Losing One's Head in the Ancient Near East

<p></p><p>In the Ancient Near East cutting off someone’s head was a unique act not comparable to other types of mutilation and therefore charged with a special symbolic and communicative significance. This book examines representations of decapitation in both images and texts particularly in the context of war from a trans-chronological perspective that aims to shed light on some of the conditions relationships and meanings of this specific act. The severed head is a “coveted object” for the many individuals who interact with it and determine its fate and the act itself appears to take on the hallmarks of a ritual. Drawing mainly on the evidence from Anatolia Syria and Mesopotamia between the third and first millennia BC and with reference to examples from prehistory to the Neo-Assyrian Period this fascinating study will be of interest not only to art historians but to anyone interested in the dynamics of war in the ancient world.</p>