Monday 14th April 2008
Dr Diana L. Stein (Birkbeck College, University of London)
THE BIBLICAL TREE OF KNOWLEDGE: REFLECTIONS FROM THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
Described as a source of beauty, food and knowledge, the biblical Tree of Knowledge is commonly portrayed as an apple tree in both literature and art. The Hebrew Bible was first compiled in Babylon in the 6th century BC. Like many of the narratives it contains, the story of Adam and Eve draws upon existing Near Eastern visual and literary conventions to address the overriding issues and concerns of the time. This lecture focuses on two of these conventions, the so-called Winged Disk and Sacred Tree, both widely disseminated in the first millennium BC as imperial symbols of the Assyrian Empire. Tracing the background of these two symbols leads us to the highland cultures beyond Mesopotamia and back to the Stone Age. A new interpretation of their original contexts, based in part on palaeobotany and recent neuro-psychological research, suggests that the Tree of Knowledge was a fruit tree of a very different kind and that behind the story of Man's Fall from Grace lies a controversy that is as alive today as it was in ancient times.
Dr Diana Stein specializes in the cultures of the Bronze Age. Her publications include books and articles on the iconography and use of cylinder seals, Hurrian material culture and mythology and Bronze Age chronology. She lectures on ancient Near Eastern archaeology at Oxford University and the University of London.
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