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Learning Goals
After reading the chapter, you should be able to do the following:
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Identify the works and define the terms featured in the chapter
Describe the development of writing
Know the main sites, civilizations, and rulers featured in the chapter
Know the gods and their functions within ancient Near Eastern societies
Discuss iconography, convention, and style
Identify types of ancient Near Eastern art and artifacts, and discuss their function and
meaning
List examples of historical "firsts"
Compare Mesopotamian with Achaemenid forms
Discuss the issue of provenience and its importance
Locate the main Near Eastern civilizations on a map of the region
Ziggurat of King Urnammu, Ur
c 2500 B.C.
Ziggurat of King Urnammu, Ur (El Muqeiyar), Iraq. c
2500 BC
(northeastern façade, with restored stairs),
Photo© LaCour Slide Library
Living With Art Slide Set Photo© LaCour Slide Library
Living With Art Slide Set
Terms
Apadana
Arch
a curved architectural member, generally consisting of wedge-shaped blocks (voussoirs), which is used to span an
opening; it transmits the downward pressure laterally.
Armature
(a) a metal framework for a stained-glass window; (b) a fixed, inner framework supporting a sculpture made of a flexible
material.
Attribute
an object closely identified with, and thought of as belonging to, a specific individual—particularly, in art, a deity or saint.
Barrel vault
Base
(a) that on which something rests; (b) the lowest part of a wall or column considered as a separate architectural feature.
bas-relief
see low relief
Capital
the decorated top of a column or pilaster, providing a transition from the shaft to the entablature.
Cella
Citadel
a fortress or other fortified area placed in an elevated or commanding position.
City-state
Column
a cylindrical support, usually with three parts—base, shaft, and capital.
Composite view,
profile view
cone mosaic
a surface decorated by pressing pieces (usually colored and of conical shape) of stone or baked clay into damp plaster.
Convention
a custom, practice, or principle that is generally recognized and accepted.
Crenellated
having a series of indentations, like those in a battlement.
Cuneiform
a form of writing consisting of wedge-shaped characters, used in ancient Mesopotamia.
cylinder seal
a small cylinder of stone or other material engraved in intaglio on its outer surface and used (especially in Mesopotamia)
to roll an impression on wet clay.
Diorite
Facing
an outer covering or sheathing.
Foreshortening
Friezes or registers
See register
Glaze
(a) in oil painting, a layer of translucent paint or varnish, sometimes applied over another color or ground, so that light
passing through it is reflected back by the lower surface and modified by the glaze; (b) in pottery, a material applied in a
thin layer that, when fired, fuses with the surface to produce a glossy, nonporous effect.
glyptic art
the art of carving or engraving, especially on small objects such as seals or precious stones.
Ground line
Gypsum
Relief sculpture, “in the round” sculpture
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hierarchical
proportions
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the representation of more important figures as larger than less important ones.
Historical narrative
impost block
a block between a capital of a column and the springing of an arch.
Intaglio
a printmaking process in which lines are incised into the surface of a plate or print form (e.g., engraving and etching).
Investiture
Lamassu
in Assyrian art, figures of bulls or lions with wings and human heads.
lapis lazuli
a semiprecious blue stone; used to prepare the blue pigment known as ultramarine.
load-bearing
construction
a system of construction in which solid forms are superimposed on one another to form a tapering structure.
Mud bricks
Narrative
Pictographs
Pillar
a large vertical architectural element, usually freestanding and load-bearing.
Plinth
(a) in Classical architecture, a square slab immediately below the circular base of a column; (b) a square block serving as a
base for a statue, vase, etc.
provenience or
provenance
origin, derivation; the act of coming from a particular source.
Register
a range or row, especially when one of a series.
Repousse
Shaft
the vertical, cylindrical part of a column that supports the entablature.
Stele
an upright stone slab or pillar, usually carved or inscribed for commemorative purposes.
Votive offering
Ziggurat
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The Ancient Near East, c. 9000–300 B.C.
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Neolithic (c. 9000–5th millennium B.C.)
Jericho skulls; Çatal Hüyük; polytheism
Mesopotamia (c. 4500–c. 600 B.C.)
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Ziggurats; urbanization; cylinder seals
Cuneiform; the Epic of Gilgamesh
Early Dynastic Period (Ur One) (2,900 – 2,334 BCE
Akkad: (Ur Two) (2,334-2,150 BCE
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Sargon; Naram-Sin
Neo-Sumerian: (1,150-2,112 BCE/ 2,112-2,004 BCE: Ur Three/ Neo Sumerian Revival)
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Gudea
Babylon: (,800-1,600 BCE)
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Hammurabi's law code
Assyrian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire (1,300 – 630 BCE)
International Period (1,600-1,000 BCE:)
Anatolia: Hittite Empire (c. 1450–1200 B.C.)
Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 B.C.)
