Sensing The Past: Sensory Experiences In Ancient Mesopotamia

Sensing The Past: Sensory Experiences In Ancient Mesopotamia

AIA Society: Finger Lakes (Ithaca)
Lecturer: Allison Karmel Thomason

We are all sensing people, and the basic physical structure of our sensing organs has not changed for many thousands of years. But how did ancient humans perceive and experience sensory stimuli in their environment differently than we do today?  Dr. Thomason sets out to explore this topic for the ancient Mesopotamians in particular.  The history of the senses and explorations of sensory experiences in the ancient world have been increasingly the focus of scholarly research. Archaeologists, art historians and textual scholars have tried to recreate past sensory environments and experiences by using evidence from images, artifacts and ancient texts of all kinds.  In this presentation where the audience can sense along the way, Dr. Thomason, a specialist in ancient Mesopotamian material culture, explores how ancient Mesopotamian perceptions of sensory experiences can be compared to our own modern ones, with sometimes surprising results.

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