Friday, September 23, 2016

Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East

[First posted in AWOL 4 March 2010. Updated 23 September 2016]

IDD - Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East
http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/bilder/idd-titel.jpg
Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East (IDD) is designed as a companion to the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (DDD), edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter van der Horst (Leiden: Brill, 2nd edition 1999). Its focus will be on visual sources, which are essential for interpreting the religious symbol systems of antiquity. 

IDD will not restrict itself to DDD's selection of lemmata. As a matter of fact, numerous DDD lemmata do not have visual correlatives; on the other hand, visual sources attest 'icon types', which cannot always be identified or labeled with a divine name. Moreover, while DDD demonstrates how many of the Near Eastern deities and demons have found their place into the Bible in some way or another, there are others, including major deities, who are not mentioned in the Bible and thus remain absent from DDD. 

Our project aims at restoring the balance by establishing a selection of lemmata on an historical and archaeological basis: IDD should refer to all major deities and demons of the areas covered, regardless of whether they are attested in the Bible or not. On the other hand, in order to control the material boundaries of IDD, we take the 'biblical world' to cover the Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern area to the extent that were part of the biblical writers' geographical horizon. Wherever possible, reference will be made to visual evidence attested on objects recovered from known archaeological contexts in Palestine/Israel.
Electronic Pre-Publications

Note that electronic pre-published articles are subject to change. Presently lacking information is indicated in red. The articles and illustrations are provided as PDF. Illustrations cannot be printed. Most of the drawings were made by Ulrike Zurkinden-Kolberg (Düdingen, Switzerland). Currently a total of 135 documents are published.
Regional introductory essays (3) Illustrations (3)
Dictionary entries (73) Illustrations (56)
Amurru • Anahita • Anat • Ancient of days • Apkallu • Apophis • Ariel • Ashera • Ashima • Astarte • Aya • Azazel Baal • Baal Hammon • Baalshamem/Belshamin • Bastet/Sekhmet (Levant, Phoenician colonies) • Constellations (Egypt) • Crocodile • Dagan • Dog • Donkey • Enlil/Mullil • Female solar deities • Figure in nimbus • Fly Gad • God on serpent throne • Gula • Hare • Harpocrates • Hatmehit • Heh • Heracles • Human-headed winged bull (“Aladlammu”) • Iconography of Animals in the Representation of the Divine (Palestine/Israel) • Ishara • Kassite cross • Khonsu • King (Levant) • Lamp Marduk • Mekal • Melqart • Milkom • Min • Mistress-of-animals • Mithra • Monkey • Mountain god (Aegean) • Mountain god (Ancient Near East) • Narunde • Ninkhursaga • Nusku • Onuris • Ostrich • Pataikos • Pazuzu • Qudshu • Ra • Rakib-El • Resheph • Rooster • Salmu • Scorpion • Sherua • Spade • Stylus • Swine (Palestine/Israel) • Tammuz • Teraphim • Typhon • Vulture • Yam
A
Home
Online IDD Database

No comments:

Post a Comment