Art of the Ancient Near East Day 1

Chapter 2

Getting Started

• When we start a chapter you need

– Your image cards on your desk as well as 2-4 extra

index cards

• These cards should be have images and titles, etc…

– Also any handout you were given during class

– Something to write with

– Also your binder within reach

The Theme Card!

• What it the Theme Card?

– It is the first index card for your chapter

– The theme will help you remember what the chapter is

about.

– Any other tips or tricks you learn throughout the chapter

can be added to that card.

Theme Card Chapter 2 Art of the Ancient Near east

S= Sumerians

A= Akkadians

N= Neo-Sumerians

B= Babylonians

A= Assyrians

N= Neo-Babylonians

. = (period) = Persians

SANBAN. (period)

• that dominant cultures in the Ancient Near East continually replaced one another

• the chronological order of the cultures that were in power at any given time.

SANBAN. 3500-331 BCE.

BCE. = Before the Common Era (some say Christian Era or Current Era)

The Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia *the land between the rivers

*Rivers Tigris and Euphrates

Walls and tower, Jericho

8000–7000 BCE

• Present day Palestine

• 2000 people

• Mud clay and brick work

• First Big Early Neolithic City

Human Figure 7000-6000BCE

•Clay plaster with shell, bitumen, and paint

•From Ain Ghazal in Jordan

•Ain Ghazal –7200 to 5000 BCE

–Name mean “Spring of Gazelles”

–Cover 30 acres

•The proximity to Ain Ghazal to Jericho was the beginning to the City-states.

–City-States are first town, people deciding not to move around anymore but living in a large consistent group

• More than 30 of these sculptures were recovered from Ain Ghazal

• Fragment suggest there statues were life-sized

• Sculptures cover frames with layers of wet plaster

• Shells were added for eyes

• Bitumen a tar-like substance was used to draw the outline around the eyes.

composite reconstruction drawing on Chatal Huyuk

Anatolia or present day Turkey.

6500-5500BCE

No streets or plaza, Easily defended. Clusters of family homes Highly decorated interiors People got around by traveling on the roof tops

Sumer

• Writing present

• Architecture

• Stories

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il7ckcjQg6c&feature=related

Cuneiform

Stylus

pictographs

What is the answer to these Math Problems?

+ =

+ =

- =

- =

x =

Epic of Gilgamesh

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSZg5DTW7Hw

Ruins of the White Temple Date: c. 3300–3000 BCE

Source/Museum: Uruk (present-day Warka,

Iraq)

Ziggurat

mosaics

Title: Nanna Ziggurat, Ur Date: c. 2100–2050 BCE Source/Museum: Present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq

Cone Mosaics from the Temple of Inanna

Face of a woman, (known as the Warka Head) Medium: Marble Size: height approx. 8" (20.3 cm) Date: c. 3300–3000 BCE Source/Museum: Uruk (present-day Warka, Iraq) / Iraq Museum, Baghdad (stolen and recovered in 2003)

•Goddess face? •Would have been attached to a wooden head and body •It has been stripped of it paint, wig, and inlaid.

-set in objects -in this case brown eyes

Title: Carved vase (known as the Uruk Vase) Medium: Alabaster Size: height 36' (91 cm) Date: c. 3300–3000 BCE Source/Museum: Uruk (present-day Warka, Iraq) / Iraq Museum, Baghdad (stolen and recovered in 2003)

•Sculptors told stories using registers •Registers are bands of narratives

• Plants showing used as and with fertility are showere •Also Animals are shown on a groundline.

•A large line implying ground •On the top Inanna is excepting an offering from a naked priest.

Hieratic scale -Important people are shown bigger! *note the height difference between the two characters Stylized figures -simplified . * What’s odd about their appearance?

Title: Votive Figures Medium: Limestone, alabaster, and gypsum Size: height of largest figure approx. 30" ( 76.3 cm) Date: c. 2900–2600 BCE Source/Museum: The Square Temple, Eshnunna (present-day Tell Asmar, Iraq). The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

Detail of votive figures Votive Figures Small statue of worshipper

Pair Share

Sumerians artists worked with Metal and

bronze

Sound box tells a story

Title: The Great Lyre with bull’s head

Medium: Wood with gold, silver, lapis

lazuli, bitumen, and shell, reassembled in

modern wood support

Size: height of head 14“ back arm 46½"

(117 cm)

Date: c. 2550–2400 BCE

Title: Front panel, the sound box of the Great Lyre Medium: Wood with shell inlaid in bitumen Size: height 12¼ X 4½" (31.1 X 11cm)

Can we identify what is going on in each line?

Funeral rites?

Significance of the animals?

Title: Cylinder seal from Sumer and its impression Medium: Lapis lazuli Size: height, 1⅝" (4.1 cm) Date: c. 2550–2400 BCE

Incised

Cylinder seals

Akkad and Lagash

• North of Sumer

• Spoke Semitic Language (like Hebrew)

• Saragon I

• Capital city was Akkad still not discovered.