Ancient Near Eastern Weltanschauungen in Contact and in Contrast: Rethinking Ideology and Propaganda in the Ancient Near East (Wedge, 2)

This volume rethinks the ways through which the terms ideology and propaganda have been used and can be used in ancient Near Eastern studies. The seventeen contributors to this collection include scholars whose work brings new reflections and theoretical approaches to bear on varied materials and contexts. Their essays - from different fields of research (Assyriology, Hittitology, Archaeology and Art History) - untangle the origin of the definitions of ideology and propaganda, reassessing their primary meaning; evaluate newly available sources and examine them through the lens of current theoretical approaches and perspectives; and emphasize the importance of analyzing single-case studies and specific historical events. "Ancient Near Eastern Weltanschauungen in Contact and in Contrast: Rethinking ideology and propaganda in the Ancient Near East" points to a need for a recurring rethinking of western terms that scholars often use to understand and describe ancient Near Eastern cultures. Table of Contents 9 Acknowledgements 11 List of Abbreviations 13 Portuese / Pallavidini: Ideology and Propaganda: An Introduction 17 MESOPOTAMIA 31 Nadali: An Ideological Approach to the Issue of Propaganda in Ancient Near Eastern Studies: New Answers to Old Questions 33 Di Paolo: Visual Tools of Power Argumentation: Models in Contrast? 55 Artemov: LUGAL KIŠ and Related Matters: How Ideological are Royal Titles? 69 Galter: Assyrian Royal Inscriptions between Royal Propaganda and Historical Positioning 89 Bach: Revisiting the Representation of the “Other” in “Sargon’s Eighth Campaign” 117 Bonatz: Are Monsters Propagandistic? Thoughts on the Imagery of Hyperreality in Ancient Assyria 145 Portuese: Doorway Creatures: Crises, Ideologies and Persuasion in the Neo-Assyrian Palace 165 Collins: Kingship in Space and Time at the Northwest Palace, Nimrud 185 Wagner-Durand: Bodies of Propaganda? The Visual Embodiment of Kingship in the Neo-Assyrian Empire 207 Karlsson: “An object of wonder for all of the people”: Ideology and Propaganda in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires 247 ANATOLIA AND EGYPT 273 Pallavidini: The Hero, the Pious, the Chosen, the Legitimate: One Ideology, Different propagandae in the Hittite Empire 275 Gilan: “Šawoška of Šamuḫa, My Lady, caught him like a fish with a net”: Usurping the Throne and writing about it 291 Gordeziani / Tatišvili: Hittite Funeral Traditions and Afterlife Beliefs in the Context of Hittite Cosmology 311 De Pietri: ḥr.w n k3.w and bibrû: Between Tribute and Gift: Ideological and Propagandistic Developments in Egypto-Hittite Relationships 325 SYRIA AND THE LEVANT 341 Pfoh: Friend of the KingRevisiting the Household Terminology in EA 288 and its Socio-political Implications 343 Montesanto: Ideology and Material Culture in the Late Bronze Age Northern Levant: A Pottery Perspective 361 Coppini: Fragments of Power: The Use of Pottery and the Reconnaissance of the Presence of the Middle Assyrian State in the Archaeological Record 389 Susnow: Elite Ideology, Ritual Manipulation and the Anomalous Cultic Practices Implemented by the Hazor Rulership 405