The evolution of visual representation

PrefaceThe corpus of artifacts from the Lagas state constitutes what is arguably the single largest cohesive body of elite representational display forms thus far discovered to have come from Early Dynastic (ED) Sumer. Unlike the equally extraordinary finds from ED levels of Ur, which consist primarily of grave goods and small finds (Woolley 1934; Woolley 1956), what is unique about the finds from Lagas is that the majority of them are programmatic artifacts that were intended to be displayed to specific audiences. Specifically, many of them are relief carvings or, to a lesser degree, statues that were carefully composed and executed in order to encode and transmit carefully constructed messages on the part of individual rulers, or the religious establishment. As such, the ED Lagas corpus is a particularly important record of how one particular group of Sumerian rulers viewed themselves and how the wished to be viewed by others. [continued in text ...</p

Worked and decorated shell discs from southern Arabia and the wider Near East

This article presents and discusses a corpus of worked and decorated shell discs from recently excavated archaeological sites in southern Arabia, including Dibba (northern Oman), Saruq al-Hadid (UAE) and Sumhuram/Khor Rori (southern Oman). The artefacts are compared to a wide range of shell discs from controlled excavations in Arabia and the broader Near East in order to better understand their date, manufacture and use. The comparative study highlights the wide distribution of decorated shell discs across the ancient Near East, particularly during the early Iron Age, and the complex economic and cultural connections that underpinned the collection, crafting, exchange and significance of such items