Pre-Historic/Ancient Near East

1. Pre-Historic/Ancient Near East

2. Pre-Historic Civilizations The Paleolithic Period – 30,000 B.C.E. to 10,000 B.C.E.

3. Pre-Historic Civilization (Cont.) Earliest examples of creativity of mankind Visual Arts – Sculptures and Cave Painting

4. Painting – The Cave of Lascaux France

5. Characteristics of Cave Paintings • Animal Images in Profile • Black Outlines • Limited Colors (Red, Yellow, Ochre, Brown, Black) • Attempt at Naturalism and Realism • Purpose: Ritual (Hunting)

6. Human Figures in Cave Paintings • No attempt at naturalism • More stick-like in appearance Not creating realistic images of humans is probably from superstitions/beliefs in powers of images. These beliefs are still present in some cultures today.

7. Sculpture • Human and Animal Sculptures -Most common human figures were fertility figures and “Venus” figures. • Most sculptures were “found objects” that required very little manipulation • Used for Ritual Purposes

8. Bison Licking Its Flanks ca. 14,000 BC Dordogne, France

9. Venus of Willendorf c. 24,000-22,000 BCE Oolitic limestone 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm) high

10. Architecture • Post and Lintel Construction • Use of Megalithic Stones • Purpose: Ritual

11. Stonehengebetween 3000 and 1700 B.C.E. • Built in three stages • Circular Arrangement • Post and Lintel Construction

12. Music, Dance, and Drama Minimal Physical Evidence • Footprints in dance-like patterns on cave floors (Dance) • Objects possible used as instruments found in caves (Music) • Images of masked figures (Drama/Storytelling) Purpose: Ritual

13. Mesopotamia The Fertile Crescent/The Cradle of Civilization

14. Earliest Civilizations in area between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Known Civilizations of this Region (in Chronological Order): Sumerian Assyrian Akkadian Neo-Babylonian Neo-Sumarian Persian Babylonian

15. Cuneiform – Writing System Writing with Wedge-Shaped Characters on Clay Tablets created by Sumerians

16. Sumerian Visual Art Examples • Sculpture • Ceramics • Jewelry

17. Tell Asmar Sculptures • Free-Standing Sculptures of Human Figures • Large Eyes (Windows to the Soul) • Posed Frontal, Stiff and Formal • Size Shows Rank or Importance • Beards and Pleated Skirts Symbols of Power • Hands Clasped as if Praying, Looking Upward • Purpose - Ritual

18. Tell Asmar Statues

19. Sumerian Sculpture Use of Image of a Bull Common in Sumerian and other cultures Symbolic of Power and Strength

20. Ceramics Exampleca. 3100-2900 B.C.Baked clay, painted17.2 cm H, 23.5 cm W

21. Jewelry ExamplePuabi's headdressca. 2550–2400 B.C

22. Architecture - Ziggurats Temples in the form of Stepped Mounds of earth and brick. Symbolic of man reaching toward the gods in heaven. Ziggurat of Urc. 2100 B.C.E. built by the king Ur-Nammu

23. Sumerian Musical Instrument Bull-Headed Lyre - Lyre of Queen Puabi, Ur, c. 2685 BCE

24. Dance and Drama • Evidence of Singing and Dancing in Written Sumerian Texts and on Relief Sculptures – Usually Religious in Nature. • Dance by both Men and Women in Religious Ceremonies and for Social Purposes in Assyrian Culture • Babylonians had Religious Dance where Dancers Performed in a Ring around a Sacred Sculpture

25. Egyptian Civilization 3100 B.C.E. – 322 B.C.E

26. 3 Kingdoms – Old, Middle, and New • Kingdoms divided into Dynasties – a Single Family in Power • Following Last of Dynasties, Ruled by Hellenistic Greece • 30 B.C.E – Egypt becomes a province of Rome

27. Egyptian Culture • Dependence on the Nile River • Life and Culture Centered on Religion • Belief in Life After Death • Pharoah (ruler) a God on Earth • Ka (soul) reborn after death to join the gods in the afterlife • Body preserved to house the ka (mummification and pyramid burial)

