Pre-Historic/Ancient Near East

Pre-Historic Civilizations

The Paleolithic Period – 30,000 B.C.E. to 10,000 B.C.E.

Pre-Historic Civilization (Cont.)

Earliest examples of creativity of mankind

Visual Arts – Sculptures and Cave

Painting

Painting – The Cave of Lascaux

France

Characteristics of Cave Paintings

• Animal Images in Profile• Black Outlines• Limited Colors (Red, Yellow,

Ochre, Brown, Black)• Attempt at Naturalism and

Realism• Purpose: Ritual (Hunting)

Human Figures in Cave Paintings

• No attempt at naturalism• More stick-like in appearance

Not creating realistic images of humans is probably from superstitions/beliefs in powers of images.

These beliefs are still present in some cultures today.

How Were Prehistoric Cave Pictures Painted?

Using sea-shells as paint containers and working by candlelight, Stone Age artists employed a

wide variety of painting methods. Initially, they painted with their fingers; before switching to

lumpy pigment crayons, pads of moss, or brushes made of animal hair or vegetable fiber. They

even employed spray painting techniques using reeds or specially hollowed bones. They employed foreshortening and shadowing

techniques. Each era introduced new cave painting methods, and caves decorated over

many generations exhibit numerous styles - at Lascaux, for instance, archeologists have

identified over a dozen different painting styles.

Sculpture

• Human and Animal Sculptures-Most common human figures

were fertility figures and “Venus” figures.

• Most sculptures were “found objects” that required very little manipulation

• Used for Ritual Purposes

Bison Licking Its Flanks ca. 14,000 BC

Dordogne, France

Venus of Willendorf

c. 24,000-22,000 BCE Oolitic limestone 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm) high

Architecture

• Post and Lintel Construction• Use of Megalithic Stones• Purpose: Ritual

Stonehenge between 3000 and 1700 B.C.E.

•Built in three stages

•Circular Arrangement

•Post and Lintel Construction

Stonehengehttps://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/discover/virtual-tour/

Music, Dance, and Drama

Minimal Physical Evidence

• Footprints in dance-like patterns on cave floors (Dance)

• Objects possible used as instruments found in caves (Music)

• Images of masked figures (Drama/Storytelling)

Purpose: Ritual

Mesopotamia

The Fertile Crescent/The Cradle of

Civilization

Earliest Civilizations in area between Tigris and

Euphrates Rivers

Known Civilizations of this Region (in Chronological Order):

Sumerian AssyrianAkkadian Neo-BabylonianNeo-Sumarian PersianBabylonian

Cuneiform – Writing System

Writing with Wedge-Shaped Characters on Clay Tablets created by

Sumerians

http://www.penn.museum/cgi/cuneiform.cgi

How cuneiform changed over 3,000 years

Sumerian Visual Art Examples

• Sculpture• Ceramics• Jewelry

Tell Asmar Sculptures

• Free-Standing Sculptures of Human Figures

• Large Eyes (Windows to the Soul)• Posed Frontal, Stiff and Formal• Size Shows Rank or Importance• Beards and Pleated Skirts Symbols of

Power• Hands Clasped as if Praying, Looking

Upward• Purpose - Ritual

Tell Asmar Statues

RepetionSimplification (every gender looks the same)Hierarchy shown in size of statues

Sumerian Sculpture

Use of Image of a Bull Common in Sumerian and other cultures

Symbolic of Power and Strength

Ceramics Exampleca. 3100-2900 B.C. Baked clay, painted

17.2 cm H, 23.5 cm W

The potter’s

wheel was created in

Meso. around

6,000 and 4,000 BC.

Jewelry ExamplePuabi's headdress ca. 2550–2400

B.C

http://sumerianshakespeare.com/117701/118101.html

Architecture - ZigguratsTemples in the form of Stepped

Mounds of earth and brick.

Symbolic of man reaching toward the gods in heaven.

In ancient Sumer, in the center of each town, was

the Ziggurat.  The Ziggurat was a temple.  The ancient

Sumerians believed that the gods lived in the sky. In

order for the gods to hear better, you needed to get closer to them.  Ziggurats

were huge and built in steps, with a wide base, narrowing to a flat top.

Ziggurat of Ur  c. 2100 B.C.E. 

built by the king

Ur-Nammu

Sumerian Musical Instrument

Bull-Headed Lyre - Lyre of Queen Puabi, Ur, c. 2685 BCE

Dance and Drama

• Evidence of Singing and Dancing in Written Sumerian Texts and on Relief Sculptures – Usually Religious in Nature.

