Figurines in Hellenistic Babylonia

"This book is a material culture study, with strong roots in both anthropology (particularly theories of miniaturization and human engagement, as well as the reconstruction of embodied subjectivities) and art history (with focus on iconography, formal properties, and visual engagement). Evidence of archaeological context, beyond the broad contextual information of city/site of discovery, is not taken heavily into account. The reason for this is, simply, that contextual information for these figurines is often problematic. Many were unearthed in the early twentieth century, when archaeological context was not well documented. Small finds from the late periods of Mesopotamian history, a category that includes Hellenistic-era figurines, were not particularly valued or well recorded. Due to their presence in some of the last levels of occupation prior to site abandonment, many were surface finds. Even when meticulous archaeological investigation took place, as in the recent Italian excavations at Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, difficulties with determining context or precise chronology were still common. Primary among those difficulties is that most figurines seem not to have been considered particularly valuable or sacred by their ancient users, and so could be disposed of in domestic refuse or reused - thus the final deposition context of a figurine is often not where it was originally used as a figural object. Other scholars have made valiant attempts to grapple with these archaeological issues; for instance, Roberta Menegazzi's 2014 catalogue of the Seleucia-on-the-Tigris figurines deftly explores these complexities and offers many valuable interpretations"--