28. Egyptian Painting • Most for Tombs and Temples • Scenes First Carved in Low Relief into Limestone Walls, then Painted in Bright Colors on Top of a Layer of Dry Plaster. • Scenes Reflected Egyptian Dieties and Daily Life – Necessary to Ease the Journey to the Land of the Dead and to Provide for them in the Afterlife

29. Painting Rules • Body in Correct Proportion • Faces and Legs in Profile • Eyes, Shoulder, and Torso from Front • Pharoahs and Nobles in Stiff Poses, Standing or Sitting on Lines Representing the Ground • Persons of Less Importance in Comfortable Movement and Natural Poses. • Flesh of Men – Dark Red or Brown • Flesh of Women – Yellow, White, or Pale Brown

30. Egyptian Painting (cont.)

31. Paintings from the tomb of UnsuNew Kingdom, 18th Dynasty

32. Sculpture • Commemorate a Person or Event or Substitute for a real person • Huge in Scale • Stone and Wooden Statues placed in tombs to represent the dead • Relief carvings and model figures of daily life or activities of the dead in the next world

33. Old Kingdom Sculpture • Pharaohs – Seated with hands on knees or Standing, one leg forward, arms at side or crossed in front. • Stiff, Formal, and Solemn • Size to show social order: Pharaohs larger than life Scribes and Court Officials life-sized Workers/Peasants smallest, always shown working • Statues of Gods as Animals reflecting their personalities

34. Khafre!

35. Middle Kingdom

36. New Kingdom

37. The Great Sphinx

38. Facts about the Sphinx • Head of Sphinx carved in about 2500 BC Face is that of the Pharaoh Khafre, measures 4.1 m wide • Sphinx is 73 m long, 20 m high. Carved from the rock, different layers eroding at different rates. Head cut from harder strata than the lower body. • Guards Khafre’s Pyramid

39. Egyptian Architecture • Primary focus was creation of temples and tombs • Most famous tombs, the pyramids, were built to protect the bodies of Pharoahs for the afterlife and to serve as a symbol of the pharoah’s power.

40. Development of Pyramids: Phase One Developed from Mastabas which were flat roofed, single story buildings with sloping sides. “Cities of the dead”

41. Phase Two– Stepped Pyramids Most Commonly had four or six steps Stepped Pyramid of Djoser, 2600 B.C.E. Designed by Imhotep

42. Phase Three – True Pyramids The Great Pyramids at Giza (Menkaure, Khufu, Khafre – left to right)

43. Inside Khufu’s Pyramid

44. Egyptian Dance, Drama, and Music • Egyptians the first great culture to make music and dance a part of life for all social classes • Music and Dance also used for religious/ritual purposes • Tomb and Temple paintings show evidence of music and dance, but no written music survives.

45. Egyptian Drama, Dance, and Music (cont.) • Egyptian music based on Pentatonic scale of 5 whole steps (no half steps) • Choreography of Egyptian dance appears to consist of complex range of movements from acrobatics (splits, cartwheels, and backbends) to slow, elegant, and more formal dance steps. • Drama – religious performances of drama and Satirical plays

46. Evidence of Music in Egyptian Art Works

47. African Culture • Tribal Based Culture • Animism – belief that all animals, plants, and objects have souls • Respect for nature • Ancestor worship • All arts had a functional purpose relating to needs of everyday life and religion

48. African Dance, Drama, and Music • All relative to ritual and worship • Drama – Storytelling to: 1. Pass on history and beliefs 2. Show respect for ancestors • Music and Dance accompanied storytelling in celebrations • Masks worn and faces and bodies painted for ritual celebrations

49. What they celebrated: • Milestones of Life: Death, Birth, Marriage, Reaching Adulthood • Successful Hunt or Harvest • Success in Battle • Change of Seasons

50. Examples of African Art & Masks Ashanti King Stool Dan Mask