Iran (c. 5000–331 B.C.); Achaemenid Empire
Scythians (8th–4th centuries B.C.);
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Animal Style:
Summary
It is thought that the region of the Ancient Near East is where civilization first developed. Human
civilization emerged in two separate places at the same time Mesopotamia and Egypt had distinct
characters and were in contact from earliest beginnings and their destinies were interwoven.
It is likely that the same pressures forced the inhabitants of each region to abandon village life. Symbolic
language enhances will allow group members to relate to the powers of the universe and each other.
The knowledge and application of writing reached:
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Egypt with the pharaohs of the 1st dynasty c. 2850 BC
Crete & Indus Valley c. 2500 BC
China c. 1500 BC
Mexico and Peru c. 100-500 BC
Understanding the art of Mesopotamia is an important base for the study of cultures throughout the
world. Mesopotamia is called the "land between the rivers." This area between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers gave birth to these remarkable changes.
The river valleys of these early civilizations were very different. While the Nile was a narrow fertile strip
protected by desert on each side, the Valley of Tigris and Euphrates was a wide shallow trough with few
natural defenses. The valley is crisscrossed by two great rivers and tributaries and is easily encroached
from any direction. The Mesopotamian geography tended to discourage uniting area under single ruler.
The first rulers who tried to unite area after 1000 years of Mesopotamian civilization succeeded for only
brief periods and with almost constant warfare. SO the political history of Mesopotamia has no
underlying theme like the divine kingship in Egypt. Instead, the cultural history of Mesopotamia is filled
with local rivalries, foreign incursions, sudden upsurge & sudden collapse of military power.
Nonetheless, Mesopotamia displays a remarkable continuity of cultural & artistic traditions.In Sumer,
the foundations of religious structure emerged. Major natural forces were personified—treated, that is,
as though they were human, but with enormously greater power, including the power of eternal life.
Each such personified force or god took his or her place in a divine political society, ruled over by Anu,
god of the sky. Each year the great gods met on New Year’s day to decide what would happen that year.
The god lived in a house—the temple—and inhabited a cult statue. He or she had to be fed, amused,
Head of an Akkadian ruler (Sargon I?), Nineveh, Iraq, c.
2300 B.C,
Bronze,
apx 12" tall
Louvre, Paris
LaCour Slide Library, Across Time Slide Set
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praised, etc. The descendents of Sumeria—the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans, and Slavs—continued
to honor gods of sky, thunder, sun, moon, and the rest whose powers and character had first been
deified by the speculations of ancient Sumerian priests.
In Sumer, the wheel first rolled upon a grid work of city streets and cuneiform writing was first inscribed
on clay. The Sumerians were not merely master architects and super hydraulic engineers, they were
also the inventors of the military phalanx, a devastating and seemingly omnipotent weapon. From out
of their imaginations came deep-sea merchants, formalized schools, epic poetry (The Epic of
Gilgamesh), the arch, the city, traffic jams, pollution, and the world’s first great crisis in ecology. It was
here, not Egypt, or Babylon, or Greece, or Rome, that men first codified rational laws to govern human
behavior. The invented democracy, crude but recognizable, and the concept of empire, brutal and
familiar.
Founders of Mesopotamian tradition = SUMERIANS. They were called Sumerians after the region of
Sumer the confluence of Tigris/ Euphrates.
Fundamental. arts of all high civilizations invented:
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writing
simplifying pictures into signs
angular wedge shaped cuneiform strokes
pressed into wet clay
split reed stylus
several hundred letters
mathematics
monumental architecture
systematic scientific observation of heavens
Temple worship
the kingly art of the government (dominant)
Control of the region changed back and forth between non-Semitic groups like the Sumerians and
Semetic groups like the Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, Assyrians
Common heritage= largely the creation of the founders of the Mesopotamian tradition = SUMERIANS
Their religions, based on gods of nature and the earthly ruler as representative of the god determined
the political structures of the region In many prehistoric rituals the male impersonated the role of the
seed and so assumed the role of leader.
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Questions
General
1. When and where was domestic agriculture thought to have begun and what was its
importance for art history?
2. Mesopotamia means ___________ _____________ _________ ____________
3. Name the 2 rivers that designate the Mesopotamia area.
It is helpful to locate key sites in
the Ancient Near East on a map.
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Jericho (Israel)
Çatal Hüyük- Anatolia (Turkey)
Tigris/ Euphrates (Iraq)
Babylon (Iraq)
Assyria (Iraq)
Persia (Iran)
Uruk Period
(3500-3100 BCE)
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Presentation of offerings to Inanna (Warka Vase), from Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq, ca. 3200–
3000 BCE. Alabaster, 3’ 1/4” high.
Sumer
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Early Dynastic Period c. 2800-2300 BCE)
Sumer occupied what modern day country?
What are the characteristics of Sumerian religion?
List at least 3 stylistic conventions used by Sumerian artists.
List 7 great contributions of Sumerian culture.
