Ancient Lineage-Based Cultures

Ancient Lineage-Based Cultures
• Ancient lineage-based cultures are pre-history.
– That is, they are cultures before the recorded word.
• Usually split into five distinct (but related) areas of study:
1. Europe
2. Native American Cultures
3. African Cultures
4. Egyptian Cultures
5. The Fertile Crescent

Europe
 Most important historical discovery is the Cave of
Lascaux, which used pictographs
 Pictographs—Pictures that tell a story without words
 Pictographs from the Cave of Lascaux use stylized drawings of the natural world and dyes made from the natural world.
 Blood
 Minerals
 Dyes from plants

Cave of Lascaux
Notice the semi-realistic versions of buffalo and the blood from the hunt.

Cave of Lascaux

Importance of Discovery
• 1 st example of art in human history (Paleolithic
Era)– 17,300 years old
• Realistic (but primitive) depictions of the hunt, markers for specific tribes, and generational paintings
• 1st use of “realism”—
– Animals in motion
– Perspective in animals

The Fertile Crescent
 Most notable for their use of cuneiform or ideogram language
 Ideograms– Words that are formed from pictures or symbols, rather than an accepted alphabet.
 Mesopotamia created the first epic hero, Gilgamesh
 The Epic of Gilgamesh tells of a culture that is polytheistic and seeks to understand the nature of death.
 First uniform code of conduct
 The Code of Hammurabi explains laws, rules, and regulations within Mesopotamian society.

Examples of Sumerian Cuneiform

Native Americans
• Native Americans tenet of “Use everything, and everything has a purpose” explains the focus of all culture
– Most notable art is applied, ceremonial, and often narrative.
• Belief in pattern of life seen in focus on patterns in art.

Native American Art
• Native Americans revered nature and practiced a type of animalism
– Animalism—The belief that animals can guide and influence humanity with their own often magical nature.
• Often, totems depicted a mix of man and animal together

Native American Art
• Notice again the use of natural colors and dyes in the blanket, an applied piece of art.
• Applied art, remember, is art that is used.

Native American Art
• Again, the applied art of the tepee.
• Notice the earth tones and the patterns on the tepee.

Egypt
• Egypt= Mummies
• The pyramids of Giza
• The largest and best-known is the Great Pyramid, or the Pyramid of Khufu.
• Covered in hieroglyphs
• “The Book of the Dead”

The Great Pyramid

Egyptian Hieroglyphs
• Egyptians “wrote” in hieroglyphs, a mixture of cuneiform and pictographs.
– Some accepted pictographs of Egyptian descent:

Hieroglyph Examples

Hieroglyph Examples

Hieroglyph Examples

African Culture
• Call and response music
– Drum as primary instrument, aside from voice
– A speaker or lead singer would sing chorus, then all would repeat together.
– Call and response is the basis for all popular music today and the primary reason we have choruses in our songs.
• Like Native Americans, they practiced a form of
Animalism

African Animal Masks
• Usually made out of wood or another natural resource and focused on the spirit of an animal
• Would be used in ceremonial dances asking for a gift from the animal gods.