This volume assembles more than 30 articles focusing on the visual, material, and environmental arts of the Ancient Near East. Specific case studies range temporally from the fourth millennium up to the Hellenistic period and geographically from Iran to the eastern Mediterranean. Contributions apply innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to archaeological evidence and critically examine the historiography of the discipline itself. Not intended to be comprehensive, the volume instead captures a cross-section of the field of Ancient Near Eastern art history as its stands in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The volume will be of value to scholars working in the Ancient Near East as well as others interested in newer art historical and anthropological approaches to visual culture.

"Communities of Style" examines the production and circulation of portable luxury goods throughout the Levant in the early Iron Age (1200-600 BCE). In particular it focuses on how societies in flux came together around the material effects of art and style, and their role in collective memory.
Marian H. Feldman brings her dual training as an art historian and an archaeologist to bear on the networks that were essential to the movement and trade of luxury goods--particularly ivories and metal works--and how they were also central to community formation. The interest in, and relationships to, these art objects, Feldman shows, led to wide-ranging interactions and transformations both within and between communities. Ultimately, she argues, the production and movement of luxury goods in the period demands a rethinking of our very geo-cultural conception of the Levant, as well as its influence beyond what have traditionally been thought of as its borders.

Representation of political power seems to have been necessary at all times in all complex urban societies. To secure order-to construct a certain social, ideological, religious, economic, and cultural stability-seems to be one of the main intentions of representation. When order breaks down or is threatened, political power comes under threat and the cohesion of the community is also in jeopardy. In times of impending change, crisis, or disorder, special effort is required to reassure the community of the rulers ability to maintain stability. What those in power did to convince the affected communities of their qualities as rulers, that is, their representational strategies - especially in times of change - is the subject of this book, explored through examination of case studies drawn from the ancient Near East. The volume is divided into three thematic parts: "Reestablishment of Order after Major Disruption," "Changing Order from Within," and "Perceptions of a New Order."

During the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE, the kings of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Hatti participated in a complex international community. These two hundred years also witnessed the production of luxurious artworks made of gold, ivory, alabaster, and faience--objects that helped to foster good relations among the kingdoms. In fact, as Marian H. Feldman makes clear here, art and international relations during the Late Bronze Age formed an unprecedented symbiosis, in concert with expanded travel and written communications across the Mediterranean. And thus diplomacy was invigorated through the exchange of lavish art objects and luxury goods, which shared a repertoire of imagery that modern scholars have called the first International Style in the history of art.
Previous studies have focused almost exclusively on stylistic attribution of these objects at the expense of social contextualization. Feldman's "Diplomacy by Design" instead examines the profound connection between art produced during this period and its social and political contexts, revealing inanimate objects as catalysts--or even participants--in human dynamics. Feldman's fascinating study shows the ways in which the diplomatic circulation of these works actively mediated and strengthened political relations, intercultural interactions, and economic negotiations and she does so through diverse disciplinary frameworks including art history, anthropology, and social history. Written by a specialist in ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology who has excavated and traveled extensively in this area of the world, "Diplomacy by Design" considers anew the symbolic power of material culture and its centrality in theconstruction of human relations.