This book deals with the rules of art. More specifically, it treats of the unwritten rules of Nepalese religious art as laid down in ‘model books’. These can be seen as manuals for the artists, in which they can find the correct way to represent, in visual art, any of some 2000 godly figures. The representation of these gods, all of them with their particular attributes, was (and is) subject to more or less strict rules. These books, the kind of which is also found in Europe in the early Middle Ages, have developed into a special tradition in Nepal, where a unique number of model books was found to be in existence, the oldest of them going back to the 15th century. The author of this study (the first in its kind) has traced the development in time of some 150 popular Hindu deities to determine the meaning of these model books for the artists using them, and also to see if the representation of these gods is in any way related to changes in society.

Gods and goddesses—in human, animal, and other forms—were central to the ancient Egyptian way of life. Identified with the natural world, daily living, and the afterlife, they maintained order and prevented chaos from permeating the human world. The figures documented in ancient hieroglyphics are given dimension in this absorbing volume, which examines the characteristics and significance of many of the Egyptian gods and goddesses and also looks at related topics such as ancient symbols and the influence of Egyptian mythology on other cultures and belief systems.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.

Discover the History, Magick & Myths of the Horned One Explore the deep spiritual roots of the Horned God and discover rituals and activities designed to help you get closer to him.Throughout history, horned deities have been honored as gods of nature, sex, fertility, passion, sacrifice, death, and rebirth. The Horned God of the Witches reveals the origins and features of their most common guises—Pan, Cernunnos, Herne, Elen of the Ways, the Green Man, and even the Devil. Whether you are interested in the Wiccan Horned God—a more contemporary composite of several deities—or in one of his many other forms, these rituals for meeting the powerful deity will help you achieve your magical goals. With hands-on techniques for divination, creating an altar, working magick, spiritual lovemaking, and receiving the gifts of the Witchfather, this book supports a transformative deepening of your relationship to the divine.

Archaeology from Every Angle brings together a wide range of scholars whose work has been influenced by Richard Zettler's career in Near Eastern archaeology. The volume includes work from various archaeological specialties including ceramics, small finds, seal impressions, mortuary practice, social identity, and zooarchaeology. Several contributors provide broader overviews of sites, architecture, and landscape features. Chronologically, this book spans the 5th millennium BCE through the Iron Age in the Near East. The breadth of the contributions to this book speak to the lasting and far-reaching impact Zettler has had on the field. Archaeology from Every Angle does what it says and brings together disparate topics and scholars to form a volume in honor of an archaeologist with a long and storied career.

There are a multitude of female figures represented in the art of the ancient Near East and it has often been proved difficult to differentiate them. This study presents a collection of visual source material on godesses from Egypt, Ugarit, Syria and Palestine from c,1500 to 1000 BC. An introduction to the subject and previous research precedes a discussion of iconographic types (armed, seated, standing, equestrian and named women holding objects) and media (including reliefs, seals and amulets, bronze figurines, ivories and ostraca). Cornelius devises a typology of attributes for the goddess Anat, Astarte, Qedeshet and Asherah in order to define their individual qualities and provide a means by which these goddesses can be differentiated. Includes a large descriptive catalogue.

Depictions of standards form a fundamental part of the visual repertoire of ancient Mesopotamia. These depictions can offer great insight into the thought world of the peoples with which they are associated, because different standards were associated with different deities, and could be found in multiple contexts. In this book, Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes examines the standards which are represented in the visual culture of the third and fourth millennia BCE, covering the Uruk, Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian periods. She analyses each of the different standards, how they looked, what they symbolised and the context(s) in which they were found. In addition, developments and changes in the representation of these standards are traced across the periods under discussion.