Implementing Meanings: The Power of the Copy Between Past, Present and Future. An Overview from the Ancient Near East

For the first time, this book is focused on the topic of 'Copy' and its different connotations in ancient Near Eastern material culture: marker of social identity, medium with ideological and ritual purposes, educational and learning tool, product of technical achievements. At the same time, however, other flexible, dynamic and process-related aspects are examined: from the modern reproduction of artefacts for museum collections to stimulate public awareness, and appreciation of antiquity to the digitisation of archaeological artefacts to motivate personal experiences.The case-studies presented here explore different narrations resulting from 'copied' artefacts, thus promoting the culture of the copy and its transformative role in the ancient Near East. Copies assure value and continuity. Originality and uniqueness have been experienced making copies. Thus, an a world characterised by the reduction of the value of the distinction between unique and multiple, copying is able to convert the transitory into the timeless.