Mesopotamia. Kingdom of gods and demons

Presentation of a research project as part of the "Jeudis de la Maison Suger", a residents' research seminar.

Zoltan Niederreiter has been a lecturer at ELTE Budapest since 2013. From 2007 to 2012 he was assistant professor at ELTE Budapest. He holds a degree in Advanced Studies from the University of Paris VIII. He has worked on History and Knowledge of Civilizations, specializing in the Ancient Near East (2005).

Presentation of the project

"This presentation will focus on the theme of the temporary exhibition that opened in October 2024 at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. Zoltán Niederreiter, curator of the exhibition “Mesopotamia. Kingdom of Gods and Demons”, will present the figures of Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian deities and the works of art that represent them. His main source of information is cylinder seals, whose rich iconography he studies. One of the most important collections of these objects is at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, where he has been conducting his research since 2008. The second part of this presentation will be devoted to the iconography of seals and the documentation of their representations. On the one hand, the methods used to print, photograph and illustrate seals will be presented; on the other, Zoltán Niederreiter will outline the rich visual world conveyed by seals, which leads us into the world of the gods."

Speakers

• Zoltan Niederreiter is an assistant professor at ELTE Budapest.
• Bertrand Lafont: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Mathilde Avisseau-Broustet, in charge of antique and objets d'art collections ; Bibliothèque nationale de France