The Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt

Description

With contributions spanning from the Neolithic Age to the Iron Age, this book offers important insights into the religions and ritual practices in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern communities through the lenses of their material remains. The book begins with a theoretical introduction to the concept of material religion and features editor introductions to each of its six parts, which tackle the following themes: the human body; religious architecture; the written word; sacred images; the spirituality of animals; and the sacred role of the landscape. Illustrated with over 100 images, chapters provide insight into every element of religion and materiality, from the largest building to the smallest amulet. This is a benchmark work for further studies on material religion in the ancient Near East and Egypt. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents Figures Contributors Introduction PART ONE Material Religion CHAPTER ONE Chance and Lived Religion: The Material Culture of Transforming Randomness into Purpose PART TWO The Human Body CHAPTER TWO Material Religion and the Body in the Ancient Near East CHAPTER THREE Jewelry as a Powerful Tool in the Religious Discourse between Humans and the Supernatural in the Ancient Near Eas CHAPTER FOUR Body Politic: Body-Objects and Necropolitics Past and Present CHAPTER FIVE Behind the Cultic Statue: The Materiality of Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia CHAPTER SIX Meanings and Practices in the Design of Objects: What Does Design Reveal about Experiences? CHAPTER SEVEN The Brief but Spectacular Lives of Figurines in Hittite Ritual PART THREE The Architecture CHAPTER EIGHT Religious Life, Urban Fabric, and Regeneration Processes at Mari during the Second Half of the Third Millennium CHAPTER NINE Sacred Space and Immigrant Identity in the Middle Bronze Age: The Case of Tell el Dab.a CHAPTER TEN Evidence for an Urartian Belief System: The Institutionalization of Religion in the Mountainous Eastern Anatolian H CHAPTER ELEVEN The Price of Devotion: Costly Signals in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Architecture on the Anatolian Plateau (SHA CHAPTER TWELVE Building Temples in the Northern Levant CHAPTER THIRTEEN Sacred Architecture in Iron II Southern Levant PART FOUR The Written Words CHAPTER FOURTEEN Scribes in the Temple: Materializing Missing Monuments in Mesopotamia CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Heraldry of Early Iranian Religion CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Materials of Hittite Magic and Religion CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Experiencing the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: A Funerary Text Corpus as a Material Object CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Pottery and Magic: A Glimpse into Late-Antique Mesopotamian Religious Tradition and Its Materiality CHAPTER NINETEEN The Biblical Priestly Tradition as Material Religion: A Comparative Ancient Mediterranean Approach PART FIVE The Animals CHAPTER TWENTY Man, Animal, and Gods: Animal Remains as Indicators of Beliefs in the Ancient Near East CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Resting on Strong Shoulders: The Power of Animal Scapulae in the Near Eastern Neolithic CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Animals and Ideology in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the Southern Levant CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Sharing Animals: Animal Imagery as Late Antique Intercultural Dialogue CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR The Theriomorphic Images of the Hittite Gods PART SIX The Landscape CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Material Religion and the Perception of the Sacred Landscape in Ancient Mesopotamia CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Imagining the Supernatural: The Landscape of Kura-Araxes Sacred Funerary Mounds CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Cultic Aspects of the Egyptian Desert CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Deconstructing the Shrine: An Assay in Understanding Desert Cult CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Maritime Viewscapes and the Material Religion of Levantine Seafarers References Index