Ancient Mediterranean

Art of the Ancient Near East

ca 3500 BCE - 630 CE
2018-2019 Revised June 27, 2018

Mesopotamia
(ca 3500 BCE-630 CE)

Enduring Understanding
• 2-1. Artistic traditions focused on representations of royal figures and
divinities, and function of funerary and palatial complexes
• 2-2. Significance of religion in the art of the region with cosmology
guiding representation of deities and kings who themselves assume
divine attributes

Essential Knowledge
• 2-1a Multiple successive city states and cultures
• The human figure was a primary artistic subject and shown in a
hierarchic scale and through horizontal registers and historical
narratives; shown in specific types and styles
• Architecture – large ziggurats and fortified & opulent palaces that
proclaimed power and authority or rulers and ruling class

Geographical/Cultural Context

Old Stone Age – Paleolithic to Neolithic

Q What ingredients are needed for civilization to generate
• Rules
• Population center
• Hierarchy
• Resources
Q What is art’s role in this process

➔Mesopotamia – “the land between the rivers” - Tigris and Euphrates

A vast fertile plain, harsh climate and more weather fluctuations
 Leading edge of Neolithic civilization where people began to form
agriculture, establish farming, control the land, and settle vs. nomadic,
need for specialists, development of social hierarchies=specialization of
labor

Art Context

Art of region not really studied until 19th century

Sumerians-invented writing-3100 BC-by use of cuneiform
heaven and earth, gods and humans

Art expressed as
Ziggurats and temples = architectural statements to power, link between
Reliefs- low, narrative
Use of symbolism
Human and animal figures

Terms:

Ziggurat-a monumental platform with a temple at the top and found in

ancient Mesopotamia. It has a square base with several stories of
ever-decreasing size. Means “mountaintop”
Cuneiform-early form of writing that used wedge-shape marks impressed
into wet clay with a stylus
Registers-the use of bands as a means of showing spatial definition
Stele-a stone slab placed vertically and decorated with inscriptions or reliefs.
Used as grave marker or memorial.
Citadel-a fortress or defended city
Hieratic-fixed, stylized way of representation, often determined by religious
ideas and principles; size represented by importance vs. actual real
life appearance
Votive offering–gift of gratitude to a deity usually made in fulfillment of a
vow
Conceptual view-the rendering of the human body’s distinguishing and
fixed properties, its fundamental forms
Composite view-way of representing in which part of the body is shown in
profile and other part is shown frontally
Optical view-the rendering of the immediate, fleeting aspects of the figure,
Their accidental appearance
Heraldic Composition-symmetrical on either side of a central figure
Lamassu-colossal limestone monsters guarding the gate at the Assyrian
Sargon’s palace
Iwan-brick audience hall
Blind arcades-a series of arches without actual openings, applied as wall
decoration
Narrative-a story told in an organized process or way

Santa Ana Never Baked A Nutty Pancake

Sumerian, Akkadian, Neo Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Neo Babylonian,
Persian

3. Key Vocabulary words

Terms:

Ziggurat-a monumental platform with a temple at the top and found in

ancient Mesopotamia. It has a square base with several stories of
ever-decreasing size. Means “mountaintop”
Cuniform-early form of writing that used wedge-shape marks impressed
into wet clay with a stylus
Registers-the use of bands as a means of showing spatial definition
Stele-a stone slab placed vertically and decorated with inscriptions or reliefs.
Used as grave marker or memorial.
Citadel-a fortress or defended city
Hierarchic-fixed, stylized way of representation, often determined by
religious ideas and principles; size represented by importance vs
actual real life appearance
Votive offering–gift of gratitude to a deity usually made in fulfillment of a
vow
Conceptual view-the rendering of the human body’s distinguishing and
fixed properties, its fundamental forms
Composite view-way of representing in which part of the body is shown in
profile and other part is shown frontally
Optical view-the rendering of the immediate, fleeting aspects of the figure,
Their accidental appearance
Heraldic Composition-symmetrical on either side of a central figure
Lamassu-colossal limestone monsters guarding the gate at the Assyrian
Sargon’s palace
Iwan-brick audience hall
Blind arcades-a series of arches without actual openings, applied as wall
decoration
Narrative-a story told in an organized process or way

