Ilona Zsolnay
Ilona Zsolnay is an Assyriologist and scholar of the ancient Near East in pursuit of making the ancient world more germane by integrating rigorous philological inquiry, cutting-edge theory, and lateral approaches. She is the recipient of a Mellon Cross-Cultural Grant with which she pioneered the introduction of masculinities theories into the study of the ancient Near East as the organizer of Mapping Ancient Near Eastern Masculinities, Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, March 24–27, 2011. In 2016, she was selected as the 2016–2018 Oriental Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Chicago, for which she produced Seen Not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts, March 1–2, 2017, a symposium which challenged presenters to go beyond the traditional vocalic approach to ancient writing systems by examining their materiality, experiential, and agentic qualities. Zsolnay has presented and published widely on deity, gender, and agency, and is the editor of Seen Not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago [in press]), Being a Man: Negotiating Ancient Constructs of Masculinity (Routledge, 2016), and ancient Near East editor for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Bible and Gender Studies. She is currently a Consulting Scholar in the Babylonian Section of the Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this, she was the Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Manager for the University of Pennsylvania extension of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (https://cdli.ucla.edu/collections/penn/penn.html) for which her team prepared over 25,000 legible, multi-sided digital images of cuneiform tablets and other artifacts for web accessibility. In her spare time, Zsolnay enjoys the discomfort of minimalist travel and has journeyed to close to seventy countries.
Address: Penn Museum – Babylonian Section
3260 South St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324
Address: Penn Museum – Babylonian Section
3260 South St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324
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together in this volume. In its pages, these contributors incorporate into their analyses methods more commonly used in linguistics and semiotics, communication studies, art historical analysis, and traditional philology to new ends in order to form original trajectories of inquiry. Each contribution either lays bare explicit exploitation of visuality in scribal production as a means to cement power, reveal the mystical, induce humor, or expose clandestine views or it locates implicit knowledge schemes and cultural maps underlying and informing these same productions. The pioneering investigations presented in Seen Not Heard reveal that although writing may be heard, the fact that it can also be seen affects its reception and therefore the meaning of any transported phonological units.
Part I: Experiential Writing
1. Text in Context: Relief and Hierarchy on Piedras Negras Panel 3. Claudia Brittenham
2. The Iconicity of the Vertical: Hieroglyphic Encoding and the Akhet in Royal Burial Chambers of
Egypt's New Kingdom. Joshua Aaron Roberson
3. For the Eye Only: Aspects of the Visual Text in Ancient Egypt. Andréas Stauder
Part II: Classifiers
4. Animal Categorization in Mesopotamia and the Origins of Natural Philosophy. Gebhard J. Selz
5. Was There an "Animal" in Ancient Egypt? Studies in Lexica and Classifier Systems, with a
Glimpse toward Sumer and Ancient China. Orly Goldwasser
6. The Cognitive Role of Semantic Classifiers in Modern Chinese Writing as Reflected in Neogram
Creation. Zev Handel
7. Iconic and Grammatical Dimensions of Sign Language Classifiers. Diane Brentari
Part III: Script Evolutions
8. Encounters between Scripts in Bronze Age Asia Minor. Elisabeth Rieken and Ilya Yakubovich
9. Iconicity, Composition, and Semantics: A Structural Investigation of Pictures in an Early Writing
Environment. Holly Pittman
10. Ava and ABb, a Memoir—or, The Curious Case of Niĝin/Nanše Signification. Ilona Zsolnay
Part IV: Response
