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[German Version] I. Ancient to Pre-Roman Times – II. From Roman Times I. Ancient to Pre-Roman Times From its earliest beginnings, ancient art reflected the central role of the hand in sign language. Hands were raised in prayer, incantation, greeting, blessing, and in delivering a blow. Hands were raised in entreaty and in mourning, or were thrown in the air in triumph. Hostility was averted with an extended hand and fingers or the fist. Parties to a contract shook the right hand as a sign of binding commitment…

[German Version] I. Ancient Near East and Ancient Art – II. Christian Art I. Ancient Near East and Ancient Art Shepherds and their flocks were variously depicted in ancient cultures from the 3rd millennium bce…

[German Version] I. Old Testament The motif of the tree of life (םייִּחַהַ ץעֵ/ ʿeṣ haḥayyîm), a variation of the idea of the “sacred tree” that appears in Canaanite, Mesopotamian and Egyptian texts, and also in the Indo-…

[German Version] I. Ancient Near Eastern Art – II. Greco-Roman Art – III. Christian Art I. Ancient Near Eastern Art The earliest datable representations of animals in ancient Near Eastern art stem from the Mesolithic Period, and the oldest representations of the human form fr…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The sun is omnipresent; in the phenomenal world, it marks and accentuates the course of our chronological and spatial lifeworld. The range of associated structures, interpretations, and ambivalences (light and dark, life-giving and life-consuming) mak…