Denise Schmandt‐besserat
Biographic Data
| ID | 4893623 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Denise Schmandt‐besserat |
| GIVEN NAMES | Denise |
| FAMILY NAME | Schmandt‐besserat |
| SIGNATURE | BESSERAT D S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Writing, Evolution of
Feasting in the Ancient Near East
The interface between writing and art: The seals of Tepe Gawra
L’article traite de l’influence de l’écriture sur l’art de la période urbaine dans le Proche-Orient ancien. J’analyse les compositions – comment les images sont organisées – sur les sceaux de Tepe Gawra, 5500-2000 av. J.‐C. Je note que : A) les sceaux qui précèdent l’écriture portent des figures tête-bêche ou pêle-mêle qui ne montrent aucune action réciproque ; B) avec les compositions linéaires empruntées à l’écriture, la glyptique de l’époque p…
Baghdad Then and Now
The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age. Richard Rudgley
ʿAin Ghazal "Monumental" Figures
Excavations in 1983 and 1985 at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of ʿAin Ghazal, Jordan, unearthed two caches of carefully buried plaster statues, separated by two to three centuries. This article analyzes the collection of large anthropomorphic representations, which include 15 full figures about 1 m tall, 12 one-headed busts, and 3 two-headed busts. The style of the two caches of statues is compared and contrasted to determine the characteristi…
A Decorated Skull from MPPNB 'Ain Ghazal
A fragile human skull removed in a block of earth from 'Ain Ghazal in 1984 was excavated in the laboratory in 1997. The bone preserves evidence of a reddish pigment and a black substance - possibly bitumen - but since the face was missing, it is not certain if this decorated skull was also modeled in plaster. The combination of the use of red pigment and a black material (bitumen ?) reflects another facet of the variability accorded to certain hu…
A Stone Metaphor of Creation
The petite, nude stone statuette from ˓Ain Ghazal, Jordan boasts neither female genitalia nor conspicuous breasts. Yet it is a female form, carved to focus attention on the abdomen whose size and profile leave no question that the figure is pregnant. Who is this female exulting in her pregnant state, and what did she signify to the Neolithic villagers
The History and Power of Writing by Henri-Jean Martin
technology and culture Book Reviews 1047 ited survey photographs; and the National Military Parks showed photographs of Civil War battlefields. This book is not an archaeological effort to recover the images that appeared in Chicago in 1893; Brown’s topic is the exhibition itself, and the ways in which the photographs promoted the interests of their original sponsors. Her argument is most impressive when it shows the flaws in the myth of the obje…
The History and Power of Writing
Before Writing, Vol. I: From Counting to Cuneiform
Before Writing
Frühe Schrift und Techniken der Wirtschaftsverwaltung im alten Vorderen Orient: Informationsspeicherung und -verarbeitung vor 5000 Iahren
Before Writing. Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform
Before Writing, Vol. 1: From Counting to Cuneiform
Before Writing
The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society
Pre-Writing in Southeastern Europe: The Sign System of the Vinca Culture CA. 4000 B.C. By Shann M. M. Winn
La Statuaire du Proche-Orient Ancien
Decipherment of the Earliest Tablets
The first signs of writing were crudely impressed on clay tablets. These signs are found to represent and stand for clay tokens used for recording prior to writing. The recent decoding of a series of tokens makes it possible to identify the signs as units of grain metrology, land measure, animal numeration, and other economic units.
Immortal Egypt: Invited Lectures on the Middle East at the University of Texas at Austin
The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing
Denise Schmandt-Besserat, (1980), The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing, Technology and Culture, Vol. 21, No. 3., pp. 357-385
An Archaic Recording System in the Uruk-Jemdet Nasr Period
In the ancient Middle East (ninth-second millennia B.C.), reckoning was practiced with the help of clay tokens in geometric and odd shapes which stood for numbers and various commodities. This paper presents an assemblage of 661 tokens dating from the end of the fourth millennium B.C. (Uruk-Jemdet Nasr period) which are classified into 15 main types with some 200 subtypes. Charts illustrate the occurrence of each type in major sites of Iran, Iraq…
L'Art Antique du Proche Orient
Lubaantun: Stone Age Painting in India. Robert R. R. Brooks and Vishnu S. Wakankar
A Decorated Skull from MPPNB 'Ain Ghazal
A fragile human skull removed in a block of earth from 'Ain Ghazal in 1984 was excavated in the laboratory in 1997. The bone preserves evidence of a reddish pigment and a black substance - possibly bitumen - but since the face was missing, it is not certain if this decorated skull was also modeled in plaster. The combination of the use of red pigment and a black material (bitumen ?) reflects another facet of the variability accorded to certain hu…
An Archaic Recording System in the Uruk-Jemdet Nasr Period
In the ancient Middle East (ninth-second millennia B.C.), reckoning was practiced with the help of clay tokens in geometric and odd shapes which stood for numbers and various commodities. This paper presents an assemblage of 661 tokens dating from the end of the fourth millennium B.C. (Uruk-Jemdet Nasr period) which are classified into 15 main types with some 200 subtypes. Charts illustrate the occurrence of each type in major sites of Iran, Iraq…
Before Writing. Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform
The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing
Denise Schmandt-Besserat, (1980), The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing, Technology and Culture, Vol. 21, No. 3., pp. 357-385
The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society
The Beginnings of the Use of Clay in Turkey