11. On the Visual Presentation of Writing. Wang Haicheng
Introduction
Ilona Zsolnay (University of Pennsylvania)
1. Categorizing Men and Masculinity in Sumer
Joan Goodnick Westenholz and Ilona Zsolnay
2. Men Looking At Men: The Homoerotics of Power in the State Arts of Assyria
Julia Assante (Münster)
3. Wisdom of Former Days: The Manly Hittite King and Foolish Kumarbi, Father of the Gods
Mary R. Bachvarova (Willamette University)
4. Female trouble and troubled males: Roiled Seas, Decadent Royals, and Mesopotamian Masculinities in Myth and Practice
J. S. Cooper (Johns Hopkins University)
5. Mapping Masculinities in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa
Simon Brodbeck (Cardiff University)
6. Mesopotamia Before and After Sodom: Colleagues, Crack Troops, Comrades-in-Arms
Ann K. Guinan (University of Pennsylvania) and Peter Morris (Philadelphia)
7. Shaved Beards and Bared Buttocks: Shame and the Undermining of Masculine Performance in Biblical Texts
Hilary Lipka (University of New Mexico)
8. Happy is the Man who Fills His Quiver with Them (Ps. 127:5): Constructions of Masculinities in the Psalms
Marc Brettler (Duke University)
9. Relative Masculinities in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martti Nissinen (University of Helsinki)
10. The Masculinity of Male Angels on the Make: Genesis 6:1-4 in Early Nineteenth Century Gothic Imagination
Steven W. Holloway (James Madison University)
EDITORIAL BOARD
Ilona Zsolnay, University of Pennsylvania;
Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago;
Davina Lopez, Eckerd College; and,
Todd Penner, Austin College
Ken Stone, Chicago Theological Seminary
Papers by Ilona Zsolnay
Participant list:
Diane Brentari
Claudia Brittenham
Orly Goldwasser and Gebhard Selz
Zev Handel
Guolong Lai
Piotr Michalowski
Holly Pittman
Elisabeth Rieken & Ilya Yakubovich
Joshua Roberson
Andréas Stauder
David Stuart
Christopher Woods
Ilona Zsolnay
Respondents:
Jerry Cooper
Haicheng Wang
From the Director:
"Similarly Ilona Zsolnay’s article “Seen, not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts” describes our thirteenth annual post-doctoral conference. This international workshop focused on a different way of seeing logosyllabic writing systems across the ancient world. Writing reflects spoken language. But, at the same time it functions as a visual system of communication, where elements of script, context, and interaction with iconographic elements can convey meanings that go far beyond the core function of representing spoken words." (News & Notes, Summer Issue, p. 2)
The contributors to this collection include both established and up-and-coming scholars whose work brings gender studies theories—from Butler’s theory of gender as a performance to more recent theories that consider gender as a spectrum—to bear on varied materials and contexts. Their essays increase the visibility of women in ancient history, untangle constructions of masculinity and femininity in diverse contexts, and grapple with big-picture questions, such as the suitability of applying third-wave or postfeminist theories to the ancient Near East. Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East points to a need for—and provides a model of—a more productive agenda for gender studies in furthering our understanding of ancient Near Eastern societies.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Julia M. Asher-Greve, Stephanie Lynn Budin, Megan Cifarelli, M. Érica Couto-Ferreira, Amy Rebecca Gansell, Katrien De Graef, Amélie Kuhrt, Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper, Brigitte Lion, Natalie N. May, Beth Alpert Nakhai, Martti Nissinen, Omar N’Shea, María Rosa Oliver, Frances Pinnock, Eleonora Ravenna, Allison Karmel Thomason, Luciana Urbano, Niek Veldhuis, and Ilona Zsolnay.
Conferences by Ilona Zsolnay
Conference Presentations by Ilona Zsolnay
This talk was published as "Analyzing Constructs: A Selection of Perils, Pitfalls, and Progressions in Interrogating Ancient Near Eastern Gender." In Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East (Eisenbrauns, 2018). Editors: Saana Svärd and Agnes Garcia-Ventura.
