This volume examines the meaning of this specific act in times of war. With examples drawn from Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia between the 3rd and 1st millennium BC, from prehistory to the Neo-Assyrian period, this fascinating study will be valuable to anyone interested in the dynamics of war in the ancient world.
"Building on a vast documentary record that covers the entire Syro-Mesopotamian tradition, Dolce's analysis offers an in-depth study in visual semiotics. She identifies specific 'semantic codes' and an explicit syntactical organization, through which a strong message was conveyed by means of visual imagery. This is iconology at its best: by highlighting the coherence of a representational program, and drawing on parallel written statements, our sensitivity is trained to appreciate the 'intrinsic meaning' of a topos such as the action of beheading - a topos with a valence that goes well beyond that of other types of mutilation precisely because of its ideological import."
Giorgio Buccellati, University of California Los Angeles, USA
