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During a survey in Peceneaga, Tulcea county in Dobruja, several settlements and mounds (necropolises) from the 4th century were discovered. Topographic and geophysical surveys of the “Breazu tumulus” and its surroundings have revealed a partially destroyed tumular necropolis, where the barrow with the statue had a stone ring. The presence of a burial chamber below the embankment could not be proven; another burial structure was probably present. On the largest tumulus lay a Scythian stone statue from the 4th century BC. The bearded left-handed warrior was represented with a belt, a gorythos and protective armor on his right thigh. In this time the North Pontic Scythians under Ataias, migrating westward, became increasingly sedentary. A Scythian center of power may have emerged there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worship of baetyls in antiquity is well documented in the Near East and the Mediterranean, archaeologically as well as historically. While such practices were also common in South‐East Arabia, the archaeological information on it is still very limited. A boulder carved with a ‘trident’ (a mark familiar from local Abiel coin issues), which came to light at the site of Mleiha, has a circular cavity on the side similar to those visible on stones and on an eagle statue from contemporary ed‐Dur. This association suggests a religious context for the Mleiha petroglyph and, thus, a possible identification as a baetyl. The archaeological evidence for stone worship and associated cult practices from the SE‐Arabian Mleiha/PIR A‐C period (3rd century bce–3rd century ce) is reviewed and compared with ethnographic parallels and information from, among other sources, the Kitāb al‐aṣnām (Book of Idols) by Hishām ibn al‐Kalbī (737–819 ce). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every football statue transcends mere physical representation; it stands as a public monument constructed to commemorate and honor specific subjects. The football statue involves an intricate interplay of communication factors and functions, potentially transforming into a message imbued with encyclopedic signs to serve its communicative purposes. Importantly, the football statue, as a communication phenomenon, extends beyond a simple semiotic relation between the statue and a viewer. We must also consider the addresser's intentions, including strategies for engaging the viewer as an addressee. This duality involves referencing both historical and spatial contexts (the physical environment) beyond the message itself. And various semiotic means – also poetic – capture the viewer's attention and maintain contact. We understand the semiotics of football statues from the perspectives of Eco (encyclopedia, intentio auctoris, model reader), Jakobson (communication model), Peirce (icon, index, symbol, collateral experience), and Barthes (relay, anchorage). Our analytical descriptions/examples solely concern UK statuary after an examination of 89 statues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In what way might public statues wrong people? In recent years, philosophers have drawn on speech act theory to answer this question by arguing that statues constitute harmful or disrespectful forms of speech. My aim in this paper will be add a different theoretical perspective to this discussion. I will argue that while the speech act approach provides a useful starting point for thinking about what is wrong with public statues, we can get a fuller understanding of these wrongs by drawing on resources from recent work in situated affectivity. I will argue that public statues can be understood as affective artifacts and that this can both help us understand both the deep affective wrongs caused by public statues and offer a possible explanation as to why some people are so strongly opposed to their removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on my talk given at the occasion of the unveiling of the statue of Albert Einstein at the entrance of the Physics Department of the University of Havana, on March 27, 2024. It deals with some facets of Einstein's life and work, including aspects of his human and social character, as well as some lesser-known points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late nineteenth century, female adherents of the Delsartean physical culture movement in the USA would perform statue poses as part of their training and public appearances, employing both male and female statues in their work. This article positions this practice within seventeenth‐ and eighteenth‐century historical trajectories of the visual, rhetorical and performing arts and the allegorical meanings that prior generations had mapped onto the bodies of these works of art. This article argues that the Delsartean ‘law of correspondence’ equating internal states with external expression allowed their statue posing to serve as a tacit statement of gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal figures have been a subject of art for ages. However, dinosaurs, which are extinct animals, were included in art history relatively recently. The first fossils were discovered in the early 1800s in England, sparking increased interest in these creatures. Dinosaurs were introduced to art history through sculpture, with sculptures installed in public parks to depict their appearance. As a result, the image of dinosaurs was created through the art of sculpture and painting. This intersection of science and art has once again emphasized the importance of sculpture. The concept of dinosaurs permeates various aspects of our lives, from playgrounds to the film industry. This study endeavors to elucidate a topic that often eludes attention yet persists within the realm of sculpture art. Through this endeavor, the aim is to augment the scholarly discourse within the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a good chance that “each critic becomes a Pygmalion” (as Leo Curran put it) when they bring the work of art to life in their narcissistic (and almost amorous) attention, unfolding its meaning so that they should be able to write their own interpretation. The starting point of the present text is the perfection of sculptural forms, and the author discusses “traditional” aesthetic concepts: the beautiful and the sublime along with the difference and interplay of the two qualities, bearing in mind their variations and relations. The framework is provided by the occurrence of these two in the discourses on the self and taste in the eighteenth-century while the focus is on subjective criticism concerning the beautiful versus the sublime in the artistic and sensual experience of statues. Within the given framework, the author is planning to force Edmund Burke, stiffened by the experience of the sublime, and Winckelmann, softened by the sight of the Greek statues, into a dialogue on individual taste.

