First published in 1988, the present volume contains the texts of papers read at a three-day Colloquium on bronzeworking centres in Western Asia from 1000 BC until the beginning of the Achaemenian period in 539 BC, which was held in the British Museum in July 1986. Each paper has been revised in the light of the discussion which followed it. The Colloquium was organized by Dr J E Curtis on behalf of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities and forms the first in a series which it is hoped will be held annually.

This volume of Collected Essays brings together for the first time the range of Winter's pioneering studies related to Neo-Assyrian relief sculpture and seals, Phoeician and Syrian ivory and bronze production, and inter-polity connections across the various cultures of first millennium B.C.E. from the Aegean to Iran. Consistent threads are an emphasis on the potential for art historical analysis to yield 'history' in the broadest sense; the importance of making the theoretical frame of interpretation explicit; and the necessity of textual evidence being brought to bear on upon elements of formal analysis and archaeological context.

The Melammu Project, founded in 1998, organized five successive conferences and a sixth in 2008. Melammu Symposia 7 now represents a new dawn for the project publishing the contributions of the meeting in Obergurgl in November 2013. This time it will not be an isolated event: Further conferences have already taken place and been planned (Kiel 2014, Helsinki and Tartu 2015, Kassel 2016, and Beirut 2017), the project board has been renewed, reinvigorated and rejuvenated, and plans are underway for a thorough reworking and updating of the project database. Its focus (now slightly reworded to be somewhat wider) is to investigate "the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian and Ancient Near Eastern culture from the third millennium BCE through the ancient world until Islamic times" (quoted from the Melammu Project website). Of course, Mesopotamia was not the source of all culture; but it was an important area in ancient history, that without doubt deserves such a project, dedicated to the study of its cultural impact and heritage. This volume assembles 42 contributions devoted to the topics "Prayers and Incantations", "Foreign Reception of Mesopotamian Objects", "The Use of Literary Figures of Speech", "Mesopotamia and the World", "The World of Politics", "Iran and Early Islam", and "Representations of Power".

The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon is an exciting story of detection involving legends, expert decipherment of ancient texts, and a vivid description of a little-known civilization. Recognised in ancient times as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the legendary Hanging Garden of Babylon and its location still remains a mystery steeped in shadow and puzzling myths. In this remarkable volume Stephanie Dalley, a world expert on ancient Babylonian language, gathers for the first time all the material on this enigmatic World Wonder. Tracing the history of the Garden, Dalley describes how the decipherment of an original text and its link to sculpture in the British Museum has enabled her to pin down where the Garden was positioned and to describe in detail what it may have looked like. Through this dramatic and fascinating reconstruction of the Garden, Dalley is also able to follow its influence on later garden design. Like a palimpsest, Dalley unscrambles the many legends that have built up around the Garden, including the parts played by Semiramis and Nebuchadnezzar, and following the evolution of its design, she shows why this Garden deserves its place alongside the Pyramids and the Colossus of Rhodes as one of the most astonishing technical achievements of the ancient world.

Utilizing a variety of ancient sources, including cuneiform texts, images and archaeological finds, Luxury and Legitimation explores how the collecting of luxury objects contributed to the formation of royal identity in one of the world's oldest civilizations, ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Allison Thomason makes a significant and timely contribution to the subjects of collecting and material culture studies by bringing a new understanding to the political, cultural and social institutions of an important pre-Classical, non-Western civilization.

This volume of collected essays brings together for the first time the range of Winter’s pioneering studies related to Neo-Assyrian relief sculpture and seals, Phoenician and Syrian ivory and bronze production, and inter-polity connections across the various cultures of first millennium B.C.E. from the Aegean to Iran. Consistent threads are an emphasis on the potential for art historical analysis to yield ‘history’ in the broadest sense; the importance of making the theoretical frame of interpretation explicit; and the necessity of textual evidence being brought to bear upon elements of formal analysis and archaeological context. "These beautifully produced volumes bring together essays written over a 35-year period, creating a whole that is much more than the sum of its parts...No library should be without this impressive collection." J.C. Exum