chapter one: beginnings - gordon state...
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1
Chapter One:
Beginnings
Map 1.1 The Ancient World
Defining “Civilized”
• Urban life: permanent constructions
• System of regulatory government
• Class distinction (wealth and
occupation)
• Tools/skills --> production/trade
• Written communication
• Shared system of religious belief
2
Origins of Western Civilization
• Paleolithic Developments
• Tools
• Art
• Neolithic Developments
• Domestication of animals
• Cultivation of vegetation
• Community
• Tools / Weapons
1.4 Hall of the Bulls, c. 15,000–13,000 bce. Left wall, Lascaux (Dordogne), France. Largest bull c.
11´6˝ (3.5 m) long. © Caves of Lascaux, Dordogne, France/The Bridgeman Art Library
1.6 Venus of
Willendorf, c.
28,000–
23,000 bce.
From
Willendorf,
Austria.
Limestone,
41⁄4˝ (11 cm)
high.
Naturhistorisc
hes Museum,
Vienna,
Austria//©
Erich
Lessing/Art
Resource, NY
3
The Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.E.)
• Mesopotamia
• Sumerian (3500-2350 B.C.E.)
• Semitic (2350-612 B.C.E.)
• Egypt
• Aegean Cultures
Sumerian Culture
• Agricultural/Urban settlements
• “Fertile Crescent”
• Writing/record-keeping: Cuneiform
• Shared system of religious belief
• Civil ruler / Religious rulers
Epic of Gilgamesh
• Gilgamesh ruled at Uruk c. 2700 B.C.E.
• Composed in Sumerian (2000 B.C.E.) on
cuneiform tablets
• Pessimistic work
• Asserts universal questions about
human existence
4
Semitic Culture
• Akkadian Period
• King Sargon and descendants (2350-2150 B.C.E.)
• Focus on HUMAN achievement
• Babylonian Legacy
• King Hammurabi
• Assyrians
• Culmination of Mesopotamian culture
1.21 Stele of Hammurabi
(upper part), c. 1780 bce.
From Susa, Iran. Basalt,
entire stele height 7´4˝
(2.25 m) high. Louvre,
Paris, France//© Réunion
des Musées Nationaux
(Hervé Lewandowki)/Art
Resource, NY
• Asharnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.)
• Babylonian Kings
• Persia
The Assyrians
5
1.15B Reconstruction of the
White Temple and ziggurat
Ancient Egypt
• Manetho’s History of Egyptian Greek
• 31 dynasties / 4 groups:
• Old Kingdom (2700 B.C.E.)
• Middle Kingdom (1990 B.C.E.)
• New Kingdom (1570 B.C.E.)
• Late Period (1185-500 B.C.E.)
Ancient Egyptian Culture
• Unified and consistent
• Resistant to change
• Worldview affected by external events
6
Political Structure
• Pharaoh • Head of the central government
• Regarded as a living god
• Exercised absolute power
• Ordered and controlled visible world
• Priests • Preservation of religious beliefs
• Divine kingship of Pharaohs
Egyptian Religion
• Obsession with immortality / life after
death
• Book of the Dead
• Osiris, Isis, Horus
• Deities, subdeities, nature spirits
• Responsible for all aspects of existence
Egyptian Art
• Principal function of artists: to produce
images of deities
• Form of worship
• Standards set forth by Pharaoh
• Artists also provided temples and
shrines for honoring deities
7
The Old Kingdom
• Imhotep
• First architect known to history
• Pyramids
• Funerary monuments for pharaohs, upper class
• Mummification
• Preservation of the body was necessary for the survival of the soul
Great Age of the Pyramid
• Pyramids at Giza (Dynasty IV)
• Cheops
• Chefren
• Mycerinus
• Who built the pyramids?
