Oxford University Press Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology

Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology invites readers to reconsider the contents and agendas of the art historical and world-culture canons by looking at one of their most historically enduring components: the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. Ann Shafer, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and other top researchers in the field examine and critique the formation and historical transformation of the ancient Near Eastern canon of art, architecture, and material culture. Contributors flesh out the current boundaries of regional and typological sub-canons, analyze the technologies of canon production (such as museum practices and classroom pedagogies), and voice first-hand heritage perspectives. Each chapter, thereby, critically engages with the historiography behind our approach to the Near East and proposes alternative constructs. Collectively, the essays confront and critique the ancient Near Eastern canon's present configuration and re-imagine its future role in the canon of world art as a whole. This expansive collection of essays covers the Near East's many regions, eras, and types of visual and archaeological materials, offering specific and actionable proposals for its study. Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology stands as a vital benchmark and offers a collective path forward for the study and appreciation of Near Eastern cultural heritage. This book acts as a model for similar inquiries across global art historical and archaeological fields and disciplines. Review This book offers a critical engagement with the notion and dynamic reimagining of a 'canon of ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology' in diverse institutional contexts, over an impressive chronological and geographical span extending to the contemporary Middle East. Readers will welcome the case studies contributed by an international group of scholars representing a wide range of generations, disciplinary specialties, and intellectual perspectives. ― Ann C. Gunter, Northwestern University Gansell and Shafer assembled a diverse group of experts to reassess this pressing topic. This is a unique and valuable book with much to offer anyone interested in discussion around the ancient Near East, Classics, or even Egyptology. ― Marian Feldman, Johns Hopkins University Dispelling the notion of a rigid ancient Near Eastern canon of art and archaeology, this volume envisions one with a dynamic core and ever-evolving boundaries. Through rigorous inquiry and innovative exploration of ancient and contemporary materials, perspectives, and experiences, the individual contributions here ― which, in themselves, crosscut disciplinary, methodological, temporal, and geographical lines ― unite to form a volume that extends well beyond its own boundaries of text and image, encouraging reflection and reconsideration for any reader of the criteria by which and context within which a canon might be constructed. ― Kiersten Neumann, University of Chicago About the Author Amy Gansell is an Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Design at St. John's University, where she teaches the first-year global art history survey, as well as courses on ancient and non-Western art, cultural heritage, and museum administration. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University, after which she served in a full-time capacity as the Associate Coordinator for Iraqi Cultural Heritage for the U.S. Department of State, and subsequently held a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Emory University's Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry. Gansell has received grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARI), and her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Archaeology, Cambridge Archaeological Journal,