Feminine Beauty in the Neo-Assyrian Royal Court at Nimrud, c. 883-612 BCE

FAIN: FT-248791-16

Amy Rebecca Gansell
St. John's University, New York (Queens, NY 11439-9000)

A book-length study of the depiction of women in the art and artifacts at the Assyrian Northwest Palace at Nimrud.

My book invites readers inside the first-millennium BCE Neo-Assyrian Northwest Palace at Nimrud, an ancient Iraqi site that can never again be physically accessed. In March 2015, terrorists obliterated Nimrud’s excavated remains. It is therefore more imperative than ever that we interpret and publish the site’s rich history. With a narrative that aims to reconstruct the ancient human experience at Nimrud, I illuminate the bedecked bodies, images, artifacts, and identities of the queens who once lived and were buried here. As emblems of empire and fecundity, I propose that adorned queens and female imagery complemented the king’s potency and played a vital role in ideological conceptions of the empire and cosmos. Putting a story of people back into the palace at Nimrud, I hope that my book will inspire researchers, faculty, students, and interested members of the public around the globe to cherish and protect our world heritage of human history.

Media Coverage

Art Historian Receives Stipend for Research on Iraqi Artifacts (Media Coverage)
Publication: St John's University web site
Date: 4/5/2016
URL: http://http://www.stjohns.edu/about/news/2016-04-05/art-historian-receives-stipend-research-iraqi-artifacts