Tiny and the Fragmented

Miniature and fragmentary objects are both eye-catching and yet easily dismissed. Tiny scale entices users with visions of Lilliputian worlds. The ambiguity of fragments intrigues us, offering tactile reminders of reality's transience. Yet, the standard scholarly approach to such objects has been to see them as secondary, incomplete things, whose principal purpose was to refer to a complete and often life-size whole.The Tiny and the Fragmented offers a series of fresh perspectives on the familiar concepts of the tiny and the fragmented. Written by a prestigious group of internationally-acclaimed scholars, the volume presents a remarkable diversity of case studies that range from Neolithic Europe to pre-Colombian Honduras to the classical Mediterranean and ancient Near East. Each scholar takes a different approach to issues of miniaturization and fragmentation but is united in considering thelittle and broken things of the past as objects in their own right. Whether a life-size or whole thing is made in a scaled-down form, deliberately broken as part of its use, or only considered successful in the eyes of ancient users if it shows some signs of wear, it challenges our expectations ofrepresentation and wholeness, of what it means for a work of art to be "finished" and "affective." Overall, The Tiny and the Fragmented demands a reconsideration of the social and contextual nature of miniaturization, fragmentation, and incompleteness, making the case that it was because of, rather than in spite of, their small or partial state that these objects were valued parts of the personal and social worlds they inhabited.

This edited volume is a welcome and thought-provoking contribution to the literature on two important phenomena: miniaturization and fragmentation. ... This book will therefore be indispensable for anyone working on either of these themes in the future. And indeed, The Tiny and the Fragmented convincingly argues that most of us are in one way or another working on these themes (especially fragmentation), whether we realize it or not. ...The Tiny and the Fragmented is an important and timely contribution... In its interdisciplinary scope and willingness to ask new questions, the volume looks ahead to the future of multiple fields. And in its championing of forms of material culture whose historical, cultural, and theoretical importance is too often overlooked, this book reveals the power of "the tiny and the fragmented" to shape human experience., The Tiny and the Fragmented is an important and timely contribution. Miniaturization and fragmentation are topics of broad significance within archaeology and art history, and this volume should spur new debate on both. In its interdisciplinary scope and willingness to ask new questions, the volume looks ahead to the future of multiple fields. And in its championing of forms of material culture whose historical, cultural, and theoretical importance is too often overlooked, this book reveals the power of "the tiny and the fragmented" to shape human experience., ...the strength of the individual chapters is such that each will surely make an important contribution to its specific field, and perhaps in turn will bring readers to look into the sort of anthropological questions and approaches to miniaturization and fragmentation that the editors so eloquently advocate., A chief virtue of the book...is its range of perspectives...The volume certainly brings together a range of specialists - discussing, among other things, Assyrian friezes (Marian H. Feldman), Iberian Iron-Age figurines (Mireia López-Bertran and Jaime Vives-Ferrándiz) and Neolithic pit-houses, A compelling interdisciplinary re-evaluation of the tiny and the broken in the archaeological record. The papers in this volume challenge the basic dichotomies of miniature and monumental, fragment and whole, to push beyond understanding miniatures through reconstruction and type. Instead these studies, ranging from Honduran figurines to Classical anatomical votives, use new theoretical approaches to reconsider what constitutes completeness and to re-imagine what these objects do and how people interact with them. A must-read contribution that elucidates the power and allure of the small and fragmentary.

S. Rebecca Martin is Associate Professor of Greek Art and Architecture in the Department of History & Architecture and Associate Professor in the Archaeology Program at Boston University. She is the author of The Art of Contact Comparative Approaches to Greek and Phoenician Art (2017).Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper is Assistant Professor and Karl Kilinski II Endowed Chair in Hellenic Visual Culture Department of Art History at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on issues of miniaturization, identity, and cross-cultural interaction in the terracotta figurines of Hellenistic Babylonia.