Paleolithic
The "old" Stone Age, during which humankind produced the
first sculptures and paintings
Neolithic
The "New" Stone Age
Prehistoric
The time before written language
Conceptual representation
The representation of the fundamental distinguishing properties of a
person or object, not the way a figure or object appears in space and
light at a specific moment.
Optical representation
The representation of people and objects seen from a fixed viewpoint
Post and lintel
A system of construction in which two posts support a lintel and form
a span
Megaliths
Greek "great stone". A large, roughly hewn stone used in
the construction of monumental prehistoric structures
Henge
An arrangement of megalith stones in a circle, often surrounded by a ditch
Mesopotamia
The Land Between Two Rivers
Fertile Crescent
The area between and along the Tigris and Euphrates that had rich
soil and was a prime location for settlements
Cuneiform
Latin "wedge shaped". A system of writing used in ancient
Mesopotamia, in which wedge-shaped characters were produced by
pressing a stylus into a soft clay tablet, which was then baked or
otherwise allowed to harden
Votive Offering
A gift of gratitude to a deity
Subtractive sculpture
A kind of sculpture technique in which materials are taken away from
the original mass; carving
Military standard
Banner carried into war by an army
Registers
One of a series of superimposed bands or friezes in a pictorial
narrative, or the particular levels on which motifs are placed
Relief
In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are
part. The degree of relief is designated high, low, or sunken. In the
last, the artists cuts the design into the surface so that the highest
projecting parts of the image are no higher than the surface itself.
Hierarchy of scale
An artistic convention in which greater size indicated greater importance
Stele
A carved stone slab used to mark graves or to commemorate historical events
Ziggurat
In ancient Mesopotamia architecture, a tiered platform for a temple
Upper Egpyt
The Southern part of Egypt due to the direction the Nile flows
Lower Egpyt
Northern Egypt
Pharaoh
An Ancient Egyptian king (living God)
Frieze
Any sculpted or painted band
palette
In ancient Egypt, a slate slab used for preparing makeup.
composite view
A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in
profile and another is shown frontally; also called twisted perspective
Mortuary temple
In Egyptian architecture, a temple erected for the worship of a
deceased pharaoh
hieroglyphs
a symbol or picture used to confer meaning in hieroglyphic writing
hypostyle hall
A hall with a roof supported by columns
pyramid
Tomb for a king
clerestory
The fenestrated part of a building that rises above the roofs of the
other parts. The oldest known clerestories are Egyptian.
axial plan
The parts of a building are organized longitudinally, or along a
given axis
Amarna period
Period of drastic change instituted by pharaoh Akhenaton
1353-1335 BCE
polytheism
The belief in multiple Gods
monotheism
The worship of one all-powerful god
labyrinth
Maze. The English word derives from the maze-like plan of the Minoan
palace at Knossos
corbeled arch
An arch formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses,
cantilevered inward until the blocks meet at a keystone
fresco
painting on lime plaster, either dry or wet. In the latter method,
the pigments are mixed with water and become chemically bound to the
freshly laid lime plaster.
relieving triangle
In Mycenaean architecture, the triangular opening above the lintel
that serves to lighten the weight to be carried by the lintel itself
cyclopean masonry
A method of stone construction, named after the mythical Cyclopes,
using massive, irregular blocks without mortar, characteristic of the
Bronze Age fortifications of Tiryns and other Mycenaean sites