In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant
The Bar-Rakib Palace Inscriptions from Zincirli have received relatively little attention from philologists and archaeologists alike because of their predictable and derivative content. However, these monuments provide an unparalleled insight into the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levan...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures
2022-05-01
|
| Series: | Manuscript and Text Cultures |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://mtc-journal.org/index.php/mtc/article/view/2 |
| _version_ | 1827099445113651200 |
|---|---|
| author | Timothy Hogue |
| author_facet | Timothy Hogue |
| author_sort | Timothy Hogue |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
The Bar-Rakib Palace Inscriptions from Zincirli have received relatively little attention from philologists and archaeologists alike because of their predictable and derivative content. However, these monuments provide an unparalleled insight into the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant. As might be expected, Bar-Rakib's Aramaic inscriptions and reliefs repeat themes and tropes from other monuments. They also were strategically deployed at the site so as to interact with nearby monuments left by earlier rulers. What has received less attention is the fact that Bar-Rakib's monuments also shared many artistic tropes with small finds from Zincirli, including letters, incantation plaques, seals, and amulets. These correspondences suggest that monumental texts functioned by appropriating aspects of personal artifacts to be used on a communal scale. By projecting not only prestige but also intimacy, Bar-Rakib's inscriptions invited their audience to interact with them in imaginative ways. As the audience related to the monumental texts through acts of reading, viewing, and ritual, they would in turn reconfigure their own relationships to other communicative media, places, each other, and the polity as a whole. It was this ability to relate to communities and thus reshape them that made a text monumental in the Iron Age Levant. This was accomplished through the strategic juxtaposition of text with visual and performative media in particular spatial contexts.
|
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T15:09:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-19e119c7afac41a89ac3a586dee023e1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2752-3462 2752-3470 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-20T08:03:34Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Manuscript and Text Cultures |
| spelling | doaj.art-19e119c7afac41a89ac3a586dee023e12024-09-28T00:48:47ZdeuCentre for Manuscript and Text CulturesManuscript and Text Cultures2752-34622752-34702022-05-01110.56004/v1h132In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age LevantTimothy Hogue0University of Tsukuba The Bar-Rakib Palace Inscriptions from Zincirli have received relatively little attention from philologists and archaeologists alike because of their predictable and derivative content. However, these monuments provide an unparalleled insight into the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant. As might be expected, Bar-Rakib's Aramaic inscriptions and reliefs repeat themes and tropes from other monuments. They also were strategically deployed at the site so as to interact with nearby monuments left by earlier rulers. What has received less attention is the fact that Bar-Rakib's monuments also shared many artistic tropes with small finds from Zincirli, including letters, incantation plaques, seals, and amulets. These correspondences suggest that monumental texts functioned by appropriating aspects of personal artifacts to be used on a communal scale. By projecting not only prestige but also intimacy, Bar-Rakib's inscriptions invited their audience to interact with them in imaginative ways. As the audience related to the monumental texts through acts of reading, viewing, and ritual, they would in turn reconfigure their own relationships to other communicative media, places, each other, and the polity as a whole. It was this ability to relate to communities and thus reshape them that made a text monumental in the Iron Age Levant. This was accomplished through the strategic juxtaposition of text with visual and performative media in particular spatial contexts. https://mtc-journal.org/index.php/mtc/article/view/2monumental textmonumentalitymonumentalizationmixed mediaNorthwest SemiticZincirli |
| spellingShingle | Timothy Hogue In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant Manuscript and Text Cultures monumental text monumentality monumentalization mixed media Northwest Semitic Zincirli |
| title | In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant |
| title_full | In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant |
| title_fullStr | In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant |
| title_full_unstemmed | In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant |
| title_short | In the midst of great kings: the monumentalization of text in the Iron Age Levant |
| title_sort | in the midst of great kings the monumentalization of text in the iron age levant |
| topic | monumental text monumentality monumentalization mixed media Northwest Semitic Zincirli |
| url | https://mtc-journal.org/index.php/mtc/article/view/2 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT timothyhogue inthemidstofgreatkingsthemonumentalizationoftextintheironagelevant |