Cultural heritage is a central domain for key populist themes of threats to national identity and protection of ‘the majority’ against cosmopolitan, ‘wokist’ elites. The article explores how differing government discursive strategies towards populism influence heritage policies. It takes the case of contested public statues. In France, the government has adopted a discursive strategy of ‘patriotic Republicanism’ that reduced the discursive space for contestation and policy has remained largely unchanged. But in Britain and Hungary, governments have increasingly adopted populist discourses, leading to countervailing discursive coalitions, contestation and change in agendas and decisions in both populist and non-populist directions. The proposition developed is that national governments pursuing populist discursive strategies triggers anti-populist discursive coalitions, with contestation and changes in agendas, institutions and individual decisions. Conversely, governments developing their own nationalistic discourses reduces the scope for populist ones but also leads to freezing of existing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2009 and 2011, the Kurdish sculptor Hadî Ziaoddînî created a statue of poet Mestûre Erdalan (1805–1847), in the city of Sine (Sanandaj, Iranian Kurdistan or Rojhelat). A woman standing, carrying a book in her hand, the figure of Mestûre is unique in the Islamic Republic of Iran. She is not wearing the obligatory hijab but a Kurdish kofî. This paper presents the evolving representation and reception of Mestûre, the first Kurdish female poet and chronicler. The existing research on heritage in Iran focuses mainly on the policies of Pahlavi and Islamic regimes, tourism and conservation. This paper reveals the dissonant heritage-making that inspires Kurdish ethnic and national identity and the empowerment of women in Iran. The latter gained momentum, especially after the killing of the Kurdish woman, Jîna (Mahsa) Amînî, by the morality police in 2022. The multi-layered heritage performance engages identity politics, artistic creation and the new practice of visiting the statue of Mestûre. Starting from Ziaoddînî’s work as the focal point of discussion, the study identifies various links between the statue and other artistic products, as well as investigates the contemporary relationship between Mestûre and the inhabitants of Sine. The relationship is mediated by the sculpture and the moral imagination it stirs in empowering Kurdish women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a product of the first complete survey of British public representational monuments in the U.K. related to transatlantic slavery, available online at . Identifying over 900 monuments, it brings this survey to bear on current public and policy debates about such monuments' history, significance and meaning vis-à-vis slavery, art and heritage. Examining the monuments at scale, we identify the monuments' patterns of production and provide data-led answers to specific questions such as what Britain's most significant monumental legacies of slavery are; how enslaved people appear in British public monuments; and how this data might support rethinking these monuments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the publication of a new stela of the Chief Treasurer Maya from the time of Tutankhamun-Horemheb, with a long hymn to the rising sun. The stela, which was in the possession of Linant de Bellefonds, is only known through a handwritten copy by Auguste Mariette. There is no doubt that it comes from Maya's tomb in Saqqara. The stela shows Maya standing before the deities Atum and Re-Horakhty. The lower part of the stela consists of 20 lines of hieroglyphic text, with the last 3 lines almost completely destroyed. The text consists of two parts: lines 1-8, a hymn to the rising sun, and lines 8 and following, a concluding prayer with a list of blessings that the speaker, Maya, hopes to receive from the sun god. The hymn is an original composition or variation, while the prayer is based on the composer's personal oral improvisation. There are parallels to other inscriptions from the time of Amenhotep III to the end of the dynasty, but the arrangement is unique. The exact meaning of some passages remains uncertain. The Linant stela dates from the New Kingdom and is the only known source from this period. It is the counterpart to a limestone stela that was originally placed on the south side of the west wall of the portico in the outer courtyard of Maya's tomb in Saqqara. The stela was discovered together with three statues and a block in the Leiden National Museum of Antiquities. It is believed that the stela was found before the Lepsius expedition, which explored the tomb in the 1840s. The stela contains hymns to the sun god Re-Horakhty and the night sun god Osiris. The given list includes a number of books and articles on various topics related to ancient Egypt. The mentioned works deal with topics such as Egyptian religion, hieroglyphs, tombs, and texts from the New Kingdom. Various authors and their works are also listed. The list does not provide cohesive information or a main focus, but serves as a reference for further research in the field of Egyptology. The text describes various scientific publications and research in the field of Egyptian archaeology. Various topics are covered, including excavations in Saqqara, the representation of the afterlife in ancient Egypt, and the significance of inscriptions and reliefs. Specific artifacts and tombs are also mentioned, such as the stela of Maya and the tomb of Kheruef. The publications come from different years and were written by different authors. [Extracted from the article]

We study art markets in the Greco-Roman world to explore the origins of artistic innovations in classical Greece and the mass production of imitative works in the Roman Empire. Economic factors may have played a role, on one side fostering product innovations when a few rival Greek city-states competed, outbidding each other to obtain higher-quality artworks, and on the other side fostering process innovations when a large integrated market promoted art trade across the Mediterranean Sea. The evidence on art prices is consistent with this. Literary evidence on classical Greek painting from V–III centuries BC (largely from Pliny the Elder) shows that the real price of masterpieces increased up to the peak of creativity reached with Apelles. Epigraphic evidence on Roman sculpture from I–III centuries AD (largely from inscriptions at the base of statues) shows that the real price of statues was stable and largely equalized across the imperial provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the process that led to the erection in 1871 of the monument to Friedrich Schiller in the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. In the twelve years that passed between the conception of the monument and the unveiling, the project was dogged by disputes about its legitimacy and the form it should take. The undercurrent of these disputes was political, reflecting tensions between liberal and conservative opinion in the period. After tracing the history of the project, the article concludes with broader reflections on the place of public monuments in the commemorative culture of our own time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dutch colonizer Jan Pieterszoon Coen is remembered as a hero for establishing the spice monopoly and as a perpetrator who mass-killed the Bandanese population in 1621 in pursuit of that monopoly. After his statue in Hoorn fell off its pedestal in 2011, the municipality decided to restore it in disregard of protesters requesting the statue's relocation to Westfries Museum. As a compromise, the municipality granted the protest a voice by providing the statue with an updated inscription that acknowledges Coen's controversial legacy and an accompanying exhibition in Westfries Museum. In this essay, I will analyze these events as a conflict about the articulation of postcolonial memory: how should the colonial past be remembered? Through Olson's theory of legality and affect and Marcuse's theory of repressive tolerance, I will interpret this conflict as the negotiation of different legalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the juxtaposition of empires, exploring how linkages between and across varied imperial phenomena might work. Through the career of Harry Smith Parkes (1828–85), British minister to China, Japan and Korea, as well as almost forgotten stories of the British occupation of Geomundo or the Port Hamilton Affair (1885–87) in Korea, it aims to understand the interconnectedness of geopolitical regions and the work of global processes in trans-imperial contexts. Parkes is a controversial figure who played a key role in the relations between East Asia and the West from the 1850s until the 1880s. After he died in Beijing in 1885, his bust was unveiled in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. Meanwhile, in Shanghai, a bronze statue of Parkes was placed on its pedestal in 1890. While the monument to the British imperial past in China was removed by the Japanese during the Second World War, the white marble bust remains in metropolitan London, representing the imperial hero. British soldiers who died during the occupation and their gravesites in Korea, by contrast, have been largely forgotten in British imperial history. In the nineteenth century, Geomundo (Port Hamilton) was the international stage where five high-powered nations competed for political hegemony in East Asia. Now a British soldier cemetery in Geomundo History Park makes us consider the possibility of writing further trans- and inter-imperial histories beyond the silence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the collusion between colonialism and liberalism in Victorian Britain through the imperial statuary in St Paul's Cathedral. In particular, it examines the commemorative statues of colonial heroes from British India, with particular reference to the statues of James Napier, Henry Montgomery Lawrence and Samuel Browne: it places these figures in their historical context, explores their often conflicted relation to the East India Company and imperial rule in South Asia, and teases out the multiple intensities of meaning – personal, professional, ambivalent, messy – pulsing under these statues. A close examination of the statuary reveals the impulses and anxieties around the imperial male body that went into their making and how the marble both concealed and congealed these stories to produce sanitized versions of violence and empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on introductory psychology textbooks used in higher education abounds around the world. Although most studies focus on textbooks designed for students majoring in psychology, this paper looks into textbooks used for a compulsory undergraduate course on mental health and well-being in mainland China. Like in many other countries, Chinese students face mental and well-being issues and this course aims to support all undergraduate students in dealing with their own psychology rather than specialising in the subject. Based on an in-depth discourse analysis of two widely used textbooks published in Chinese for this course, the authors examine how the textbooks construct the university experiences of Chinese students. At the same time, the paper also delves into the ways different kinds of Chinese students are portrayed and the types of changes that they are said to experience at university. The foci of invisibility and selectivity from the field of textbook analysis help highlight generalising, stereotyping, and recourse to biases in the textbooks. Recommendations as to how such textbooks could be used to boost university students' mental health and well-being, while taking into account their diversity, are proposed at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socrates' official answer to Meno's question about the value of knowledge, near the end of Plato's Meno, is that knowledge is stable. I argue that both the answer and the question have been widely misunderstood. The question has been taken to be why knowing at a time is better than true belief at that time, and Socrates' answer has been taken to point to the greater persistence of knowledge over time. I argue instead that, given the broader context of the question and answer in the Meno, together with what Plato has to say about stability elsewhere, Meno's question is better understood as a more difficult question – and Socrates' answer as a good solution to it. This also involves arguing that Socrates' analogy to the statues of Daedalus is not intended as the simple illustration of Socrates' official answer for which commentators have taken it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study aims to examine the ratio decidendi which is the basis for the judge in issuing a decision in case No.160/G/2018/PTUN.SBY. In the litigation process, the ratio decidendi is an important aspect to determine whether the arguments of the lawsuit are rejected, granted, or partially granted. This research is included in the type of juridicalnormative research conducted with a statutory approach (statue approach) and a case study approach (case study). This research uses secondary legal sources from various laws and regulations relating to state administrative courts, as well as legal materials from books, journals, and other literature studies relevant to legal issues. The results showed that the Panel of Judges of PTUN Surabaya considered the settlement of the case by using 3 testing parameters, namely in terms of authority to issue, in terms of formal procedures for issuance and in terms of the material substance of the object of dispute. the results showed that the ratio decidendi of the judge in Decision No.160/G/2018/PTUN.SBY, including, among others, the authority of the defendant as a state official, the formal procedure of the mechanism for issuing the letter that became the object of dispute, and the formal substance of the lawsuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article analyzes the monument‐building and meaning‐making processes in the construction of the Statues of Peace erected to commemorate the Korean "Comfort Women." The tensions surrounding the erection of the Statues of Peace did not stop with their installation, as people then started to place different objects on the statues. This article uses actor‐network theory (ANT) to shed light on the formation that this has involved of a new representational and cultural politics. Methods: First, archival research was conducted to understand current issues involving both ANT and the Statues of Peace. Participant observations and semistructured interviews with NGOs were conducted. Results: I look at the afterlife of the Statues of Peace in cases involving not only destruction or restoration but also smaller acts of support or subversion. New material quality and meanings were formed by these actions. Conclusion: I show that ANT is a useful framework for understanding the representational complexity surrounding public monuments and their reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archetypal symbols of Mazu's statues and pictorial art are the mapping of a religious concept, a way of belief, and some programmed behaviours and rituals. They are also emotional imagery used to arouse the cultural awareness of international Chinese, inspire them to help and trust each other, to encourage and to comfort each other, to share weal and woe, and to always forge ahead. From the perspectives of historical memory, visual signs, and cultural identity, this paper explores the construction of archetypal symbols for the statues and images of Mazu. In addition, this paper generalizes the foundation and methods of this construction by analyzing the artistic forms and characteristics of the surviving Mazu images and statues and comparing the rules and regulations for making statues of other religions. Moreover, we consider the function of artistic signs that refer to and symbolize broader religious concepts and beliefs. The purpose of this work is to make the image of Mazu more visually present and strengthen cultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently mereological hylomorphism, the theory in which form and matter are considered to be proper parts of objects, has become very important