The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria

by Zainab Bahrani

Mesopotamia, the world's earliest literate culture, developed a rich philosophical conception of representation in which the world was saturated with signs. Instead of imitating the natural world, representation--both in writing and in visual images--was thought to participate in the world and to have an effect upon it in natural, magical, and supernatural ways. The Graven Image is the first book to explore this tradition, which developed...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812236483
• ISBN13: 9780812236484
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"