CHAP 14:ANCIENT WORLD

B.C. & B.C.E.

"B.C." stands for "Before Christ" B.C.E. is the atheistic subsitute for B.C. - "before common era"

City-states

-City-states (independently governed) throughout Mesopotamia -Each had their own god and government -Social hierarchies evolved - rulers, priests, workers (rulers and priests directed all activities including building canals, crop collection, and food distribution) and the specialization of labor

The Sumerians

-Created monumental architecture created for worship: ziggurats. -These enormous stepped temples (early forms of the pyramid) were the focal point of the Sumerian city. They towered high above everything else in the settlement. This is where communication with the god occurred.

egyption art

-Egyptian culture was dedicated to providing a home for the ka, the part of the human being that defines personality and survives life on earth after death. -Tombs were decorated with paintings that the ka could enjoy after a human's death. Small servant figures were carved and also were placed in the tomb to serve the deceased in the afterlife. -The ka could find a home in a statue of the deceased. Representing the body with the composite view became standard in Egyptian art. This lasted for thousands of years Conceptual composite view : Heads are in profile to capture the identifying features most clearly Eyes are in a frontal view, because it is most recognizable and expressive when seen from the front Shoulders are frontal Hips, legs, and feet are in profile

Mesopotamia

-Mesopotamia ("land between the rivers") is a region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and is at the core of the Fertile Crescent. -Present day Iraq -This is where humans first learned how to use the wheel and plow, and how to control floods, and construct irrigation canals -Wealth and agricultural resources made Mesopotamia very desirable - vulnerable to invasions & political upheaval

Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux

-One of the best-known Paleolithic caves paintings are hundreds of feet from any entrance The largest painted area here is known as the "Hall of the Bulls." Some of the animals are colored silhouettes, while others are just outlined. These differences in style suggest that the animals here were painted at different times. -The bulls are representing with twisted perspective or a composite view to ensure a complete image Heads and bodies are in profile; horns, eyes, & hooves are from frontal view. This approach is descriptive of the fact that cattle have two horns (in strict profile only one horn would be visible). Strict profile view would be an incomplete image. -By confining the animals to the surfaces of cave walls, the Paleolithic hunters may have believed that they were bringing these animals under their control. Some researchers believe that rituals or dances were performed in front of the images and served to improve the hunters' luck. -Other say that these representations of animals may have served as teaching tools to instruct new hunters about the various animals they would encounter. Yet others believe that these animal images were created to assure the survival (rather than destruction) of the herds that the Paleolithic people depended on for food and clothing.

Processional frieze

-Processions of people from nations bringing tribute to the Persian king Everyone wears his national costume and carries a typical regional gift Traces of color tell us that these reliefs were once painted. -These reliefs were inspired by Assyrian palaces, but the Persepolis sculptures had a different style. The forms were more rounded and projected more from the background. Some of the details (like the drapery folds) echo forms characteristic of Archaic Greek sculpture. -At its height, the Persian Empire extended from Africa to India In 330 BCE, Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia marked the beginning of a long period of Greek and then Roman rule of large parts of the ancient Near East. -The New Persian Empire lasted for over 400 years until the Arabs took over Mesopotamia in 636 CE. Thereafter, there was Islamic rule in the region.

Stone Age Art

Cave paintings, relief sculptures, and stone, ivory, and bone sculptures Subject matter was mainly of animals, but some abstracted female figures have been found.

Ancient Egypt

Settled in the fertile delta (Fertile Ribbon) of the Nile River

Akkadians

Cities known as Sumer came under rule of a great ruler: Sargon of Akkad in 2332 BCE Under Sargon (which means true king), the Akkadians introduced a new concept of royal power (constant loyalty to the king rather than to the city-state) The Akkadians were the first Near Eastern rulers to call themselves kings of the world and to assume divine attributes.

