Title: The “death” of statues in the Syro-Mesopotamian area during the Bronze Age
University: Université de Liège, Belgium
Supervisor: Laurent Colonna d’Istria
Abstract:
Imane is studying the “death” of statues in the Syro-Mesopotamian space of the 3rd millennium BCE, through the analysis of the materiality of artifacts, iconography and textual sources. This thesis is a continuation of a master’s thesis concerning the ritual birth of statues in Mesopotamia, which led to an understanding of the cultic process governing the condition of these artefacts. In her current research, Imane wishes to answer the questions raised by the observation of a damaged statue – the accidental or intentional nature of the damage, its dating, the individual(s) responsible for the damage, what motivated the action – in order to obtain a comprehensive view of the context in which the ronde-bosse was made, displayed and ultimately removed from its society.
Keywords: Bronze age, statue, sculpture, iconoclasm, rituals, cuneiform
Contact: imane.achouche@doct.uliege.be