Tracing Technoscapes

de Johannes Becker, Johannes Jungfleisch, Constance von Rüden

Colourful surface treatments form an integral element of vernacular and élite architecture of ancient societies. This is also true for the various regions of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd millennium B.C.E., where elaborate wall paintings furnished temples, tombs, palatial buildings, and in general more elaborate houses. From a present-day perspective, these rich images provide invaluable insights into past realities as well as interconnections between different visual systems. However, beyond stunning images, the materiality of wall paintings implicates a whole range of specific technical choices and gestures executed during the artistic process. The bodies of knowledge immanent in the practice of plaster and pigment preparation, in the application of paint and in the conception and execution of compositions allow us to compare the wall painting corpora of the Eastern Mediterranean on a technical level and to trace differences and similarities in a cross-cultural perspective.