Akhenaten and his Family

-Rare, intimate look at the royal family in domestic setting; sunken relief stele -The style - undulating curves, figures with bellies - were characteristic of the Amarna period; undulating curves replace rigid lines -Bodies are elongated & distorted - swelling thighs, full breasts, thin necks, thin arms and legs, bellies

Assyrians

Built fortified capital cities with strong defensive walls, which reflects their preoccupation with attack The Assyrians thought of themselves as merciless to anyone who dared oppose them Built huge palaces decorated with wall paintings and stone reliefs (battle scenes, hunting scenes, royal life, ceremonies, & religious imagery)

Tutankhamun (King Tut)

-Returned the capital back to Thebes and reasserted traditional religions beliefs -King Tut ruled for a decade and died at age 18 He was a minor figure in Egyptian history. However, his tomb had rich treasures of sculpture, furniture, and jewelry. -His tomb was one of the richest tombs found (most likely because all other tombs have been robbed and ---King Tut's was fond untouched). His coffin was made of solid gold, 250 pounds. -The fame of king Tut is due to the discovery of his rich tomb He was probably a son of Akhenaton by a minor wife He died at age 18 Was buried in the Valley of Kings (across the Nile from Thebes) His tomb was discovered in 1922 - filled with treasures (jewelry, textiles, furniture, a throne, gold chariots...) His mummy was encased in 3 coffins (together weigh 3,000 pounds) - inner one made of gold and inlaid with semiprecious stones Adolescent king, dressed in official regalia, with nemes headdress and false beard Tutankhamen was probably considered too young to fight, but his position as king required that he be represented as a conqueror (as seen in painted images in his tomb)

Paleolithic/Old Stone Age

-The Paleolithic Culture, or Old Stone Age, marked by the development of stone tools, dates from about 30,000 to 10,000 BC. Paleolithic peoples were nomadic hunter-gatherers. -The most striking images of Paleolithic art are the painted, incised, or sculpted animals on the rock surfaces of caves, many of which are very naturalistic. There is a noticeable absence of images of humans.

Cuneiform

-further simplified the pictographs (2900-2400 BCE) by reducing them into a group of wedge-shaped signs - cuneiform -These represented syllable sounds -Cuneiform marked the beginning of writing -Scribes were the professionals who wrote and maintained records

Sumerians

-invented writing c. 3100 BCE records of administrative acts & commercial transactions, inventories of food & cattle scratched simplified pictures - pictographs - into soft clay with a stylus (tool with a point at one end and a triangular wedge at the other end) Pictographs were simple pictures the represented a thing or idea

Stonehenge

A henge is an arrangement of megalithic stones in a circle. post-and-lintel megaliths Heel Stone, single 35 ton, 16 foot high stone, marked the point where the sun rose at the summer solstice for the person looking outward from the center of the complex. Stonehenge seems to have been a kind of astronomical observatory and a remarkable accurate solar calendar.

Neolithic period

Around 4000BCE huge architectural monuments were erected. The most famous was Stonehenge in southern England. The stones used were megaliths - huge stones, weighing several tons each. The purpose of Stonehenge remains a mystery, though it seems clear that orientation toward the rising sun at the summer solstice connects it to planting and the harvest.

Ancient Egypt

At the same time that Sumerian culture developed in Mesopotamia, Egyptian society began to flourish along the Nile River. In contrast to Sumer, which was constantly threatened by invasion, Egypt was protected on all sides by sea and desert, and it cherished the ideals of order, stability, and endurance.

Stele of Naram-Sin

Commemorates military victory A victory army is led up a mountain by Naram-Sin in orderly files, which suggests the discipline and organization of the king's forces. They are watched over by solar deities, symbolized by the radiating suns at the top of the stele. The king wears the horned crown of a god and stands above his soldiers. The horned helmet signifies divinity - first time a king appears as a god in Mesopotamian art. In contrast, the enemies fall in disarray and beg for mercy The artist used the older convention of portraying figures with a composite view (a frontal two-horned helmet on a profile head). The artist was innovative in how he created a landscape setting for the story and placed figures on successive tiers of the landscape. Native trees to the area help define this scene as an actual event rather than a generic battle scene. Hierarchical scaling/hieratic scale - relative size indicates relative importance. Naram-Sin is much larger than the other figures, which emphasizes his religious and political authority as leader of the state.

