Considering Roman art as a cumulative process could help resolve a small iconographical problem. Cubiculum N in the burial hypogeum under the Via Dino Compagni in Rome (c.350–75 ce) features a series of figure scenes referencing the exploits of the mythological hero Hercules. One of these scenes, presently entitled Hercules Slaying an Unknown Enemy, has no direct equivalent in extant Roman art and so has proved difficult to identify. This article suggests that Hercules’ battle with Cacus is most likely the incident referred to here. This is because Antonine medallions and coins, and third-century Roman sarcophagi, use imagery associated with the Cacus story that collectively could have contributed to the design of the Unknown Enemy panel. Further, identifying the defeated enemy as Cacus fits in with, and indeed helps to clarify, programmatic themes and associations already established in the other figure scenes in this funerary chamber.

Archaeological research on the architecture and sculpture of Tiwanaku society in the south-central Andes follows two separate paths: one emphasizes iconographic interpretation, whereas the other studies lithic materials’ origin and spatial relations. This separation, stemming from dualistic modern thought, is an obstacle to a comprehensive understanding of lithic sculptures and their role in Tiwanaku society. This article focuses on the Ponce and Bennett monoliths, the two largest and most complex sculptures of the Tiwanaku ceremonial center. It presents the results of an iconographic analysis identifying minimal design components ordered in a three-level nested hierarchy and their distribution over the spatial structures of both sculptures. This analysis incorporates existing information about lithic materials and quarries, the monoliths’ locations, and spatial relationships. All those data are interpreted in the light of Aymara and Quechua ontologies about the relationships between mountains, stones, and images. Characterizing aspects of the Tiwanaku site and its role in lithic production, this article extends the limits of Tiwanaku society to include nonhuman agents and suggests that we overcome anthropocentric biases.

L'articolo indaga le immagini di famiglia sui monumenti funerari della Venetia, concentrate per lo più nel corso dell'età giulio-claudia, anche incrociando le informazioni epigrafiche e integrando l'analisi con elaborazioni quantitative. Si registra una certa codificazione del significato parentale, che emerge dallo schema iconografico e viene ribadito dai gesti, mentre abiti e oggetti aiutavano a caratterizzare il singolo ritratto. Non si riconosce una consistente alterazione del significato dell'immagine in base al contesto sociale o alla premorienza di alcuni membri della famiglia. L'analisi permette di comprendere quali fossero le tendenze trasversali su cui la committenza agiva per ritrarre il proprio nucleo domestico, dialogando con il contesto geografico e culturale di appartenenza e sintetizzando la realtà familiare del mondo dei vivi per creare un modello iconico per la comunità dei morti.

2020 saw the celebration of significant anniversaries connected with several medieval English saints, led most notably by the triple anniversary of the birth (1120), death (1170) and translation (1220) of St Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury (1162–70, canonised 1173). This offered scholars an occasion to review and revisit important aspects of the documentary sources and material culture relating to the saints’ cults in England and across Europe. The celebrations of St Thomas Becket also coincided with the 700th anniversary of the canonisation of St Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford (1275–82, canonised 1320). Renewed scholarly interest in Cantilupe’s posthumous cult has particularly offered insights into daily life and devotion in late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century England and Wales. Likewise, it has recently been demonstrated that, in the wake of the Cantilupe cult at Hereford Cathedral, a period of intense church building occurred throughout the diocese. This paper is the first to assemble and publish a comprehensive catalogue of all known lost and surviving iconographical images of Cantilupe from the Middle Ages. More significantly, keeping the 2020 celebrations of both the Becket and Cantilupe cults in mind, this paper is the first to bring attention to all the examples of medieval iconography that associate England’s two Thomases, demonstrating how Becket was utilised as a model of sanctity par excellence with Cantilupe presented as a ‘second Becket’.

During the Late Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic, societies across the Levant transformed their social, cultural and economic organisation, with new forms of food production, architecture and material culture. But to what extent were regional developments connected and how, in particular, did ideas and objects flow between the most southern and northern reaches of Southwest Asia? Finds from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of WF16 in southern Jordan resonate with those from Göbekli Tepe and other sites hundreds of kilometres to the north. Emphasising shared symbolism and ideology, the authors explore how connections may have arisen and how they were maintained, revealing expansive social networks spanning Southwest Asia that underpinned the emergence of farming.

This article presents an example of ceramic circulation and exchange networks in the southern Andean region during the first centuries AD, derived from the study of the production, circulation, and consumption of the pottery assemblages found in the villages of Cardonal and Bordo Marcial, located in the Cajón Valley in Catamarca, Argentina. Our analysis of the technical, morphological, and design aspects of the ceramics suggested six morphological groups using three representation techniques and 16 paste recipes; we also found that locally manufactured vessels were used together with ceramics of nonlocal origin in similar domestic contexts. In addition, the foreign ceramic materials suggest that there were networks of interaction between Cardonal and Bordo Marcial and other regions, such as the southern Puna, the Hualfín Valley, the Rosario-Lerma Basin, and the San Francisco Valley in northwestern Argentina.

La comunidad indígena Dojura (Emberá-Chamí) en Colombia está olvidando su iconografía tradicional, debido a que perdieron el contacto con sus territorios ancestrales por diferentes eventos de desplazamiento forzado. Por ello, se propuso construir una metodología de recuperación de símbolos a partir del modelo SECI (Socialización, Exteriorización, Combinación e Interiorización) de Nonaka, con lo cual, se espera lograr una sistematización de signos y a su vez una resignificación en la comunidad de modo que su cosmogonía en los territorios que habitan actualmente, les permita obtener sentido de pertenencia con su entorno. El trabajo llevado a cabo permite mostrar cómo a través de la sistematización de esta experiencia y con distintos ejercicios de generación de conocimiento, es posible recuperar los símbolos y permitir que haya un proceso de aprendizaje en la comunidad, como parte de los procesos de salvaguarda de la práctica cultural del tejido en chaquira.

Processual models of the early state envisioned hierarchical societies with stable social and political structures. More recent research, however, has questioned this vision. Here, the authors explore Middle Horizon (AD 700–1000) Wari state iconography to provide an example of early state social and political organisation from the Central Andes. Social network analysis (SNA) of human figures (‘agents’) depicted in Wari art identifies links between individual agents, as visualised on objects and between the objects’ findspots. The results suggest that the Wari state was more heterarchical than previously imagined. Similar applications of SNA could be used to explore the iconographic evidence of other early, pre-literate states around the world.