The seventh meeting of the Ancient Near Eastern Seminar for the
2012-13 academic year will be:
Monday, April 1, 2013

Dr. Mehmet-Ali Ataç, Bryn Mawr College
Art and Apocalyptic in the Ancient Near East

Studies on the religion of ancient Mesopotamia of the last few decades
have started seeing this culture as one of the key sources in the
formulation of the apocalyptic perspectives of the Hellenistic period
and beyond. Outside strictly Assyriological scholarship as well,
studies on the apocalyptic give significant credit to the ancient Near
East, especially Babylonia and Iran, as a potential source. The role
of images from the ancient Near East in the possible expression of
such concepts has so far not been investigated. This paper considers
an array of key regal images of Mesopotamia from the Old Babylonian
period through the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the perspective of sacral
time, history, and ascent to heaven. It also adduces comparative
visual evidence from Anatolia and Egypt within the same thematic
framework.

The meeting will be held at the Columbia University Faculty House. We
begin gathering at 5:00 PM in the first floor lounge, and the lecture
will begin at 5:30 PM on the second floor, followed by optional dinner
with the speaker at 7:00 PM at the restaurant just outside the seminar
room. If you wish to make dinner reservations and join us (we will
need to report the number of guests), please contact our seminar
rapporteur, Hilah Loewenstein [hll2121@columbia.edu], and for those
without internet access, a phone call to me will be fine [(718)
817-3854]. The buffet dinner costs $25, and you must pay the
rapporteur in check. We must have your reservation request one week in
advance.