Description
This groundbreaking volume brings together scholars of the art and archaeology of late antiquity (c. 200 1000), across cultures and regions reaching from India to Iberia, to discuss how objects can inform our understanding of religions. During this period major transformations are visible in the production of religious art and in the relationships between people and objects in religious contexts across the ancient world. These shifts in behaviour and formalising of iconographies are visible in art associated with numerous religious traditions including, but not limited to, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, religions of the Roman Empire, and paganism in northern Europe. Studies of these religions and their material culture, however, have been shaped by Eurocentric and post-Reformation Christian frameworks that prioritised Scripture and minimised the capacity of images and objects to hold religious content. Despite recent steps to incorporate objects, much academic discourse, especially in comparative religion, remains stubbornly textual. This volume therefore seeks to explore the ramifications of placing objects first and foremost in the comparative study of religions in late antiquity, and to consider the potential for interdisciplinary conversation to reinvigorate the field.
About the Author
Professor of Late Antique Art at Oxford, Jas Elsner was Principal Investigator of the Empires of Faith project between the British Museum and Wolfson College Oxford (2013-2018). He serves also as Visiting Professor of art and religion at the University of Chicago and as External Member of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. His expertise is in all areas of art and religion in the late antique world, especially in the Mediterranean. Dr Rachel Wood is Departmental Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford, specialising in the art of ancient Iran from the Seleukid to Sasanian periods. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the British Museum on the Empires of Faith project and Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.
Book Information
ISBN 9780861592340
Author Jas Elsner
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint British Museum Press
Publisher British Museum Press
About the Author
Professor of Late Antique Art at Oxford, Jas Elsner was Principal Investigator of the Empires of Faith project between the British Museum and Wolfson College Oxford (2013-2018). He serves also as Visiting Professor of art and religion at the University of Chicago and as External Member of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. His expertise is in all areas of art and religion in the late antique world, especially in the Mediterranean. Dr Rachel Wood is Departmental Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford, specialising in the art of ancient Iran from the Seleukid to Sasanian periods. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the British Museum on the Empires of Faith project and Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.
Book Information
ISBN 9780861592340
Author Jas Elsner
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint British Museum Press
Publisher British Museum Press
