Cultures in Contact: From Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.

Aruz, Joan, Sarah B. Graff, and Yelena Rakic, eds. (2013)

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The exhibition "Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.," held in 2008–2009 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, demonstrated the cultural enrichment that emerged from the intensive interaction of civilizations from western Asia to Egypt and the Aegean in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. During this critical period in human history, powerful kingdoms and large territorial states were formed. Rising social elites created a demand for copper and tin, as well as for precious gold and silver and exotic materials such as lapis lazuli and ivory to create elite objects fashioned in styles that reflected contacts with foreign lands. This quest for metals—along with the desire for foreign textiles—was the driving force that led to the establishment of merchant colonies and a vast trading network throughout central Anatolia during the early second millennium B.C. Texts from palaces at sites from Hattusa (modern Bogazköy) in Hittite Anatolia to Amarna in Egypt attest to the volume and variety of interactions that took place some centuries later, creating the impetus for the circulation of precious goods, stimulating the exchange of ideas, and inspiring artistic creativity. Perhaps the most dramatic evidence for these far-flung connections emerges out of tragedy—the wreckage of the oldest known seagoing ship, discovered in a treacherous stretch off the southern coast of Turkey near the promontory known as Uluburun. Among its extraordinary cargo of copper, glass, and exotic raw materials and luxury goods is a gilded bronze statuette of a goddess—perhaps the patron deity on board, who failed in her mission to protect the ship.

To explore the themes of the exhibition—art, trade, and diplomacy, viewed from an international perspective—a two-day symposium and related scholarly events allowed colleagues to explore many facets of the multicultural societies that developed in the second millennium B.C. Their insights, which dramatically illustrate the incipient phases of our intensely interactive world, are presented largely in symposium order, beginning with broad regional overviews and examination of particular archeological contexts and then drawing attention to specific artists and literary evidence for interconnections. In this introduction, however, their contributions are viewed from a somewhat more synthetic perspective, one that focuses attention on the ways in which ideas in this volume intersect to enrich the ongoing discourse on the themes elucidated in the exhibition.

Table of contents

Contributors to the Publication
Map of the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean
Chronology
Introduction by Joan Aruz
Acknowledgments

The First International Age

An Amorite Global Village: Syrian-Mesopotamian Relations in the Second Millennium B.C.
by Glenn M. Schwartz
Actual Imports or Just Ideas? Investigations in Anatolia and the Caucasus
by Karen S. Rubinson
Aegean-Near East Relations in the Second Millennium B.C.
by Eric H. Cline
Contacts: Crete, Egypt, and the Near East circa 2000 B.C.
by Malcolm H. Wiener

Maritime Trade

Seafaring in Ancient Egypt: Cedar Ships, Incense, and Long-Distance Voyaging
by Cheryl Ward
International Exchange during the Late Second Millennium B.C.: Microarcheological Study of Finds from the Uluburun Ship
by Yuval Goren
Cape Gelidonya Redux
by George F. Bass

Interpreting the Archaeological Evidence

From Tell Sianu to Qatna: Some Common Features of Inland Syrian and Levantine Cities in the Second Millennium B.C. Material for the Study of the City in Syria (Part Three) Matériel pour l'étude de la ville en Syrie (troisième partie)
by Michel Al-Maqdissi
When Were the Hurrians Hurrian? The Persistence of Ethnicity in Urkesh
by Giorgio Buccellati
Ebla: Recent Excavation Results and the Continuity of Syrian Art
by Paolo Matthiae
The Elephant Hunters of Bronze Age Syria
by Peter Pfälzner
Tracing Sidon's Mediterranean Networks in the Second Millennium B.C.: Receiving, Transmitting, and Assimilating. Twelve Years of British Museum Excavations
by Claude Doumet-Serhal
Recent Excavations at Alalakh: Throne Embellishments in Middle Bronze Age Level VII
by K. Aslihan Yener

Art and Interaction: Wall Paintings

The Procession of "Asiatics" at Beni Hasan
by Janice Kamrin
The Near Eastern Contribution to Aegean Wall Painting and Vice Versa
by Robert B. Koehl
Akrotiri, Thera: Reflections from the East
by Christos G. Doumas
The Impact of Minoan Art on Egypt and the Levant: A Glimpse of Palatial Art from the Naval Base of Peru-nefer at Avaris
by Manfred Bietak
The Qatna Wall Paintings and the Formation of Aegeo-Syrian Art
by Peter Pfälzner

Art and Interaction: Furnishings and Adornment

Seals and the Imagery of Interaction
by Joan Aruz
Of Banquets, Horses, and Women in Late Bronze Age Ugarit
by Annie Caubet
Bibru and Rhyton: Zoomorphic Vessels in the Near East and Aegean
by Robert B. Koehl
The Art of Ivory Carving in the Second Millennium B.C.
by Marian H. Feldman
Ornaments of Interaction: Jewelry in the Late Bronze Age
by Kim Benzel
Remarks on Internationalism: The Non-Textual Data
by Christine Lilyquist

Literary Evidence for Interaction

Beyond Babylonian Literature
by Marc Van De Mieroop
Under the Spell of Babylon: Mesopotamian Influence on the Religion of the Hittites
by Gary Beckman
From Pictograph to Pictogram: The Solarization of Kingship in Syro-Anatolia and Assyria
by Beate Pongratz-Leisten

Closing Remarks

"Beyond Babylon": Closing Remarks
by Jack M. Sasson

Bibliography
Photograph and Illustration Credits

About the authors

Joan Aruz is Curator in Charge in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sarah B. Graff is Assistant Curator in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Yelena Rakic is Assistant Curator in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Press reviews

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"Highly recommended. This excellent volume belongs in all university libraries."

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