What materials did the Sumerians sue to construct their temples?
How did the ziggurat function?
What were its structural characteristics? How was it oriented? What is mean by the “bent
axis” approach?
What is thought to be portrayed on the Standard of Ur?
Statuettes of two worshipers, from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar), Iraq,
ca. 2700 BCE. Gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone, male figure 2’ 6” high.
War side of the Standard of Ur, from Tomb 779, Royal Cemetery, Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar),
Iraq, ca. 2600 BCE.
Akkad
1. How did the Akkadian political structure differ from the Mesopotamia?
2. What was a cylinder seal and how was it used?
3. The Head of an Akkadian Ruler combines both naturalism and formal abstract patterning. List
3 features that you are examples of each:
Naturalism:
Abstract Patterning:
4. What features of the Stele of Naram-Sin indicate his super-human status?
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Head of an Akkadian ruler, from Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik), Iraq, ca. 2250–2200 BCE. Copper,
1’ 2 3/8” high.
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Victory stele of Naram-Sin, from Susa, Iran, 2254–2218 BCE. Pink sandstone, 6’ 7” high.
Neo-Sumerian (Gudea)
1. Gudea Worshipping from Telloh, Iraq
2. Gudea was a ruler from the city of ______________.
3. There are about _______ (number) of statues of Gudea that have survived.
4. These statues of Gudea were placed in the _________ to render perpetual services.
5. What type of stone was used to carve Gudea? ______________ What is the significance of
this material?
6. Describe Gudea’s physical appearance.
7. Why is the statue cylindrical or conical?
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Seated statue of Gudea holding temple plan, from Girsu (modern Telloh), Iraq, ca. 2100 BCE.
Diorite, 2’ 5” high.
Statuettes from the Abu Temple, Tell Asmar, c. 2700 –
2500 B.C.
Marble with shell limestone inlay
LaCour Slide Library, Across Time Slide Set
Head of an Akkadian ruler (Sargon I?),
Nineveh, Iraq, c. 2300 B.C,
Bronze,
apx 12" tall
Gudea with temple plan, Lagash, Iraq, c. 2100 B.C.,
from Lagash (Telloh), Louvre, Paris
LaCour Slide Library, Art Across Time Slide set
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Old Babylonian Period
(1,800-1,600 BCE)
1. What is the significance of the Stele of Hammurabi?
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Helpful Text Box—Hammurabi’s Law Code, Babylon: City of Wonders
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Stele with law code of Hammurabi, from Susa, Iran, ca. 1780 BCE. Basalt, 7’ 4” high.
Stele inscribed with the Law Code of Hammurabi, Susa,
(Iran), c. 1792 – 1750 B.C. Basalt, entire stele apx. 7’4”
high, Louvre
LaCour Slide Library, Art Through the Ages Slide set
Assyria
(1,300 – 630 BCE: Assyrian Period)
1. What subjects were commonly portrayed in Assyrian reliefs?
Dying Lioness (detail of The Great Lion Hunt), from the
palace of King Assurbanipal, Nineveh, c. 668 – 627 B.C
LaCour Slide Library, Art Through the Ages Slide set
Neo Babylonian
(612-538 BCE)
1. Who was Ishtar/Inanna? Goddess of ____________ and ____________
2. Name 3 animals found on the Ishtar Gate and what they symbolize.
Ishtar Gate (reconstructed), Babylon, c. 575 B.C.
Source: AICT- Allan Kohl
Persia
(538 – 330BCE: Achaeminid dynasty)
1. Name 3 cultures that influenced the style of the Palace at Persepolis and its reliefs.
2. Name the Greek who burned the Palace at Persepolis. Why did he destroy it?
Potential Unit Exam Essay Questions
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Describe the stylistic conventions and iconography in ancient Near Eastern art. Cite
examples and explain their function.
Compare the seated statue of Gudea with the largest Tell Asmar statue. Consider the
formal elements, the iconography, and the context.
How is political power shown in ancient Near Eastern art? Discuss the victory stele of
Naram-Sin, the Law Code of Hammurabi, and the reliefs of King Assurnasirpal II.
Describe some of the ways in which the Mesopotamians used art for political purposes.
Cite specific examples.
Discuss the representations of the human head in ancient Near Eastern art. Consider the
Jericho skulls, the bronze head of Sargon, the female head from Uruk, and the head of
Gudea.
Discuss the representations of guardian figures in ancient Near Eastern art: the Hattusas
lions and the Lamassu.
Discuss the iconography of the lion in ancient Near Eastern art.
What are the differences between the periods—mainly in terms of how the king was
regarded? How did these differences manifest in the artwork of these periods?
Bull capital from the royal audience hall of the palace of
Artaxerxes II, from Susa, Persia,
c 375 BC. Gray marble, 7'7" high, 12'3" wide.
Louvre, Paris. (PERSIAN)
AICT- Allan Kohl