Minoan Palaces

Enormous complexes that served as the key administrative, commercial, and religious centers of Minoan life stonewalls and watchtowers Large scale wall paintings with geometric borders, views of nature, and scenes of human activity Multiple stories, flat roof, columns, air shafts and light-wells, storerooms, courtyards, plumbing

Persians

Entered Babylon in 539 BCE In the 6th century, the Persians captured the city of Babylon, and later Egypt The Persian Empire was the largest yet.

Funerary mask, from Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece

Grave Circle A encloses 6 deep shafts that had served as tombs for kings and their families. The dead were laid on the floors with masks covering their faces. They buried women with their jewelry and men with weapons & gold cups gold mask, made using the repoussé technique - when goldsmiths hammered the shape from a single sheet of metal and pushed the features out from the backside of the metal one of the first attempts in Greece to render the human face at life-size The goldsmiths carefully recorded different physical types (but it is unknown if these masks were portraits) This mask represents an older man, with a full beard

Stele of Hammurabi (detail)

Hammurabi formulated a comprehensive law code for his people The judicial code is inscribed in 3,500 lines of cuneiform characters These laws governed all aspects of Babylonian life and prescribed penalties for crimes. Punishments were based on the wealth, social standing, and gender of the offender. Rights of the wealthy were favored over the poor, citizens over slaves, and men over women. At the top of the stele is a relief of Hammurabi standing before the enthroned supreme judge and sun god, Shamash - patron of law and justice Hammurabi wanted his code of law "to cause justice to prevail in the land to destroy the wicked and the evil, that the strong might not oppress the weak nor the weak the strong" The familiar convention of combined frontal and side views is used

Assyrian archers pursuing enemies relief

Kings commissioned extensive series of painted narrative reliefs showing royal power on the palace walls. The amount of documentary detail is a first This probably depicts an episode that occurred in 878BCE, when Ashurnasirpal drove his enemies into the Euphrates River. 2 Assyrian archers shot arrows at the retreating enemies 3 of the enemies are in the water, one with an arrow in his back. The other two attempt to float to safety by inflating animal skins. Composite views The river is seen from above. The men, trees, and fort are seen from the side.

Palace of Knossos

Largest palace on Crete, 1300 rooms, 6 acres probably the ceremonial & political center of Minoan civilization and culture has been suggested as the source of the myth of the labrynth, an elaborate mazelike structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.

Minoan art

Minoans are known for their lavish palaces, which were decorated with fresco paintings. The palace at Knossos has a fresco depicting the activity of vaulting over a bull's back. Traditionally, as in Egyptian art, women are depicted with light skin, and men with dark skin.

Aegean art

Much of the art from the Aegean is from tombs. The figurines represent fertility goddesses with the arms folded rigidly across the abdomen. Some male figurines have been found, and they were most often musicians playing instruments. All of these figures are believed to have had a religious function, or were at least linked to rituals surrounding death.

Ziggurat at Ur

One of the largest ziggurats - 50 feet high There are 3 ramp-like stairways of 100 steps each. These stairs originally led to a brick temple, which did not survive. The temples were known as "the offering table of heaven" and "the waiting room of the gods" The base is made of mud brick, about 50 feet high. Dedicated to the moon god Nanna Each platform is angled to prevent erosion Retaining walls were recently reconstructed Only priests were permitted inside the ziggurat and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. As a result the priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society.

