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 Temporal Communities, 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 Aionanei, Maria Gabriella Micale, Anastasia Amrhein, Sarah Graff, Elisabeth Katzy, Alexander Pruß, Angelika Walther

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)