Review of Ben-Dov & Rojas (eds.), Afterlives of ancient rock-cut monuments in the Near East

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Afterlives of ancient rock-cut monuments in the Near East.

Jonathan Ben-Dov, Felipe Rojas, Afterlives of ancient rock-cut monuments in the Near East. Culture and history of the ancient Near East, volume 123. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. Pp. xxiv, 441. ISBN 9789004462083 €158.00 / $190.00.

Review by
Marc Van De Mieroop, Columbia University. mv1@columbia.edu

... The editors are not concerned with the moments of carving, however. Their interest lies rather in the afterlives, the reinterpretations of these monuments in changing contexts after some type of rupture (p. 1). They thus explore the special impression they made on those who encountered them after they had been carved, and some of the contributors take this discussion as late as the 19th century AD.

I noted the publication of the book here.

PaleoJudaica readers will be interested especially in the articles by Ben-Dov, Adler, and Steele:

Jonathan Ben-Dov, Neo-Babylonian Rock Reliefs and the Jewish Literary Imagination, p. 345
William Adler, Translatio studii: Stelae Traditions in Second Temple Judaism and Their Legacy in Byzantium, p. 380
John Steele, The Long History of an Imaginary Inscription: Josephus’ Two Pillars in Early Modern European Histories of Astronomy, p. 402

For more on Professor Ben-Dov's ideas about the influence of Mesopotamian monumental inscriptions on Second Temple Jewish literature, see here and here.

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