Envisioning the Past Through Memories - How Memory Shaped Ancient Near Eastern Societies

Memory is a constructed system of references, in equilibrium, of feeling and rationality. Comparing ancient and contemporary mechanisms for the preservation of memories and the building of a common cultural, political and social memory, this volume aims to reveal the nature of memory, and explores the attitudes of ancient societies towards the creation of a memory to be handed down in words, pictures, and mental constructs. Since the multiple natures of memory involve every human activity, physical and intellectual, this volume promotes analyses and considerations about memory by focusing on various different cultural activities and productions of ancient Near Eastern societies, from artistic and visual documents to epigraphic evidence, and by considering archaeological data. The chapters of this volume analyse the value and function of memory within the ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian societies, combining archaeological, textual and iconographical evidence following a progression from the analysis of the creation and preservation of both single and multiple memories, to the material culture (things and objects) that shed light on the impact of memory on individuals and community.>

About the author

Davide Nadali is Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Between 2008 and 2010 he was postdoctoral fellow at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane in Florence and completed a research project on warfare in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia.

Product details

• Authors: Davide Nadali, Nadali Davide
• Assisted by: Martin Bommas (Editor), Davide Nadali (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 11.08.2016
• EAN: 9781474223966
• ISBN: 978-1-4742-2396-6
• No. of pages: 200
• Series: Cultural Memory and History in Antiquity; Cultural Memory and History in Antiquity; Cultural Memory and History in
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; Non-fiction book > History > Pre and early history, antiquity; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, Middle East, Ancient World, Archaeology by period / region, BCE to c 500 CE, BCE period – Protohistory, Middle & Near Eastern archaeology