Meant to Move. Kinetic expression in figurines from ancient Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean

Figurines — made of clay, stone, wood, or other materials throughout the ancient world — capture postures, gestures, and movements that serve as visualized expressions of action, practice, and cognitive frameworks within their respective cultural contexts. While static, they encapsulate sequences of motion with deliberately chosen gestures that reflect everyday and ritualistic practices. By focusing on bodily forms and attributes, this workshop examines how figurines function as markers of action and experience and, thus, as entry points for associative thinking within distinct cognitive realms or performative settings. Exploring figurines as representations and active participants in social life, we consider their cognitive function — mnemonic devices, behavior models, or gesture guides? — and their potential to stimulate embodied responses and performative engagement.

Inspired by insights from gesture studies, cognitive science, and performance studies, the workshop, hosted by the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology at Freie Universität Berlin and supported by the Excellence Cluster 2020 “Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective”, Einstein Center Chronoi, and hosted by BerGSAS, will open a dialogue on figurine agency through cognitive stimulation with specialists in different figurine traditions of Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean during the second and first millennium BCE. Combining scholarly papers and respondent-led discussions will stimulate active exchange between theoretical reasoning and artifact-oriented, comparative analyses.

Organizing committee

Elisa Roßberger & Marina Weiss (Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Freie Universität Berlin)
Stephanie Langin-Hooper (Southern Methodist University, Dallas)
Régine Hunziker-Rodewald (Université de Strasbourg & Freie Universität Berlin)
Enrica Inversi (The British Museum & Freie Universität Berlin)

Participants: Andrei Aioanei, Sarah Graff, Elisabeth Katzy, Maria Gabriella Micale, Goce Naumov, Alexander Pruß, Anastasia Tchaplyghine

Program: The workshop will last two days. The first session will start on Thursday afternoon (22^nd May, 2025), followed by the workshop dinner, aiming to foster collegial exchange in a more relaxed environment. On Friday (23^rd May, 2025), we resume sessions in the morning with a lunch break in the Dahlem Research School garden. We expect to end in the late afternoon on Friday.

Contact: Marina Weiss (marina.weiss@fu-berlin.de ) or Elisa Roßberger (elisa.rossberger@fu-berlin.de)

Program

Thursday, 22 May 2025

14:00  Welcome and introduction

14:30  Sarah Graff (Metropolitan Museum, New York): Far Away, So Close: Connections in Clay between Old Babylonian Girsu and Ur

15:15  Enrica Inversi (British Museum, London): Embodied Practices: Stillness and Movement in Ur Figurines

16:15  Elisa Roßberger (FU Berlin)

17:00  Anastasia Tchaplyghine (British Museum, London): Enigmatic Movement: Terracotta Animal Figurines in Early First Millennium BCE Mesopotamia

18:00  Goce Naumov (Einstein Center - Chronoi): Figurine Fragmentation as the Embodiment of Motion

Friday, 23 May 2025

9:00  Régine Hunziker-Rodewald (Universität Straßburg)

9:45  Gabriella Micale (British Museum, London)

11:00  Elisabeth Katzy (Pilecki-Institut, Berlin)

11:45  Stephanie Langin-Hooper (SMU Dallas): To Love and To Protect: Movement, Sound, and Smell as Forms of Divine   Protection in the Eros Harpocrates Terracottas of Hellenistic Babylonia

14:00  Alexander Pruß (JGU Mainz)

14:45  Marina Weiss (FU Berlin): In Motion: Ring Dance Figurines from Iron Age Cyprus

15:20  Andrei Aioanei (Universität Straßburg): Embodied Semiotic Agents: Territorialization and Ideological Formation Through Female Figurines in Iron Age Tel Rehov