PDF:
https://www.academia.edu/37119533/Zsolnay_Analyzing_Constructs_A_Selection_of_Perils_Pitfalls_and_Progressions_in_Interrogating_Ancient_Near_Eastern_Gender
Drafts by Ilona Zsolnay
Introduction
Ilona Zsolnay (University of Pennsylvania)
1. Categorizing Men and Masculinity in Sumer
Joan Goodnick-Westenholz† and Ilona Zsolnay
2. Men Looking At Men: The Homoerotics of Power in the State Arts of Assyria
Julia Assante (Münster)
3. Wisdom of Former Days: The Manly Hittite King and Foolish Kumarbi, Father of the Gods
Mary R. Bachvarova (Willamette University)
4. Female trouble and troubled males: Roiled Seas, Decadent Royals, and Mesopotamian Masculinities in Myth and Practice
J. S. Cooper (Johns Hopkins)
5. Mapping Masculinities in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa
Simon Brodbeck (Cardiff University)
6. Mesopotamia Before and After Sodom: Colleagues, Crack Troops, Comrades-in-Arms
Ann K. Guinan (University of Pennsylvania) and Peter Morris (Philadelphia)
7. Shaved Beards and Bared Buttocks: Shame and the Undermining of Masculine Performance in Biblical Texts
Hilary Lipka (University of New Mexico)
8. Happy is the Man who Fills His Quiver with Them (Ps. 127:5): Constructions of Masculinities in the Psalms
Marc Brettler (Duke University)
9. Relative Masculinities in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martti Nissinen (University of Helsinki)
10. The Masculinity of Male Angels on the Make: Genesis 6:1-4 in Early Nineteenth Century Gothic Imagination
Steven W. Holloway (James Madison University)
To appear in:
Seen Not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts. Ed. Ilona Zsolnay (Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2022).
together in this volume. In its pages, these contributors incorporate into their analyses methods more commonly used in linguistics and semiotics, communication studies, art historical analysis, and traditional philology to new ends in order to form original trajectories of inquiry. Each contribution either lays bare explicit exploitation of visuality in scribal production as a means to cement power, reveal the mystical, induce humor, or expose clandestine views or it locates implicit knowledge schemes and cultural maps underlying and informing these same productions. The pioneering investigations presented in Seen Not Heard reveal that although writing may be heard, the fact that it can also be seen affects its reception and therefore the meaning of any transported phonological units.
Part I: Experiential Writing
1. Text in Context: Relief and Hierarchy on Piedras Negras Panel 3. Claudia Brittenham
2. The Iconicity of the Vertical: Hieroglyphic Encoding and the Akhet in Royal Burial Chambers of
Egypt's New Kingdom. Joshua Aaron Roberson
3. For the Eye Only: Aspects of the Visual Text in Ancient Egypt. Andréas Stauder
Part II: Classifiers
4. Animal Categorization in Mesopotamia and the Origins of Natural Philosophy. Gebhard J. Selz
5. Was There an "Animal" in Ancient Egypt? Studies in Lexica and Classifier Systems, with a
Glimpse toward Sumer and Ancient China. Orly Goldwasser
6. The Cognitive Role of Semantic Classifiers in Modern Chinese Writing as Reflected in Neogram
Creation. Zev Handel
7. Iconic and Grammatical Dimensions of Sign Language Classifiers. Diane Brentari
Part III: Script Evolutions
8. Encounters between Scripts in Bronze Age Asia Minor. Elisabeth Rieken and Ilya Yakubovich
9. Iconicity, Composition, and Semantics: A Structural Investigation of Pictures in an Early Writing
Environment. Holly Pittman
10. Ava and ABb, a Memoir—or, The Curious Case of Niĝin/Nanše Signification. Ilona Zsolnay
Part IV: Response
11. On the Visual Presentation of Writing. Wang Haicheng
Introduction
Ilona Zsolnay (University of Pennsylvania)
1. Categorizing Men and Masculinity in Sumer
Joan Goodnick Westenholz and Ilona Zsolnay