• Farmers
• Slaves
Pyramids
• Constructed of limestone blocks
• Quarried, ferried, cut, dragged into place
• Center chamber contained mummified
body of pharaoh surrounded by
treasures
• Plundered by robbers
8
Chefren’s Sphinx
• Created as the guardian for Chefren’s
tomb at Giza
• Adopted as a divine symbol of the
mysterious and enigmatic (Greeks)
1.29 The Great Sphinx, c. 2575–2525 bce. At Gizeh, Egypt. Sandstone, c. 65´ (19.8 m) high, 240´ (73.2 m) long. © Steve Vidler/SuperStock
Art of the Old Kingdom
• Reflects confidence and certainty
• Idealized realism
• Conceptual, symbolic
9
Art of the Middle Kingdom
• Loss of trust in divine providence
• Artists attempted to recapture lofty
serenity of Old Kingdom
• Troubled spirit captured in weight and
somber expressions
The New Kingdom
• Artistic traditions continued
• Conceptual
• Pharaoh Amenhotep IV/ “Akhenaton”
• Massive religious/political reform
• Tel el-Amarna Art
• Tutankhamen
• Howard Carter (1922-1923)
1.36
Akhenaton,
Nefertiti, and
Three of
Their
Children, c.
1370–1350
bce. From
Amarna,
Egypt.
Limestone
relief, 17˝ (43
cm) high.
Ägyptisches
Museum,
Staatliche
Museen zu
Berlin, Berlin,
Germany//©
Bildarchiv
Preussischer
Kulturbesitz/
Art
Resource,
NY
10
1.35 Queen Nefertiti,
c. 1355–1335 bce.
From Tel el-Amarna,
Egypt. Painted
limestone, 20˝ (50.8
cm) high.
Ägyptisches
Museum, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin,
Berlin, Germany//©
Bildarchiv
Preussischer
Kulturbesitz
(Margarete
Büsing)/Art
Resource, NY
1.32 Temple of Ramses II, c. 1275–1225 bce. At Abu Simbel (now relocated), Egypt. Colossi c. 65´ (19.8 m) high. © Vanni/Art Resource, NY
The Late Period
• Artists revisited earlier period styles
• Recapture realism, volume
• Return to pyramid-shaped tombs
• Egypt invaded by Nubians (the Cush)
750-720 B.C.E.
• Nubians and Nobatae preserved ancient
culture
11
Aegean Culture
• Crete
• King Minos / Knossos
• Cyclades Islands
• Bronze tools
• Imaginative/humorous pottery
• Marble statues/idols
1.39 Female idol, ca.
2000 B.C.E.
Chalandriani, Syros,
Greece. Marble, 18 (22.8 cm) high.
National Archaeological Museum,
Athens, Greece.
The Bronze Age in Crete
• Arthur Evans, 1894-1900
• Early Minoan
• Increasing growth
• Contacts with Egypt and Mesopotamia
• Scattered Towns
12
Middle Minoan
• Evolution of large urban centers
• Art = lively and colorful
• Little interest in monumental art
• Writing system of hieroglyphic signs
1.43
Reconstruct
ion drawing
of the
palace at
Knossos
(Crete),
Greece, ca.
1700-1370
B.C.E
1.46 Snake
Goddess, ca.
1600 B.C.E.,
Temple
Repository,
palace at
Knossos
(Crete), Greece.
Faience, 13 ½” (34.3 cm) high.
Archaeological
Museum,
Herakleion,
Greece.
13
Late Minoan
• Period of rebuilding after earthquakes
• High point of Minoan culture
• Wall paintings
• Religion centered upon mother goddess
connected with fertility
1.50
Funerary
mask, c.
1600–1500
bce. From
Grave
Circle A,
Shaft
Grave V,
Mycenae,
Greece.
Beaten
gold, 101⁄8˝
(26 cm)
high.
National
Archaeolog
ical
Museum,
Athens,
Greece// ©
Nimatallah/
Art
Resource,
NY
Mycenaean Culture
• Heinrich Schliemann, 1870-1873
• The Trojan War (1250 B.C.E.)
• Strongly influenced by Minoan Culture
• Art = preoccupied with death and war
• Fall of the Mycenaean empire (1200
B.C.E.)
14
Chapter 1: Discussion Questions
• What can be determined about the roles of women in early civilizations based on their artistic depictions? Explain, citing examples from each culture.
• Based on the universal questions evoked in the Epic of Gilgamesh, what can we assume about the Sumerian people and their lifestyles? In what ways are their concerns shared by people of our culture and generation? Explain.
• What role did geography play in the development and preservation of Ancient Egyptian culture? In what fundamental ways was Egyptian culture different from the Mesopotamian and Aegean cultures?
• Discuss the role of the archeologist. What impact do the discoveries of ancient cultures have on us today? Explain.
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