Art and Iconography

Tracking the Roadways Across Iranian Lands: A Geospatial Reconstruction of the Persian Royal Road(s) and the cross-cultural link between East and West during the Achaemenid Era (6th-4th century BCE)

PersianTRAIL is a research project using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and historical-archaeological data to reconstruct the Persian Royal Road (PRR), a key infrastructure of the Achaemenid Empire (6th–4th century BCE). The project examines factors like topography, resource distribution, economy, military logistics, and environmental constraints to understand the empire’s strategic planning.

Bison Eyes and a Beard of Lapis Lazuli: Aesthetics and Art for the Senses in Ancient Mesopotamia

This talk explores the slippages between ancient Mesopotamia's system(s) of aesthetics and Western philosophical aesthetics, with particular attention to Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment and William Hogarth's The Analysis of Beauty. It also explores Mesopotamia's visual arts as art for the senses, that is, art designed...

Elite Saka sites of East Kazakhstan

The talk provides an overview of the research on the elite Saka burial mounds in the foothills of the Tarbagatai mountains, conducted by the Shilikta-Tarbagatai archaeological expedition under the leadership of Prof. Abdesh Toleubaev, starting in 2018. The main emphasis is on the latest archaeological materials identified...

Cultural variation and consensus in daimonic clay figures of the Neo-Assyrian period

An early Iron Age Sarmatian female elite burial at Taksay-1, western Kazakhstan

The Taksay-1 Kurgan Complex is located on the territory of the Terekty district of the West Kazakhstan Region and consists of six kurgans. In 2012, an archaeological team from the West Kazakhstan Local History Museum, led by Dr. Yana Lukpanova, discovered and excavated a unique elite burial of a woman from a privileged...

UPDATE! Date changed! Saka-Scythian cultures of Central Kazakhstan: new discoveries, new interpretations (800 – 500 BCE)

During the Saka/Scythian time, territories of the steppe region of Kazakhstan was occupied by the Tasmola culture (800-500 BCE), which was discovered and identified in 1966, by the Kazakh archaeologist Mir Kadyrbaev. Currently, our understanding of the Tasmola culture has been enriched with discoveries of new types of...

A barrel full of monkeys - Animal identification in Aegean Bronze Age iconography

This paper examines animal identification in art, an aspect that needs to be addressed in any discussion of ancient animal imagery. Although the identification result can significantly influence the interpretation of iconography, a systematic approach has rarely been adopted and controversial depictions have often left...

Bronze Sculpture and its Technique in the Bihar Museum

Fibre Production on the West Coast of South America

Fibre production on the west coast of South America 'I conducted a systematic analysis of bast fibre technologies manufactured by coastal hunter-gatherer groups between 12,000 and 3,500 BP in southern Peru and northern Chile. Plant fibres assemblages from five archaeological sites belonging to different chronologies and...

Department of Archaeology

Art and Iconography

Tracking the Roadways Across Iranian Lands: A Geospatial Reconstruction of the Persian Royal Road(s) and the cross-cultural link between East and West during the Achaemenid Era (6th-4th century BCE)

Bison Eyes and a Beard of Lapis Lazuli: Aesthetics and Art for the Senses in Ancient Mesopotamia

Elite Saka sites of East Kazakhstan

Cultural variation and consensus in daimonic clay figures of the Neo-Assyrian period

An early Iron Age Sarmatian female elite burial at Taksay-1, western Kazakhstan

Dr Steve Renette

UPDATE! Date changed! Saka-Scythian cultures of Central Kazakhstan: new discoveries, new interpretations (800 – 500 BCE)

A barrel full of monkeys - Animal identification in Aegean Bronze Age iconography

Bronze Sculpture and its Technique in the Bihar Museum

Fibre Production on the West Coast of South America

Contact Us

Follow Us

athena_swan_bronze_logo.png

accredited_degree_rgb_no_background.png

UIS Websites

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge