Art and Visual Culture in the Ancient Near East

Catalog description

Peoples of the Ancient Near East from prehistory to the Hellenistic period produced a unique corpus of production technologies and visual culture. Cultures from Anatolia to the Iraqi southern alluvium, from the Levant to Iran and the Caucasus shared this common pictorial language in a variety of ways. In this seminar, we will investigate bodies of archaeological, architectural and pictorial evidence from the Near East while also debating relevant art and architecture historical methodologies and discourses in direct relationship to that material. Conceptual issues such as narrative, representation, perspective, agency, technology, style, symbolism, landscape, space, and power will be explored. Enrollment limited to 15.