Ancient Faces

Ancient Faces
Author: Susan Walker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2020-03-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136694889

From the first major discoveries a century ago, the painted portraits of Roman Egypt were a revelation to scholars and the public alike, and the recent finding of a new cache of these gilded images, which made national headlines, have only heightened their mystery and appeal. Published to coincide with a new major exhibition of these portraits, Ancient Faces is the most comprehensive, up-to-date survey of these astonishing works of art. Dating from the later period of Roman rule in Egypt, shortly before the birth of Christ, the painted mummy portraits are among the most remarkable products of the ancient world, a fusion of the traditions of pharonic Egypt and the Classical world. They are historical and cultural objects of outstanding importance and beauty, superb works of art that represent some of the earliest known examples of life-like portraiture. Though the subjects of the portraits believed in the traditional Egyptian cults, which offered them a firm prospect of life after death, they also wished to be commemorated in the Roman manner, with their fashion of dress and adornment signaling their status in life. Despite their ancient history, these portraits speak to the modern eye with a beauty and intensity that would be lost to portraiture until the Renaissance.

Ancient Faces

Ancient Faces
Author: Susan Walker
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2000
Genre: Egypt
ISBN: 9780415927451

Published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, February-May 2000, the first major showing in North America of stunning painted mummy portraits that represent a confluence of ancient Egyptian and Roman cultures and the Graeco-Roman painting tradition. The catalog concentrates closely on the paintings, their artistry, and their social context and meaning. Seven contributed essays set the context. The 122 color and 23 bandw illustrations are fully discussed and described by editor Walker, who is affiliated with the British Museum. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ancient Faces

Ancient Faces
Author: Morris Leonard Bierbrier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2000
Genre: Art
ISBN:

From the first major discoveries in the 19th century, the painted panel and shroud portraits of Roman Egypt were a revelation to scholars and the public alike. Though the subjects of the portraits believed in the traditional Egyptian cults which offered them a firm prospect of life after death, they also wished to be commemorated in the Roman manner, the portraits focusing on their status in life. The images reveal the adoption of Roman fashions in dress and personal adornment by persons remote from the centre of the empire, but likely to have been actively engaged in its local administration. Many of the best known mummy portraits come from the Fayum, but portraits in various media are known from sites in the Nile Valley and along the Mediterranean coast. This text presents a wide range of examples, showing Roman influence coexisting with traditional Egyptian ways of commemorating the dead.

The Many Faces of War in the Ancient World

The Many Faces of War in the Ancient World
Author: Graham Wrightson
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2015-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443882402

This volume on different aspects of warfare and its political implications in the ancient world brings together the works of both established and younger scholars working on a historical period that stretches from the archaic period of Greece to the late Roman Empire. With its focus on cultural and social history, it presents an overview of several current issues concerning the “new” military history. The book contains papers that can be conveniently divided into three parts. Part I is composed of three papers primarily concerned with archaic and classical Greece, though the third covers a wide range and relates the experience of the ancient Greeks to that of soldiers in the modern world – one might even argue that the comparison works in reverse. Part II comprises five papers on warfare in the age of Alexander the Great and on its reception early in the Hellenistic period. These demonstrate that the study of Alexander as a military figure is hardly a well-worn theme, but rather in its relative infancy, whether the approach is the tried and true (and wrongly disparaged) method of Quellenforschung or that of “experiencing war,” something that has recently come into fashion. Part III offers three papers on war in the time of Imperial Rome, particularly on the fringes of the Empire. Covering a wide chronological span, Greek, Macedonian and Roman cultures and various topics, this volume shows the importance and actuality of research on the history of war and the diversity of the approaches to this task, as well as the different angles from which it can be analysed.

Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India

Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India
Author: Mandakranta Bose
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2000-02-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195122291

The essays in this collection explore ideas about women and their positions in Indian society from the earliest history to the present day. It is designed to provide primary material from literary, historical and sociological sources and to guide critical exploration of specific issues.

Faces of Silence in Ancient Greek Literature

Faces of Silence in Ancient Greek Literature
Author: Efi Papadodima
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2020-04-20
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110695650

The volume offers new insights into the intricate theme of silence in Greek literature, especially drama. Even though the topic has received respectable attention in recent years, it still lends itself to further inquiry, which embraces silence's very essence and boundaries; its applications and effects in particular texts or genres; and some of its technical features and qualities. The particular topics discussed extend to all these three areas of inquiry, by looking into: silence's possible role in the performance of epic and lyric; its impact on the workings of praise-poetry; its distinct deployments in our five complete ancient novels; Aristophanic, comic and otherwise, silences; the vocabulary of the unspeakable in tragedy; the connections of tragic silence to power, authority, resistance, and motivation; female tragic silences and their transcendence, against the background of male oppression or domination; famous tragic silences as expressions of the ritualized isolation of the individual from both human and divine society. The emerging insights are valuable for the broader interpretation of the relevant texts, as well as for the fuller understanding of central values and practices of the society that created them.

Living Images

Living Images
Author: Janet Picton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2018-04-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315425238

The haunting funerary paintings on wood coffins found in Roman Egypt still represent some of the most vivid images that come to us from the ancient world. These paintings were first discovered by Flinders Petrie, father of modern archaeology, in his excavations in the Egyptian Fayum during the 1880s and have rested at University College London for over 100 years. Now, the Petrie Museum is bringing this corpus of paintings to the public in a stunning catalog. Living Images is a beautiful and authoritative presentation of the restored collection that will be an essential reference for scholars and a fascinating read for general audiences. Central to the volume is a complete catalog of the mummy portraits uncovered by Petrie, including full color illustrations and descriptions of technical and stylistic features and iconographic characteristics. To add to the value of the volume, articles describe the process of finding the mummies, explain the place of funerary assemblages in the history of Egyptian burial customs, offer an introduction to Egyptian portrait painting, and explain the conservation issues presented by the coffins. Petrie’s own reflections on his finds are also included. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Egyptologist Barbara Adams and co-sponsored by the Petrie Museum.

The Archaeology of Race

The Archaeology of Race
Author: Debbie Challis
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1472502205

How much was archaeology founded on prejudice? The Archaeology of Race explores the application of racial theory to interpret the past in Britain during the late Victorian and Edwardian period. It investigates how material culture from ancient Egypt and Greece was used to validate the construction of racial hierarchies. Specifically focusing on Francis Galton's ideas around inheritance and race, it explores how the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie applied these in his work in Egypt and in his political beliefs. It examines the professional networks formed by societies, such as the Anthropological Institute, and their widespread use of eugenic ideas in analysing society. Archaeology of Race draws on archives and objects from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Galton collection at UCL. These collections are used to explore anti-Semitism, skull collecting, New Race theory and physiognomy. These collections give insight into the relationship between Galton and Petrie and place their ideas in historical context.