• Dance by both Men and Women in Religious Ceremonies and for Social Purposes in Assyrian Culture

• Babylonians had Religious Dance where Dancers Performed in a Ring around a Sacred Sculpture

Egyptian Civilization

3100 B.C.E. – 322 B.C.E

• 3 Kingdoms – Old, Middle, and New

• Kingdoms divided into Dynasties – a Single Family in Power

• Following Last of Dynasties, Ruled by Hellenistic Greece

• 30 B.C.E – Egypt becomes a province of Rome

Egyptian Culture

• Dependence on the Nile River• Life and Culture Centered on Religion• Belief in Life After Death• Pharoah (ruler) a God on Earth• Ka (soul) reborn after death to join

the gods in the afterlife• Body preserved to house the ka

(mummification and pyramid burial)

Egyptian Painting

• Most for Tombs and Temples• Scenes First Carved in Low Relief into

Limestone Walls, then Painted in Bright Colors on Top of a Layer of Dry Plaster.

• Scenes Reflected Egyptian Dieties and Daily Life – Necessary to Ease the Journey to the Land of the Dead and to Provide for them in the Afterlife

Painting Rules

• Body in Correct Proportion• Faces and Legs in Profile• Eyes, Shoulder, and Torso from Front• Pharaohs and Nobles in Stiff Poses, Standing

or Sitting on Lines Representing the Ground• Persons of Less Importance in Comfortable

Movement and Natural Poses.• Flesh of Men – Dark Red or Brown• Flesh of Women – Yellow, White, or Pale

Brown

Egyptian Painting (cont.)

Paintings from the tomb of UnsuNew Kingdom, 18th Dynasty

Sculpture

• Commemorate a Person or Event or Substitute for a real person

• Huge in Scale• Stone and Wooden Statues placed in

tombs to represent the dead• Relief carvings and model figures of

daily life or activities of the dead in the next world

Old Kingdom Sculpture

• Pharaohs – Seated with hands on knees or Standing, one leg forward, arms at side or crossed in front.

• Stiff, Formal, and Solemn• Size to show social order:

Pharaohs larger than life Scribes and Court Officials life-sized Workers/Peasants smallest, always

shown working• Statues of Gods as Animals reflecting

their personalities

Khafre!

Middle Kingdom

New Kingdom

The Great Sphinx

Facts about the Sphinx

• Head of Sphinx carved in about 2500 BC Face is that of the Pharaoh Khafre, measures 4.1 m wide . Body of a lion

• Sphinx is 73 m long, 20 m high. Carved from the rock, different layers eroding at different rates. Head cut from harder strata than the lower body.

• Guards Khafre’s Pyramid

Egyptian Architecture

• Primary focus was creation of temples and tombs

• Most famous tombs, the pyramids, were built to protect the bodies of Pharoahs for the afterlife and to serve as a symbol of the pharoah’s power.

Development of Pyramids: Phase One

Developed from Mastabas which were flat roofed, single story buildings with sloping sides.

“Cities of the dead”

Phase Two– Stepped Pyramids

MostCommonlyhad four or six steps

Stepped Pyramid of Djoser, 2600 B.C.E.

Designed by Imhotep

Phase Three – True Pyramids

The Great Pyramids at Giza (Menkaure, Khufu, Khafre – left to right)

Inside Khufu’s Pyramid

Egyptian Dance, Drama, and Music

• Egyptians the first great culture to make music and dance a part of life for all social classes

• Music and Dance also used for religious/ritual purposes

• Tomb and Temple paintings show evidence of music and dance, but no written music survives.

Egyptian Drama, Dance, and Music (cont.)

• Egyptian music based on Pentatonic scale of 5 whole steps (no half steps)

• Choreography of Egyptian dance appears to consist of complex range of movements from acrobatics (splits, cartwheels, and backbends) to slow, elegant, and more formal dance steps.

• Drama – religious performances of drama and Satirical plays

Evidence of Music in Egyptian Art Works

Resources

• http://www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/• http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfdiscovery.htm

l

• http://w3.salemstate.edu/~ckramer/bison.html• http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/Stonehenge/pic

_sunset1.html

• http://www.upennmuseum.com/cuneiform.cgi• http://www.coconino.edu/apetersen/_ART201/

sumeria.htm• http://www.coconino.edu/apetersen/_ART201/

sumeria.htm• http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/7357/mesoart1.htm

• http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/First_Cities/clothing_mesosyria_object_61ae.asp

Resources (cont.)• http://www.multimedialibrary.com/FramesML/IM4/

IM4page6.asp• http://www.multimedialibrary.com/FramesML/IM4/

IM4page11.asp• http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT

%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673393291&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673393291&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500807&fromDept=false&baseIndex=28&bmUID=1150823291644&bmLocale=en

• http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/sphinx_02.html• Images from Collection of Melisa Gano

• http://www.genuineafrica.com/