نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسنده English
The "Master of Animals" motif represents one of the most enduring and widespread iconographic themes in ancient Near Eastern art, typically depicting an anthropomorphic figure asserting dominance over, controlling, or contending with one or more animals. Employing the semiotic framework of Ferdinand de Saussure, this study presents a comparative analysis of third-millennium BCE glyptic evidence from Elam and Mesopotamia, with a particular focus on the representations of the Master and Mistress of Animals. The findings indicate that within the Mesopotamian tradition, one of the prominent manifestations of this motif is a nude male figure distinguished by knotted curls and a beard, designated in scholarship by various terms such as the "nude hero," the "priest-king," or a mythological entity. Conversely, an examination of Proto-Elamite seals from Susa reveals that direct representations of human figures are exceedingly rare during this period, with composite and animal motifs playing a far more prominent role in organizing the visual field. Furthermore, the "Mistress of Animals" motif is virtually absent from the third-millennium BCE Mesopotamian glyptic repertoire; rather, it appears with notable prominence only in the second-millennium BCE evidence associated with the Syro-Mitanni cultural sphere. In contrast, the Elamite attestations of this motif exhibit distinct structural and compositional configurations. These divergences between the sign systems of the two civilizations demonstrate that formal similarities in iconography do not necessarily signify semantic equivalence. The ancient Near East can thus be conceptualized not as an undifferentiated "unified visual language," but rather as an expansive constellation of distinct semantic and semiotic systems interacting within broader networks of cultural exchange and transmission. Consequently, structural divergences in these sign systems reflect distinct conceptions of power, legitimacy, and the ontological relationship among humanity, the animal realm, and the surrounding cosmos in the Elamite visual tradition.
کلیدواژهها English
مطالعه مقاله در نسخه کامل باستانپژوه: صفحات 131-117
