can be found in the body and the groupings of the subject(s) portrayed, rather than in the face(s). Further, he argues that the tension between personal emotion and performance does not apply in the case of ancient art and it is not possible to answer the question of whether “depicted figures might be understood as experiencing feelings or as only displaying them.” It remains important, however, to ask whether feelings are thought of as being present in ancient images. Depictions of emotion in those images are part of a wider presentation of experience and of the ordered cosmos, such that work “on how emotion is represented thus offers one of many ways into interpreting conceptions of world order.” [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1612. Horst Beinlich, “Der Herrschaftsbereich als Prestige-Objekt,” Constructing Authority, 19–27 [see #2013]. The description of Egypt with a concretization of its boundaries undoubtedly represented a gain in prestige for the Egyptian king—or for the god who was crowned as king in his person. One can further ask why in such descriptions a certain emphasis is placed on the western frontier of Egypt, a region which otherwise played no great role in the mentality of the ancient Egyptians. On the question of precisely when this interest in Egypt’s western frontier originated, the Persian period seems the most likely possibility. Herodotus (III,91) reports about the taxes which the Egyptians and the neighboring Libyans had to pay to the Persians...