About the lecture
Elite textiles documented from texts and visual art of first-millennium BC Assyria represent a valuable source of information on the rich textile industry that developed during Assyria’s political dominion in the ancient Near East. The lecture will explore Neo-Assyrian royal textiles, their components and peculiarites combining textual and visual data. The analysis will also address the question of how royal textiles were an integral part of the power narrative of the Assyrian kings, playing a role of manifesto of the royal ideology.
About Dr. Gaspa
Salvatore Gaspa is a senior researcher in History of the Ancient Near East and Semitic Philology at the Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences and the Ancient World of the University of Padua. His main research interests focus on the history, administration, religion and material culture of first-millennium BC Assyria. In a monograph published in 2018 he investigated the textile terminology attested in Neo-Assyrian texts and the role played by textiles in the economy, administration, royal imagery and religion in imperial Assyria.
Digital event - how to participate
The seminar will be held digitally. If you wish to attend a lecture, you need to register in advance.
A zoom link will be sent to you before the event. You can download Zoom or use your browser: https://zoom.us/download
Suggestions for further Reading
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S. Gaspa, Textiles in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. A Study of Terminology (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 19), Boston/Berlin: W. De Gruyter, 2018.
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S. Gaspa, “Garments, Parts of Garments, and Textile Techniques in the Assyrian Terminology: The Neo-Assyrian Textile Lexicon in the 1st-Millennium BC Linguistic Context”, in S. Gaspa, C. Michel, M.-L. Nosch (eds.), Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD, Lincoln: Zea Books, 2017, 47-90.
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S. Gaspa, “Textile Production and Consumption in the Neo-Assyrian Empire”, in M.-L. Nosch, H. Koefoed, E. Andersson Strand (eds.), Textile Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East: Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography (Ancient Textiles Series 12), Oxford/Oakville: Oxbow Books, 2013, 224-247.
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E. Guralnick, “Neo-Assyrian Patterned Fabrics”, Iraq 66 (2004), 221-232.
About Ancient Attire
A Digital Lecture Series on Dress, Adornment and Vestimentary Codes in the Ancient Mediterranean World
The aim of this series is to investigate vestimentary codes in ancient cultures, and to explore how these concepts relate to gender, hierarchy and power.
Seven excellent international researchers, experts on the material cultures and texts of the ancient Mediterranean, will present a 30-minute lecture, followed by amble time for questions and discussion.
We are interested in mapping dress and adornment as broadly as possible and therefore we encourage our speakers to consider vestimentary codes from a multi-sensorial perspective and to give thought to both touch, smell, taste, hearing and vision.
Ancient Attire Programme - Fall 2022
- Friday August 26 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Rosalind Janssen: “Unpacking Tutankhamun’s Wardrobe”
- Friday September 16 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Laura Quick: “Divine Dress, Divinization and Dethronement in the Hebrew Bible”
- Friday October 21 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Søren Lorenzen: “The High Priest and his Glorious Camouflage”
- Friday November 11 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Mary Harlow: “Female Dress at Rome: Getting it Right”
- Friday December 2 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Agnès Garcia-Ventura and Dr. Mireia López-Bertran: “Dressed to sound? An approach to dress and attire of female musicians in Phoenician and Punic contexts”
- Friday December 16 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Salvatore Gaspa: “Dress, Adornment and the Material Language of Power: Royal Textiles in Assyria”
Organizer
The lecture series is organized by Professor Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme and hosted by The Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo and the Faculty’s research group Biblical Texts, Cultures and Receptions.