Babylon

One of the most influential Mesopotamian cultures. 8th century BCE, the Babylonian Empire rose to power under the leadership of Hammurabi. Hammurabi's major contribution to civilization was the codification of Mesopotamian laws. In the Stele of Hammurabi, the lawcode is inscribed along with a relief sculpture depicting Hammurabi receiving the blessing of Shamash (the sun god). Hammurabi's lawcode was repeatedly copied for over a thousand years, establishing the rule of law in Mesopotamia for a millennium.

Venus of Willendorf

One of the oldest and most famous prehistoric figures. These Paleolithic statuettes of women were called "Venuses" by the archaeologists who discovered them. However, this name is inappropriate because it is doubtful that the Old Stone Age figurines represented gods or were associated with religion. Venus - Roman goddess of love and beauty The exaggeration of the female anatomy suggests that this may have served as a fertility image. The sculptor definitely did not aim for naturalism in shape or proportion. Her tiny arms rest on her enormous breasts. The sculptor also incised a triangle in the pubic region. Like most Paleolithic sculptures, the figure has no facial features. She has a mass of curly hair or possibly a hat. The abundance of female figures indicates a preoccupation with women, whose child-bearing capabilities ensured the survival of the human race.

Prehistoric Times30,000 - 2000 BCE

Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) Neolithic (New Stone Age)

Palette of Narmer, c. 3000 BCE

Ritual object that commemorates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Narmer is in the center of the palette, and is largest figure, symbolizing his elevated position in society. The lower body is shown in profile, the torso and shoulder in frontal view, and the head is shown in profile view (with the eye in a frontal view).

Venuses

Small fertility sculptures called Venuses have been found. The female form is highly abstracted, and the emphasis is placed on he anatomy associated with fertility (breasts, swollen abdomen, enlarged hips, and pubic region).

Aegean Civilizations

The Egyptians had significant contact with the Aegean civilizations, especially the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. Minoans- island of Crete Mycenaeans- southern peninsula of Greece

Mycenaeans

The Mycenaeans (from the Greek mainland) took over the island of Crete. Their culture flourished from 1400-1200 BCE Their culture was dominated by military values, which is reflected in their art. Much of the architecture from the Mycenaeans reflects their preoccupation with defense; they built large gated citadels. -The Mycenaeans were warriors instead of traders. Unlike the palace at Knossos which had no need for fortification walls due to the protection from the sea and Minoan fleet surrounding the island, Mycenaean cities were heavily fortified (preoccupied with defense).

tholos

The Mycenaeans also built tholos, beehive shaped tombs covered by enormous earthen mounds. These dome shaped tombs were full of gold and silver, including masks of the royal dead. They had a burial practice similar to the Egyptians. The Treasury of Atreus is the most famous example.

Cycladic sculptures

The female figures are always depicted standing with their arms crossed over their torso and nude vary in size from a few inches to over 5 feet tall large triangular shapes Most often these statues have been found in graves (probably used for religious or burial rituals) Abstracted & simplified (geometric) Marble (but were once painted)

Post-Amarna Period

The pharaohs that followed Akhenaton reestablished the traditional religious practices and restored the temples. The old style of art was revived. Egyptians maintained the old conventions for the next 1000 years. Akhenaton's brief religious revolution didn't last long, and his new city was abandoned. The most famous figure of the Post-Amarna period is Tutankhamun. Tutankhamen (King Tut) was the immediate successor to Akhenaton.

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt,

The temple was an important part of her campaign to be taken as a female ruler of Egypt equal in status to kings Designed for funeral rights and commemorative ceremonies; worship of her patron gods and for her successors to honor her memory Her actual tomb was hidden about 1 mile away (which is quite different from Old Kingdom pyramids). Here, the temple is much larger and more prominent than the tomb itself The temples rise from the valley floor in 3 colonnaded (rows of columns) terraces connected by ramps

Prehistoric Art

There is much speculation about the interpretation and function of art in prehistoric societies. Theories have been developed based on magical art, image control, fertility, and story-telling. The inaccessibility of many of the images suggest that they did not serve a purely decorative function. Instead, these images may have served some ritual purpose or religious function.

