Slide 1 The Ancient World

Slide 2 I. Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)1 million years B.C.

A. History1. Hunters/gatherers2. Discoveries & developments

a. Fireb. Clothingc. Techniques for

hunting/gathering

Slide 3 d. Simple social organization

e. Religion—perhaps as early as 100,000 B.C.

f. Notions of selfhood & individuality

g. Awareness of death & burial

h. Art to express themselves

i. System of notation—30,000 B.C.—Spain to Russia

Slide 4 3. Ice Ages

a. Great shifts in climate

b. Three interglacial periods

c. Drops in sea level (Britain &

Scandinavia joined Europe)

Slide 5 B. Art

1. 30,000 to 15,000 B.C.—cave etchings

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Slide 11 http://www.bradshawfoundation.co

m/lascaux/

Slide 12 2. Woman of Willendorf—Venus

figurine

Slide 13 a. In burial sites in a 1,100 mile band from western France to central Russia

b. Fertility symbol

c. Vitality in obesity

d. Realism in folds and contours— “sophisticated balance in symbolic overstatement”

e. Mystical significance of womanhood

Slide 14 3. Cave of Lascaux

a. Discovery made by children in 1940

b. Main hall (Hall of bulls)—montage of larger-than-life bulls, horses, deer, and one mythological creature—

up to 12’

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Slide 19 c. Powerful, grand,

warm in color

d. Created over a long period of time with overall effect of a single, dramatic, communicative work

Slide 20 II. Neolithic Age(New Stone Age)8,000 to 3,000 B.C.

A. History

1. Crops

2. Stone tool improvement

3. Pottery & textiles

4. Small villages

Slide 21 B. Civilization

1. Metal work

2. Monumental architecture

3. Writing

4. Centralized bureaucracies

5. Social classes

Slide 22 III. Mesopotamia

A. Sumer—6,000 B.C.

1. Religion

a. Permeated Sumerian life

b. Found in the Gilgamesh epic—7th century B.C.

1) episodic tale of hero’s adventure

Slide 23 2) based on historical rules of Erech or Uruk

3) description of flood which parallels story of Noah

c. Developed pantheon of gods—2250 B.C.

1) ensured harvest

2) took human form

3) Ishtar—goddess of love and procreation

Slide 24 4) city gods

5) elaborate rituals

6) dismal afterworld requiring earthly possessions

7) ritual suicides

2. Developments

a. Writing

1) most important Sumerian contribution

Slide 25 2) pictures indicating syllabic sound

3) baked into clay

4) stabilizing effect on society

b. Technology

1) bronze

2) glass

3) wheel

a) math based on 60

Slide 26 b) time

c) circles

d) thus—architectural

progress

e) thus—brick-making

f) thus—potter’s wheel

g) thus—wheel for transportation (3,000 B.C.)

Slide 27 3. art

a. Depictions of kings in acts of devotion

b. The Tell Asmar statues

1) temple god statues

2) suggest dignity despite crude execution

3) lines which point to the heart

Slide 28 4) suggestive of prayer

5) cone or cylindrical shape typical of

Sumerian style

6) eyes

a) large

b) expressive

c) source of power

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Slide 30 d) windows of the

soule) “all-seeing vigilance”

of the gods

Slide 31 Standing

Male Worshipper from Tell Asmar

Slide 32 4. Music

a. Stringed instrument

b. Probably lyrical, soft, and restrained

5. Babylon—1700 B.C.

a. Considered the “hub” of the world

b. Sumerian cities along the Tigris & Euphrates

1) Nineveh

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Slide 34 2) Aleppo

c. Hammurabi and the law

1) rigid class system

2) “eye for an eye”

B. Assyria

1. Babylon plundered by northern Assyrians—1000

B.C.

2. Citadel at Dur Sharrukin

a. Sargon II—722 B.C.

Slide 35 b. 250, 000

square feet

c. Image of the cosmos

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Slide 37 IV. Egypt

A. Religion

1. king-god

a. Earthly manifestation of, god of the sky

b. “Son of Ra”—direct link with the creator sun god

Slide 38 2. Local & national gods

3. Afterlife

a. Continuation of life dependant on existence of corpse

b. Commoners dependant on rulers for access to afterlife

Slide 39 B. Old Kingdom—2778-2263 B.C.

1. Memphis

2. Strict social order

3. Architecture

a. Pyramids

1) Giza

2) Cheops--largest

3) Measurement

a) 750 ft. sq.

Slide 40 b) 51 degree

angle in rise

c) 481 ft. in height

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Slide 42 b. Sphynx

1) mythological creature

2) guardian to kings’ tombs

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Slide 44 4. Art

a. Basic figure—standing male

b. Proportioned in units

1) head to shoulder—1 unit

2) shoulder to hem—5 units

Slide 45 3) hem to ground—3

units

Slide 46 5. Sculpture—Prince Rahotep & wife Nofret

a. Life size

b. Natural yet conventionalized

c. Majestic (demeanor of pharoahs)

d. Painted

1) woman—creamy yellow

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Slide 49 2) man—light to dark brown

e. Upper body

1) attention to detail

2) nails, body under clothing

f. Lower body—crudely presented

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Slide 51 C. Middle Kingdom—2130 B.C.

1. Society

a. Unified kingdom

b. Tightly controlled entry to kingdom

c. Age of recovery & expansion

2. Developments

a. Hieroglyphics—1900s B.C.

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Slide 53 b. Scribes

1) important to governmental & military records

2) “pen is mightier than the sword”—21st

century B.C.

Slide 54 D. New Kingdom—1486 B.C.

1. Society

a. Commerce with Asia

b. Tutankhamun

Slide 55 2. Art—Theban rock tombs

a. Elaborate ceiling decoration

b. Vivacity & humor

c. Workers & peasants

d. Nefertari—favorite wife of Ramses II

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Slide 57 3. Music

a. Harp, lyre, stringed instruments, pipes, flute, cymbal, bell

b. Possible profound effect on

Greek music

Slide 58 V. Synthesis—Region of Akhenaton

A. Akhenaton

1. physically deformed

a. Misshapen body

b. Elongated head

2. Possible genius

3. monotheistic (complete departure from conventional Egypt)

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Akhenaton and wife Nefertiti

Slide 60 B. Tell el Amarna

1. east bank of the Nile

2. abandoned at the death of Akhenaton

3. large estates of the wealthy

4. gardens

5. open, unroofed areas leading to altar to Aton, the sun god

6. art

Slide 61 a. Relief sculptures

b. Body proportions more natural & graceful

c. Plant motifs in palm columns

d. Dazzling colors—for illumination by Aton

1) glazed tiles

2) painted stones

C. “Hymn to Aton”

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Slide 63 The

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