IMHICIHU   13380
INSTITUTO MULTIDISCIPLINARIO DE HISTORIA Y CIENCIAS HUMANAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
capítulos de libros
Título:
The Symbolic and Social World of the Qurayyah Pottery Iconography
Autor/es:
JUAN MANUEL TEBES
Libro:
Unearthing the Wilderness: Studies on the History and Archaeology of the Negev and Edom in the Iron Age
Editorial:
Peeters
Referencias:
Lugar: Leuven; Año: 2014; p. 163 - 202
Resumen:
Painted representations of schematic human figures and birds, identified as ostriches, are one of the hallmarks of the Qurayyah Pottery. This paper studies possible parallels with human and avian iconography in the pottery, rock art and reliefs of the southern Levant, Arabia and northeastern Africa. It is concluded that the Qurayyah Pottery iconography represents an amalgamation of motives found in the wider cultural area of Arabia and northeastern Africa, supplemented with Levantine themes and Eastern Mediterranean cultural elements. It is hypothesised that the human figures evoke local chiefs or sorcerers in scenes related to hunting, an iconography fitting well into the predominantly tribal societies of the southern margins of the Levant in the late second millennium BCE, with emerging elites eager to connect themselves with the "civilisation" centres of the time, particularly Egypt. The ostriches could be seen as tribal symbols of war, hunting and power related to emergent local rulers.