Sumerians

Votive sculptures were found in graves that represent worshipers. These figures symbolically engaged in continuous prayer and devotion. These figures have large, staring eyes. The Sumerians believed that eyes were the "windows to the soul."

Stele

a carved stone slab erected to commemorate a historical event or sometimes to mark a grave

Bull Leaping fresco

depicts ceremony of bull-leaping (young men grabbed the horns of a bull and vaulted onto its back) young women are depicted with fair skin and young men with dark skin. This was a widely accepted ancient convention for distinguishing male and female. The figures have stylized shapes - with Minoan pinched waists, curving lines, and they are highly animated. Like Egyptian and Mesopotamian art, they have the profile pose with the full-view eye. Curving lines of the figures distinguish these from earlier figure styles The curving lines suggest movement of living beings

lion gate

gate consists of two great monoliths capped with a huge lintel Above the lintel are masonry courses that form a corbelled arch which leave an opening that lightens the weight of what the lintel carries. This relieving triangle is filled with the relief sculpture of the lions (but the heads are lost). The largest sculpture (9' 6" high) in the prehistoric Aegean is the relief on a limestone slab of the confronting lions This design matches the triangular space above the lintel The heads of the lions are lost (lions may have been composite beasts) The idea of placing monstrous guardian figures at the entrances to palaces, tombs, and sacred places originated in the Near East and Egypt.

Rosetta Stone

key to deciphering hieroglyphic writing named after the city where it was found: Rosetta (Rashid- Arabic) - a city on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt The stone has inscriptions (carved text) in 3 sections: one in Greek, one in demotic (late Egyptian), and one in formal hieroglyphic 3 translations of one passage It was a tax amnesty given to the temple priests of the day, restoring the tax privileges they had traditionally enjoyed from more ancient time

Seated Harp Player

one of the earliest known representations of musicians musician may be playing for the deceased in the afterlife, but the meaning is unknown (could even be an image of the deceased) also has the same simple geometric shapes and flat planes the artist carefully sculpted the elegant shape of the harp/lyre. This must have been a prized possession: the harp with a duck-bill/waterfowl The back of this musician's head was once painted, perhaps indicating hat. A belt, which may be understood as part of a penis sheath, encircles his waist. Because of the absence of written documents... researchers aren't sure of the meaning of Cycladic sculptures.

Khafre Enthroned

sense of strength and permanence Khafre is enthroned with the falcon-god Horus perched behind his head. divine ruler with a perfect, idealized body (regardless of his actual age and appearance); not a true portrait The rigidity of the pose creates the effect of eternal stillness, appropriate for the timeless afterlife.

A.D. & C.E.

stands for "Anno Domino" or "the year of our Lord. C.E. is the atheistic substitutes for A.D. - "common era"

Treasury of Atreus

the best-preserved Mycenaean tholos (beehive) tomb It is about 43 feet high & 47 feet wide, which was the largest vaulted space without interior supports that had ever been built at the time (largest in the world for 1500 years) The tomb chamber was entered through a doorway composed of a series of stone corbeled courses (layers) laid on a circular base Rough stones were probably built up. Once the stones were in place, masons finished the surfaces to make them conform to the curves of the wall This achievement wasn't surpassed until the Romans constructed the Pantheon (almost 1,500 years later) using a new technology - concrete construction, which was unknown to the Mycenaeans

Figurine of a woman, from Syros, Greece, c. 2500-2300BCE

this sculpture was found in a grave minimalist design; geometric body is simplified into simple triangular shapes incised triangle at pubic area the sculptor went to great effort to emphasize the breasts and pubic area the slightly swollen belly could suggest pregnancy feet couldn't support the figure; was probably placed on its back in the grave the featureless face would have been painted (traces of paint have been found), even painted bracelets/necklaces. debated if these represent dead women or fertility figures or goddesses More recently scholars have suggested that they were intended to function as funerary objects, representing servants or even the deceased.