ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explore the notion of art-time by locating the idea of the sublime in Mesopotamian discourse. Turning the focus to the meaning created by historical contexts, the chapter asks what if the original meaning of an artwork was presence, unbounded by time? That is to say, what if an artwork at the moment of its manufacture proleptically anticipates anachronistic views? What if the pushing forward of the horizons of time is the work of the artefact? I argue that Mesopotamian images and monuments exhibit precisely such characteristics. They permit an exploration of art-time in unexpected ways that force us to unthink our theoretical preconceptions and art historical categories. Mesopotamian artworks shake up a chronological fixing into a limited moment of use time, use value, or moment of manufacture. They are works that are specifically and emphatically diachronic in nature. It is not that the pastness of history was unimportant; on the contrary, one might easily make the case that Mesopotamia was the first place in world history where historical consciousness was clearly spelled out in self-reflexive forms of writing about monuments and images, about ruins in the landscape. It is rather that the ontological status of art was understood as a thing that transcends time; it is deeply anchored in a time that is not erasable and has a duration of its own.
