Post on 24-Mar-2020
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
Slide 6
Slide 7
Slide 8
Slide 9
Slide 10
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’
Slide 15
Slide 16
Slide 17
Slide 18
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
Slide 29
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
Slide 33
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
Slide 36
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
Slide 41
Slide 42 b. Sphynx
1) mythological creature
2) guardian to kings’ tombs
Slide 43
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
Slide 47
Slide 48
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
Slide 50
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.
Slide 52
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
Slide 56
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)
Slide 59
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”
Slide 62
Slide 63 The
End