Nicola Laneri (ed.)

      This book is entirely devoted to the definition of the concepts and practices of 'sacred' in ancient times. The volume is divided into three parts: the first one is on 'sacred nature', the second one is about 'housing the god', while the third one regards 'the materialisation of religious beliefs and practices'.
      After the preface and chapter one (introduction by Nicola Laneri), in part I, chapter 1 (by Nadezhda Dubova) describes 'animal burials and their cults in Margiana'; chapter 3 (by Laercke Recht) is about 'identifying sacrifice in Bronze Age Near Eastern iconography'; chapter 4 (by Steve A. Rosen) involves 'cult and the rise of desert pastoralism: a case study from the Negev'; chapter 5 (by Ann Andersson) regards 'thoughts on material expressions of cultic practices. Standing stone monuments of the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant'; chapter 6 (by Pascal Butterlin) ends part I, talking about 'Late Chalcolithic Mesopotamia: towards a definition of sacred space and its evolution'.
      Part II includes chapter 7 (by Olivier Dietrich and Jens Notroff) presenting 'a sanctuary, or so fair a house? In defense of an archaeology of cult at Pre–Pottery Neolithic Göbekli Tepe; chapter 8 (by Beth Alpert Nakhai): 'where to worship? Religion in Iron II Israel and Judah; chapter 9 (by Stefano Valentini), about 'communal places of worship: ritual activities and ritualised ideology during the Early Bronze Age Jezirah'; chapter 10 (by Stefania Mazzoni), on 'open spaces around the temples and their ritual use: archaeological evidence from the Bronze and Iron Age Levant'; chapter 11 (by Amalia Catagnoti), dealing with 'ritual circumambulations in the Syro–Mesopotamian cuneiform texts'; chapter 12 (by Licia Romano), presenting 'a temple lifecycle: rituals of construction, restoration, and destruction of some ED Mesopotamian and Syrian sacred buildings'.
      Part III displays chapter 13 (by Trevor Watkins): 'religion as practice in Neolithic societies'; chapter 14 (by Milena Gosic and Isaac Gilead), on 'casting the sacred: Chalcolithic metallurgy and ritual in the southern Levant'; chapter 15 (by Laura Battini), asking 'how better understanding of ritual practices can help the comprehension of religious feelings'; chapter 16 (by Daniel Snell), investigating 'archaeological correlates of pious society'. – [Urkesh/Tell Mozan is specifically quoted on pp. 25–33, 35–37 and 104].

[M. De Pietri – November 2019]