Palaeolithic assemblages in the Near East do not yield any clay artifacts. During the Mesolithic period clay objects begin to appear as rarities but with the beginning of the Neolithic one witnesses a proliferation of uses of clay for architecture, house furnishings, firing devices, containers, and a variety of objects. Suddenly the villages seem to consist entirely of clay. I have been puzzled by the seemingly long indifference of man towards a …
A Stone Metaphor of Creation
The petite, nude stone statuette from ˓Ain Ghazal, Jordan boasts neither female genitalia nor conspicuous breasts. Yet it is a female form, carved to focus attention on the abdomen whose size and profile leave no question that the figure is pregnant. Who is this female exulting in her pregnant state, and what did she signify to the Neolithic villagers
Pre-Writing in Southeastern Europe: The Sign System of the Vinca Culture CA. 4000 B.C. By Shann M. M. Winn
Baghdad Then and Now
The First Civilization: The Legacy of Sumer
The Beginnings of the Use of Clay in Turkey
Palaeolithic assemblages in the Near East do not yield any clay artifacts. During the Mesolithic period clay objects begin to appear as rarities but with the beginning of the Neolithic one witnesses a proliferation of uses of clay for architecture, house furnishings, firing devices, containers, and a variety of objects. Suddenly the villages seem to consist entirely of clay. I have been puzzled by the seemingly long indifference of man towards a …
Excarations of the Godin Project: Second Progress Report
The Neolithic of the near East
This critique of The Neolithic of the Near East includes five major sections which will be considered in the following sequence: 1) background and author's purpose, 2) previous areal syntheses, 3) problems of organization and method, 4) summary of salient points, and 5) evaluation. James Mellaart, Lecturer in Anatolian Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in the University of London, has written the best summary presently available on the …
Lubaantun: Stone Age Painting in India. Robert R. R. Brooks and Vishnu S. Wakankar
Early Technologies: Austin, Texas, October 1976
An Archaic Recording System in the Uruk-Jemdet Nasr Period
In the ancient Middle East (ninth-second millennia B.C.), reckoning was practiced with the help of clay tokens in geometric and odd shapes which stood for numbers and various commodities. This paper presents an assemblage of 661 tokens dating from the end of the fourth millennium B.C. (Uruk-Jemdet Nasr period) which are classified into 15 main types with some 200 subtypes. Charts illustrate the occurrence of each type in major sites of Iran, Iraq…
L'Art Antique du Proche Orient
The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing
Denise Schmandt-Besserat, (1980), The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing, Technology and Culture, Vol. 21, No. 3., pp. 357-385
Decipherment of the Earliest Tablets
The first signs of writing were crudely impressed on clay tablets. These signs are found to represent and stand for clay tokens used for recording prior to writing. The recent decoding of a series of tokens makes it possible to identify the signs as units of grain metrology, land measure, animal numeration, and other economic units.
Immortal Egypt: Invited Lectures on the Middle East at the University of Texas at Austin
La Statuaire du Proche-Orient Ancien
Pre-Writing in Southeastern Europe: The Sign System of the Vinca Culture CA. 4000 B.C. By Shann M. M. Winn
The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society
Before Writing. Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform
Before Writing, Vol. 1: From Counting to Cuneiform
Before Writing
Before Writing, Vol. I: From Counting to Cuneiform
Before Writing
Frühe Schrift und Techniken der Wirtschaftsverwaltung im alten Vorderen Orient: Informationsspeicherung und -verarbeitung vor 5000 Iahren
The History and Power of Writing by Henri-Jean Martin
technology and culture Book Reviews 1047 ited survey photographs; and the National Military Parks showed photographs of Civil War battlefields. This book is not an archaeological effort to recover the images that appeared in Chicago in 1893; Brown’s topic is the exhibition itself, and the ways in which the photographs promoted the interests of their original sponsors. Her argument is most impressive when it shows the flaws in the myth of the obje…
The History and Power of Writing
ʿAin Ghazal "Monumental" Figures
Excavations in 1983 and 1985 at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of ʿAin Ghazal, Jordan, unearthed two caches of carefully buried plaster statues, separated by two to three centuries. This article analyzes the collection of large anthropomorphic representations, which include 15 full figures about 1 m tall, 12 one-headed busts, and 3 two-headed busts. The style of the two caches of statues is compared and contrasted to determine the characteristi…
A Decorated Skull from MPPNB 'Ain Ghazal
A fragile human skull removed in a block of earth from 'Ain Ghazal in 1984 was excavated in the laboratory in 1997. The bone preserves evidence of a reddish pigment and a black substance - possibly bitumen - but since the face was missing, it is not certain if this decorated skull was also modeled in plaster. The combination of the use of red pigment and a black material (bitumen ?) reflects another facet of the variability accorded to certain hu…
A Stone Metaphor of Creation
The petite, nude stone statuette from ˓Ain Ghazal, Jordan boasts neither female genitalia nor conspicuous breasts. Yet it is a female form, carved to focus attention on the abdomen whose size and profile leave no question that the figure is pregnant. Who is this female exulting in her pregnant state, and what did she signify to the Neolithic villagers
History (22 works) · Art (16 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (15 works) · Archaeology (12 works) · Ancient history (11 works) · Ancient Near East History (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · History (8 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (7 works) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History (5 works)