The Mesopotamian Sublime: Time, Matter, Image in Mesopotamian Antiquity


This lecture is free to students and staff of the University of Oxford. Booking is necessary for members of the public not affiliated with the University and can be made here: http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Lectures/?id=132

The lecture develops the idea of an ‘art-time’ by exploring the aesthetics of the sublime in Mesopotamian antiquity. The paper argues that there was a conception of the sublime that comes into play in the deep time seen in the foundation deposits with their interred statues and texts, and in the elevated, timeless cliff sculptures of the northern Mesopotamian landscape.