2. Men Looking At Men: The Homoerotics of Power in the State Arts of Assyria
Julia Assante (Münster)
3. Wisdom of Former Days: The Manly Hittite King and Foolish Kumarbi, Father of the Gods
Mary R. Bachvarova (Willamette University)
4. Female trouble and troubled males: Roiled Seas, Decadent Royals, and Mesopotamian Masculinities in Myth and Practice
J. S. Cooper (Johns Hopkins University)
5. Mapping Masculinities in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa
Simon Brodbeck (Cardiff University)
6. Mesopotamia Before and After Sodom: Colleagues, Crack Troops, Comrades-in-Arms
Ann K. Guinan (University of Pennsylvania) and Peter Morris (Philadelphia)
7. Shaved Beards and Bared Buttocks: Shame and the Undermining of Masculine Performance in Biblical Texts
Hilary Lipka (University of New Mexico)
8. Happy is the Man who Fills His Quiver with Them (Ps. 127:5): Constructions of Masculinities in the Psalms
Marc Brettler (Duke University)
9. Relative Masculinities in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martti Nissinen (University of Helsinki)
10. The Masculinity of Male Angels on the Make: Genesis 6:1-4 in Early Nineteenth Century Gothic Imagination
Steven W. Holloway (James Madison University)
EDITORIAL BOARD
Ilona Zsolnay, University of Pennsylvania;
Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago;
Davina Lopez, Eckerd College; and,
Todd Penner, Austin College
Ken Stone, Chicago Theological Seminary
Participant list:
Diane Brentari
Claudia Brittenham
Orly Goldwasser and Gebhard Selz
Zev Handel
Guolong Lai
Piotr Michalowski
Holly Pittman
Elisabeth Rieken & Ilya Yakubovich
Joshua Roberson
Andréas Stauder
David Stuart
Christopher Woods
Ilona Zsolnay
Respondents:
Jerry Cooper
Haicheng Wang
From the Director:
"Similarly Ilona Zsolnay’s article “Seen, not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts” describes our thirteenth annual post-doctoral conference. This international workshop focused on a different way of seeing logosyllabic writing systems across the ancient world. Writing reflects spoken language. But, at the same time it functions as a visual system of communication, where elements of script, context, and interaction with iconographic elements can convey meanings that go far beyond the core function of representing spoken words." (News & Notes, Summer Issue, p. 2)
The contributors to this collection include both established and up-and-coming scholars whose work brings gender studies theories—from Butler’s theory of gender as a performance to more recent theories that consider gender as a spectrum—to bear on varied materials and contexts. Their essays increase the visibility of women in ancient history, untangle constructions of masculinity and femininity in diverse contexts, and grapple with big-picture questions, such as the suitability of applying third-wave or postfeminist theories to the ancient Near East. Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East points to a need for—and provides a model of—a more productive agenda for gender studies in furthering our understanding of ancient Near Eastern societies.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Julia M. Asher-Greve, Stephanie Lynn Budin, Megan Cifarelli, M. Érica Couto-Ferreira, Amy Rebecca Gansell, Katrien De Graef, Amélie Kuhrt, Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper, Brigitte Lion, Natalie N. May, Beth Alpert Nakhai, Martti Nissinen, Omar N’Shea, María Rosa Oliver, Frances Pinnock, Eleonora Ravenna, Allison Karmel Thomason, Luciana Urbano, Niek Veldhuis, and Ilona Zsolnay.
This talk was published as "Analyzing Constructs: A Selection of Perils, Pitfalls, and Progressions in Interrogating Ancient Near Eastern Gender." In Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East (Eisenbrauns, 2018). Editors: Saana Svärd and Agnes Garcia-Ventura.