Ancient Mediterranean
Egypt
(ca 3500 BCE-630 CE)
River, Kingdoms, Pharaohs, Continuity

Egypt
Enduring Understanding
2-3. The art of dynastic Egypt embodies a sense of permanence. It was
created for eternity in the service of a culture that focused on preserving a
cycle of rebirth

Essential Knowledge
2-1a The art of Egypt spans several distinct periods: Pre-dynastic
through multiple kingdoms (old, middle, new)
2-3a Incorporated an elaborate funerary sect; created ka (spirit)
statues; connection to the cult of the sun
2-3b The human figure was based on a specific (timeless) convention
(Egyptian Canon) and shown in a hierarchy of power; the pharaoh
(god-king) as supreme leader over lower classes
2-3b Distinctly varied representations of royal figures and divinities
and function of funerary and palatial complexes – pyramids, tombs
and pylons. Use of clerestory architectural element

Guiding theme Guiding topic

Egyptian Canon Gods and afterlife
human figure religion
Continuity Nile
 • Pharaohs
• Canon
• dynasties
Geographic/cultural Context

➔ A land defined by its geography-the Nile (and regular flooding of),

sun sand=very good natural defenses. Role of Nile: Q role of the
Nile
• bringer of food and life; center of Egyptian culture
• From deep in Africa to Mediterranean
• The sole or connector of the nation
A land of mystery, wonderment, monuments and tradition, strange writings,
temples filled with riches that couldn’t (initially) be understood.

Key! - Respect for the gods and the afterlife

➔Land ruled by Pharaohs (god-kings) during dynasties for which the dates are still
being debated
➔ Pharaohs presented as youthful, formal, idealized (muscled-but not too much so
or he would be seen as a laborer), calm expression (thus in control), large in scale;
called the Egyptian canon with specific ways of representing, use of materials and
treatment of forms
By 5000 BC established sedentary life with agriculture
31 dynasties 2920 BCE – 332 BCE
Thus, Egypt as rich in art, culture
➔Egyptian civilization was generally very rigid, conservative and
unchanging
➔ by 332 had been ruled by other groups – Libyan, Nubian, Assyrian,
Persian. Then Alexander the Great and his successors and then Romans
Hieroglyphics – formal writing system

Key! concepts and ideas when studying Egypt

• The Nile river
• The human figure and its physical interpretation and
symbolism (the pharaoh’s continuity)
• The role of kingdoms
o The pharaoh as religious and spiritual leader
o Social hierarchy
o Organized and complex bureaucracy
• Architecture, specifically temples and tombs
 •
Thus, ability to unify and lead (politically) was relatively easy

Periods/Eras

Pre-Dynastic & Early Dynastic Era – 5000 – 2500

• c 3000 unification upper/lower kingdoms

Three Kingdoms of Egypt

• Old Kingdom – 2515 - 2134
• Middle Kingdom – 2040 - 1640
• New Kingdom – 1550 – 1070

First Millennium BCE

Terms:
Mastaba-Arabic for bench, a standard tomb type in early Egypt. Flat topped,
rectangular brick or stone building with sloping sides built over an
underground burial chamber
Osiris-primary god; king of the dead, oversaw/determined the resurrection
of the ruler
Horus- son of god Osiris and Isis (goddess of health, marriage, wisdom),
god of the sky and protector of the ruler of Egypt; shown as a
falcon
Pharaoh – term for king means “great house”; seen as direct descendent of
the sun god Re
Re (or Ra)- the sun god, creator of life and falcon-headed; father of all kings
Ka-in ancient Egypt the immortal human life force or spirit represented as a
sculpted likeness; present in mummified body
Capitals-heads at the top of a column
Atlantids-male statue columns
Caryatid-female statue columns
Pylon Temple-simple, massive, decorative gateway (pylon) with sloping
walls
Hypostyle halls-hall with columns supporting the roof
Peristyle Hall-open courtyard ringed with columns and covered walkways
Clearstory-the windowed wall/level above the roofline of the rest of the
building allowing sunlight to light interior of building
Portico-columned porch
Hieroglyphs-symbols
Axial plan-group of buildings all of whose separate elements are arranged
along a dominant center line

Art Context

Key! - Art helps to promote continuity of culture and preservation of the

afterlife
Architecture
• Tombs, temples
Figures (the canon)
Link of art and religion