A wonder to behold : craftsmanship and the creation of Babylon's Ishtar Gate / edited by Anastasia Amrhein, Clare Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Knott.

Title
  1. A wonder to behold : craftsmanship and the creation of Babylon's Ishtar Gate / edited by Anastasia Amrhein, Clare Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Knott.
Published by
  1. New York : Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University ; [2019]
  2. Princeton : Princeton University Press
  3. ©2019

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StatusFormatTextAccessUse in libraryCall numberNA223.B33 W66 2019gItem locationOff-site

Details

Additional authors
  1. Amrhein, Anastasia, 1987-
  2. Fitzgerald, Clare, 1982-
  3. Knott, Elizabeth, 1983-
  4. New York University. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, host institution.
Description
  1. 186 pages : color illustrations, color maps; 28 x 24 cm
Summary
  1. In the ancient Near East, expert craftspeople were more than technicians: they numbered among those special members of society who could access the divine. While the artisans' names are largely unknown today, their legacy remains in the form of spectacular artworks and monuments. One of the most celebrated works of antiquity--Babylon's Ishtar Gate and its affiliated Processional Way--featured a dazzling array of colorful beasts assembled from molded, baked, and glazed bricks. Such an awe-inspiring structure demanded the highest level of craft; each animal was created from dozens of bricks that interlocked like a jigsaw. Yet this display of technical and artistic skill also served a ritual purpose, since the Gate provided a divinely protected entrance to the sacred inner city of Babylon. A Wonder to Behold explores ancient Near Eastern ideas about the transformative power of materials and craftsmanship as they relate to the Ishtar Gate. This beautifully illustrated catalogue accompanies an exhibition at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Essays by archaeologists, art historians, curators, conservators, and text specialists examine a wide variety of artifacts from major American and European institutions.
Subject
  1. Excavations (Archaeology)
  2. Architecture, Ancient
  3. Ishtar Gate (Babylon)
  4. Ištar Gate
  5. Exhibition catalogs
  6. Babylon (Extinct city) > Exhibitions
  7. Excavations (Archaeology) > Iraq > Babylon (Extinct city) > Exhibitions
  8. Ishtar Gate (Babylon) > Exhibitions
  9. Babylon
  10. Iraq > Babylon (Extinct city)
  11. Architecture, Ancient > Iraq > Babylon (Extinct city) > Exhibitions
Genre/Form
  1. Exhibition catalogs.
Contents
  1. Introduction. Sacred materials, sacred skills / Anastasia Amrhein and Elizabeth Knott -- "The men who wrought the baked brick, those were Babylonians" : a brief history of molded and glazed bricks / Anja Fügert and Helen Gries -- Building Babylon : the anatomy of a monumental construction project / Heather D. Baker -- Layout and composition of the animals from the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way at Babylon / Sarah B. Graff -- How bricks were made / Jean-François de Lapérouse -- Reading between the lines : fitters' marks in the Ancient Near East / May-Sarah Zessin -- The power of stones : natural, artificial, and in between / Anastasia Amrhein -- Eyestones, natural and man-made / Elizabeth Knott -- Vitreous materials in the Ancient Near East / Katherine A. Larson -- Glassmaking as a scribal craft / Eduardo A. Escobar -- Color and affect in Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon / Shiyanthi Thavapalan -- "Ishtar overthrows its assailants" : the protective forces of Babylon's Ishtar Gate / Beate Pongratz-Leisten -- Conclusion. Beholding Babylon's Ishtar Gate / Anastasia Amrhein and Elizabeth Knott.
Owning institution
  1. Columbia University Libraries
Bibliography (note)
  1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-183).