PDF:
https://www.academia.edu/37119533/Zsolnay_Analyzing_Constructs_A_Selection_of_Perils_Pitfalls_and_Progressions_in_Interrogating_Ancient_Near_Eastern_Gender
Introduction
Ilona Zsolnay (University of Pennsylvania)
1. Categorizing Men and Masculinity in Sumer
Joan Goodnick-Westenholz† and Ilona Zsolnay
2. Men Looking At Men: The Homoerotics of Power in the State Arts of Assyria
Julia Assante (Münster)
3. Wisdom of Former Days: The Manly Hittite King and Foolish Kumarbi, Father of the Gods
Mary R. Bachvarova (Willamette University)
4. Female trouble and troubled males: Roiled Seas, Decadent Royals, and Mesopotamian Masculinities in Myth and Practice
J. S. Cooper (Johns Hopkins)
5. Mapping Masculinities in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa
Simon Brodbeck (Cardiff University)
6. Mesopotamia Before and After Sodom: Colleagues, Crack Troops, Comrades-in-Arms
Ann K. Guinan (University of Pennsylvania) and Peter Morris (Philadelphia)
7. Shaved Beards and Bared Buttocks: Shame and the Undermining of Masculine Performance in Biblical Texts
Hilary Lipka (University of New Mexico)
8. Happy is the Man who Fills His Quiver with Them (Ps. 127:5): Constructions of Masculinities in the Psalms
Marc Brettler (Duke University)
9. Relative Masculinities in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Martti Nissinen (University of Helsinki)
10. The Masculinity of Male Angels on the Make: Genesis 6:1-4 in Early Nineteenth Century Gothic Imagination
Steven W. Holloway (James Madison University)
To appear in:
Seen Not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts. Ed. Ilona Zsolnay (Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2022).
ILONA ZSOLNAY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION. ILONA ZSOLNAY
SECTION ONE: EXPERIENTIAL WRITING
CHAPTER ONE. TEXT IN CONTEXT: RELIEF AND HIERARCHY ON PIEDRAS NEGRAS PANEL 3
CLAUDIA BRITTENHAM, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
CHAPTER TWO. THE ICONICITY OF THE VERTICAL: HIEROGLYPHIC ENCODING
AND THE AKHET IN ROYAL BURIAL CHAMBERS OF EGYPT’S NEW KINGDOM
JOSHUA ROBERSON, UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
CHAPTER THREE. FOR THE EYE ONLY: ASPECTS OF THE VISUAL TEXT IN ANCIENT EGYPT
ANDRÉAS STAUDER, ÉCOLE PRATIQUE DES HAUTES ÉTUDES, UNIVERSITÉ PARIS SCIENCES ET LETTRES (UMR 8167 AOROC)
SECTION TWO: CLASSIFIERS
CHAPTER FOUR. ANIMAL CATEGORIZATION IN MESOPOTAMIA AND THE ORIGINS OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
GEBHARD SELZ, VIENNA UNIVERSITY
CHAPTER FIVE. WAS THERE AN “ANIMAL” IN ANCIENT EGYPT? STUDIES IN LEXICA AND CLASSIFIER SYSTEMS, WITH A GLIMPSE TOWARDS SUMER
ORLY GOLDWASSER, HEBREW UNIVERSITY
CHAPTER SIX. THE COGNITIVE ROLE OF SEMANTIC CLASSIFIERS IN MODERN CHINESE WRITING
AS REFLECTED IN NEOGRAM CREATION
ZEV HANDEL, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE
CHAPTER SEVEN. ICONIC AND GRAMMATICAL DIMENSIONS OF SIGN LANGUAGE CLASSIFIERS
DIANE BRENTARI, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
SECTION THREE: SCRIPT EVOLUTIONS
CHAPTER EIGHT. ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN SCRIPTS IN BRONZE AGE ASIA MINOR
ELISABETH RIEKEN AND ILYA YAKUBOVICH, UNIVERSITY OF MARBURG
CHAPTER NINE. ICONICITY, COMPOSITION AND SEMANTICS:
A STRUCTURAL INVESTIGATION OF PICTURES IN AN EARLY WRITING ENVIRONMENT
HOLLY PITTMAN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
CHAPTER TEN. ABa AND ABb, A MEMOIR, OR THE CURIOUS CASE OF NIĜIN/NANŠE SIGNIFICATION
ILONA ZSOLNAY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SECTION FOUR: RESPONSE
HAICHENG WANG, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE