Imagining the Divine: Art in Religions of Late Antiquity across Eurasia: 234 (British Museum Research Publications)

This groundbreaking volume brings together scholars of the art and archaeology of late antiquity (c. 200-1000), across cultures and regions reaching from India to Iberia, to discuss how objects can inform our understanding of religions.During this period major transformations are visible in the production of religious art and in the relationships between people and objects in religious contexts across the ancient world.These shifts in behaviour and formalising of iconographies are visible in art associated with numerous religious traditions including, but not limited to, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, religions of the Roman Empire, and paganism in northern Europe.Studies of these religions and their material culture, however, have been shaped by Eurocentric and post-Reformation Christian frameworks that prioritised Scripture and minimised the capacity of images and objects to hold religious content.Despite recent steps to incorporate objects, much aca