among contemporary metaphysicians. The present work aims to analyse and dismantle Bennett's criticism regarding the existence of formal proper parts. To do this, I will start by presenting Koslicki's mereological hylomorphism. Next, I will focus on Bennett's critique which seeks to deny the existence of formal proper parts. Finally, I will analyse critically the Bennett's criticism focusing on the scenario of lump of clay and statue. I will show Bennett's proposal is not explanatorily better than Koslicki's hylomorphism because she needs to accept a counter-intuitive thesis. Therefore, we should prefer Koslicki's mereological hylomorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By transcribing, punctuating, and analyzing the Statue Construction Account undertaken in 798, this article attempts a refreshed study of the construction background of the Buddhist statues and niches at Huazhi Temple 花置寺 in Qionglai. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it brings to light an eminent monk named Sengcai, who has been forgotten in both secular and monastic histories. Secondly, it tries to clarify the social network formed by various figures recorded in the Statue Construction Account by tracing their roles and relationships in the course of constructing the Buddhist niches. The analysis of this article expounds that in the process of the statue construction project, Sengcai made full use of his social network to support this project and to seek protection for Huazhi Temple. The construction activities of the Buddhist niches at Huazhi Temple not only brought people of different identities together through politics, Buddhism, economics or kinship, but also connected Qiongzhou (in Sichuan) and the capital of Chang'an to the formation of a multi-identity and cross-regional network of power in which emperor, officials, monks, military generals, craftsmen, literati, and so on, participated and interacted with each other. The whole social network can be divided into two sub-networks in Chang'an and Qiongzhou, with Sengcai as the central figure connecting these two sub-networks. Although the Buddhist niches of Huazhi Temple were carved in Qiongzhou, both the decisive preparatory work and the composition of the Statue Construction Account took place in Chang'an. Hence, the power of the Chang'an sub-network was greater than that of the one based in Qiongzhou. This means that the Buddhist niches at Huazhi Temple from Sengcai's project were not merely a local project, but one that was strongly connected with the capital Chang'an in 798. Lastly, the Statue Construction Account in 798 at Huazhi Temple indicated mutual aid and support between Sichuan Buddhism and Chang'an Buddhism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American excavations of the interior of the Hephaisteion and its surroundings were published in 1941. We reexamine the findings, the evidence for the foundations, the original notebooks, and the previously unpublished context pottery, and conclude that the Temple of Hephaistos and Athena was constructed in two stages: the foundations were laid ca. 480 bce, and after a hiatus the superstructure was completed ca. 465-460 bce, with repairs after the earthquake of 426 bce. This article provides a new reconstruction of the interior space, finished without a colonnade, and with painted murals instead. The primary feature of the interior was the statue group, cult images of Athena and Hephaistos, made by Alkamenes of Lemnos and installed in 416/5 bce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should the theatrical fantasy of a statue coming to life involve an actor performing the role of a thing, or a prop taking the place of a human? Proceeding from contests between Hong Sheng 洪昇 (1645–1704) and acting troupes over the staging of the "Crying Statue" 哭像 (Kuxiang) scene in his dramatic masterpiece Palace of Lasting Life (Changsheng dian 長生殿), this article examines how the figure of the living icon became a focal point in broader struggles to conceptualize the relationship between theater and rituals of mourning. Actors staged this complicated scene as an "auspicious sacrifice" (jiji 吉祭), one that foregrounds the transcendence of love over lifeless matter. Hong, conversely, insists on the function of the scene as an "unpropitious rite" (xiongdian 凶奠), a solemn meditation on mortality and the collective expression of grief. By redirecting focus from the object to the space and social dynamics of mourning, Hong questions the drive to bestow on things a life that is not their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the concept of multidimensional heritage to examine colonial statues in Africa since the era of independences through transnational, diachronic, and multi-thematical perspectives. Colonial statues are viewed as transnational phenomena, with a focus on the African continent, emphasising the complex and evolving connections to former colonial powers in Europe. To capture the complexity of heritage uses, which is often best comprehended over an extended period, a diachronic approach is employed, and three periods are considered: colonial statues at independence (1950s to 1980); revival of (neo)colonial statues (1990s-2000s) and renewed contestations (since the 2010s). The paper also delves into various ways in which the past is used and interpreted through colonial statues, discussing aspects such as public memory, identities, diplomacy, aid, and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]