Books by Allison K Thomason
This Handbook is a state-of-the-field volume containing diverse approaches to sensory experience,... more This Handbook is a state-of-the-field volume containing diverse approaches to sensory experience, bringing to life in an innovative, remarkably vivid, and visceral way the lives of past humans through contributions that cover the chronological and geographical expanse of the ancient Near East.
It comprises thirty-two chapters written by leading international contributors that look at the ways in which humans, through their senses, experienced their lives and the world around them in the ancient Near East, with coverage of Anatolia, Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Persia, from the Neolithic through the Roman period. It is organised into six parts related to sensory contexts: Practice, Production, and Taskscape; Dress and the Body; Ritualised Practice and Ceremonial Spaces; Death and Burial; Science, Medicine, and Aesthetics; and Language and Semantic Fields. In addition to exploring what makes each sensory context unique, this organisation facilitates cross-cultural and cross-chronological, as well as cross-sensory and multisensory comparisons and discussions of sensory experiences in the ancient world. In so doing, the volume also enables considerations of senses beyond the five-sense model of Western philosophy (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), including proprioception and interoception, and the phenomena of synaesthesia and kinaesthesia.
The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East provides scholars and students within the field of ancient Near Eastern studies new perspectives on and conceptions of familiar spaces, places, and practices, as well as material culture and texts. It also allows scholars and students from adjacent fields such as Classics and Biblical Studies to engage with this material, and is a must-read for any scholar or student interested in or already engaged with the field of sensory studies in any period.
Hardback and eBook: https://routledge.com/9780367235284
Published Articles and Book Chapters by Allison K Thomason
Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity, 2022
Series design by Raven Design Cover image © Roman civilization, 1st century bc Fresco depicting a... more Series design by Raven Design Cover image © Roman civilization, 1st century bc Fresco depicting a garden, from the Villa di Livia Primaporta, Rome. (Photo By DEA / A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
The Mummy Under the Bed: Essays on Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East, 2022
Clothing and Nudity in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, 2019
Fashioned Selves: Dress and Identity in Antiquity, 2019
Sounding Sensory Profiles in Antiquity, 2019
Religion Compass, Jun 2016
This contribution explores the material manifestations of Assyrian kingship and how they intersec... more This contribution explores the material manifestations of Assyrian kingship and how they intersected with Assyrian ideology and religion. This state-of-the-field discussion focuses on the Neo-Assyrian period, 883–612 BCE. To legitimate their positions as the god Aššur's chosen delegate, the kings produced and consumed a vast array of monumental and portable goods, which served to represent the kings as beneficent creators of an orderly realm and protectors of the Assyrian world keeping chaos at bay.
This study approaches the material world of the Neo-Assyrian period in Mesopotamia from the theor... more This study approaches the material world of the Neo-Assyrian period in Mesopotamia from the theoretical and methodological standpoint of the field of sensory archaeology. Analysis of relevant royal inscriptions, administrative tablets, bas-reliefs and artefacts excavated from the palaces in the Assyrian capital cities of Nimrud, Khorsabad and Nineveh demonstrates that the Assyrian kings and their courtly advisors participated in activities of biopolitics. The study identifies several phenomena and features of the Assyrian world, including palaces that served as sensorial envelopes, commensal feasts, travelling processions, water-control projects and libation rituals that the Neo-Assyrian royal authority deployed in attempts to control sensory experiences. At the same time, the study reconstructs the sensory experiences of Assyrian bodies as they passed through royally curated structures and landscapes.
Critical Issues in Ancient Near Eastern Art, pp. 133-157, 2013
This study of the "minor arts" begins with an interrogation of the use of the words "minor" and "... more This study of the "minor arts" begins with an interrogation of the use of the words "minor" and "craft" as applied to works produced and consumed in the ancient Near East. I critique the dichotomies of major vs. minor arts or art vs. craft that are embedded in and drive art historical thought about modern and Western objects, with its focus on singularity and originality in the age of mass production. This historiographic grounding and critique of the phrase "minor arts" will argue for the use of the phrase "portable objects/works of art" as preferable for students of the ancient Near East. Such a phrase allows a fuller understanding of the value (political, economic, social) and significance of small-scale objects in the ancient Near East, including those that are attested only pictorially if not archaeologically, such as textiles. The study discusses the current state of work on portable art in light of the concepts of agency and identity and the meaning and affect of objects in the ancient Mesopotamian world.
Collecting East and West, 2013
Textile Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East: Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography, 2013
Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II: A Cultural Biography, 2010
Book Reviews by Allison K Thomason
Uploads
Books by Allison K Thomason
It comprises thirty-two chapters written by leading international contributors that look at the ways in which humans, through their senses, experienced their lives and the world around them in the ancient Near East, with coverage of Anatolia, Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Persia, from the Neolithic through the Roman period. It is organised into six parts related to sensory contexts: Practice, Production, and Taskscape; Dress and the Body; Ritualised Practice and Ceremonial Spaces; Death and Burial; Science, Medicine, and Aesthetics; and Language and Semantic Fields. In addition to exploring what makes each sensory context unique, this organisation facilitates cross-cultural and cross-chronological, as well as cross-sensory and multisensory comparisons and discussions of sensory experiences in the ancient world. In so doing, the volume also enables considerations of senses beyond the five-sense model of Western philosophy (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), including proprioception and interoception, and the phenomena of synaesthesia and kinaesthesia.
The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East provides scholars and students within the field of ancient Near Eastern studies new perspectives on and conceptions of familiar spaces, places, and practices, as well as material culture and texts. It also allows scholars and students from adjacent fields such as Classics and Biblical Studies to engage with this material, and is a must-read for any scholar or student interested in or already engaged with the field of sensory studies in any period.
Hardback and eBook: https://routledge.com/9780367235284
Published Articles and Book Chapters by Allison K Thomason
Book Reviews by Allison K Thomason
It comprises thirty-two chapters written by leading international contributors that look at the ways in which humans, through their senses, experienced their lives and the world around them in the ancient Near East, with coverage of Anatolia, Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Persia, from the Neolithic through the Roman period. It is organised into six parts related to sensory contexts: Practice, Production, and Taskscape; Dress and the Body; Ritualised Practice and Ceremonial Spaces; Death and Burial; Science, Medicine, and Aesthetics; and Language and Semantic Fields. In addition to exploring what makes each sensory context unique, this organisation facilitates cross-cultural and cross-chronological, as well as cross-sensory and multisensory comparisons and discussions of sensory experiences in the ancient world. In so doing, the volume also enables considerations of senses beyond the five-sense model of Western philosophy (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), including proprioception and interoception, and the phenomena of synaesthesia and kinaesthesia.
The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East provides scholars and students within the field of ancient Near Eastern studies new perspectives on and conceptions of familiar spaces, places, and practices, as well as material culture and texts. It also allows scholars and students from adjacent fields such as Classics and Biblical Studies to engage with this material, and is a must-read for any scholar or student interested in or already engaged with the field of sensory studies in any period.
Hardback and eBook: https://routledge.com/9780367235284
How do the "labels"/definitions that we use already limit, expand or direct our research?
How and when do we use anachronism? Which are the potentialities and the limits of this practice?
How does studying gender/intersectionality in the past relate to these issues in the present?
What are the challenges and possibilities of using dichotomies/binaries?
https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/ancient-near-eastern-empires/fourth-workshop-on-gender-methodology-and-the-ancient-near-east-gemane4helsinki