Berlejung and Filitz (eds.), The Physicality of the Other

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: The Physicality of the Other. Masks from the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean. Ed. by Angelika Berlejung and Judith E. Filitz. [Die Leibhaftigkeit des Anderen. Antike Masken aus dem Vorderen Orient und dem östlichen Mittelmeerraum.] 2018. X, 570 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 27. 149,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-155513-8.

Published in English.
This volume comprises the conference proceedings of the international and interdisciplinary meeting held in Leipzig from November 9 to 11, 2015. Scholars from different research areas present masks from Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Greece, mainly from the third to the first millennium BCE. The masks are analyzed from archaeological, iconographical, anthropological, philological, and theological perspectives. In many cases, the masks refer to gods, ancestors, spirits, and are used as a means to communicate between human beings and supernatural powers. Masks belong to the human condition and seem to be the international and intercultural answer to one of the most existential questions of human life. In addition, the volume includes an archaeological catalogue of the masks from Israel/Palestine of the Neolithic Age until the Persian Period.

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