Paleolithic Period
Early Stone Age (from about 35,000 B.C.E. to 8,000 B.C.E.)
Mesolithic Period
Middle Stone Age (from about 8,000 B.C.E. to 6,000 B.C.E. for Eastern Mediterranean
Neolithic Period
Late Stone Age (Eastern Mediterranean: 6,000 B.C.E. to 3,500 B.C.E.
Monolith
a single, large stone
Radiocarbon Dating
Invented in 1955, it is based on the fact that living organisms continually absorb carbon isotopes, including radioactive carbon-14, which continually disintegrates into nonradioactive nitrogen-14; upon death of an organism, absorption ceases, but disinte
Dendrochronology
An alternative dating method based on the tree rings found in timber; bristle-cone pines in CA dating back as far as 4,000 B.C.E. serve as reference
Hunting iconography
predominates (mammoth, bison, reindeer, horses, boar, etc.); spears and traps; occasional hand prints
Neolithic Age
Giant stride forward in human development: fixed abodes and domestication of plants and animals; village cultures surrounded by fields; change from hunter to herdsman
Neolithic structures
Dolmen: tomb structures consisting of rows of stones, planted vertically in the ground, covered with a slab
Cromlech: huge stones arranged in a circle
Post-and-Lintel
Stone
Trilithons
five lintel-topped pairs of the largest sarsen stones, each weighing 45 to 50 tons
River valley cultures
Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia (today: parts of Syria and Iraq), the Nile delta of Egypt; move from the grassy uplands (beginnings of agriculture) to the river valleys and deltas rich in fertile soils due to river deposits
Ziggurat
stepped temple structure made of sun-dried brick
Bull
a symbol of fertility and strength, revered through the New East and the Mediterranean (cf. Picasso)
Cuneiform
(wedge-shaped) script
Sumerian cities
unified under ruler Sargon of Akkad of the Semitic Akkadian people
Age of metal
elaborate coiffure (curly locks), precious stones used for the embedded eye sockets (today lost); a stern portrait attesting to the ability of local craftsmen
Naram-Sin
ruled and conquered by military force; called governors of subordinate cities his "slaves," himself "King of the Four Quarters" (the universe)
Stele
shows war-like aspect of Naram-Sin's rule
Hieratic scale
king's body represented much larger than anybody else's to signify rank
Hammurabi
the first ruler to establish codified (written) laws for his realm recorded on this stele
King Nebuchadnezzar
a revival of Babylonian culture: Hanging Gardens, Ziggurat Temple of Bel (Bible: Babel)
Time Period in which Mesopotamia came under Assyrian dominance
1,000-year interval between Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian empire
Relief Sculpture
An art form at which the Assyrians excelled
Lamassu
Composite creatures between humans and animals
Center of Persian culture
Palace at Persepolis, built by Darius I and Xerxes I; destroyed by Greek conqueror Alexander the Great
Old Kingdom
ca. 2686-2155 B.C.E.
New Kingdom period
1570-1070 B.C.E.
Ptolemaic Period
Period of Greek domination in Egypt
Hieroglyphic Writing
Deciphered in the early 1820s by Jean-Fran�ois Champollion
Rosetta Stone contained
Greek, Demotic (Late Egyptian), and in formal hieroglyphic
Book of the Dead
papyrus scrolls that were left with mummies after burial ceremonies
Book of the Dead" contained
spells, prayers, formulas, counsels
Anubis (jackal-headed god)
weighs soul after death
necropolis
City of the Dead
Egyptian art
canonical
Canon
it follows a fixed set of rules from which artists rarely deviate and which turn into a standard
great importance in Egyptian culture
Care of the dead/afterlife
Egyptian religious belief
Ka lived on after death and needed to be provided for (preservation of body, food and drink, art, etc.)
Imhotep
first artist/architect of recorded history
Function
to protect the mummified king and to symbolize his absolute, god-like power
Re
the sun god
Re's symbol
ben-ben
pharaohs considered themselves
sons of Re
symbol for unified Egypt
lotus and papyrus decorations
Hawk (head)
symbol of the sun
New Kingdom
incursions from Syrian and Mespotamian uplands, new types of weaponry, conquests, new capital: Thebes
Pyramids were replaces by
mortuary temples carved directly out of the cliffs
Ramses II
Egypt's great warrior-pharaoh
Hypostyle Hall
Roof supported by columns, using post-and-lintel structures
Architecturally, monumental pylon temples with hypostyle halls are typical of
New Kingdom architecture
Egyptian Hypostyle design
clerestory, or raised, central rows of columns
More than a thousand years later, the design of pylon temples remained basically unchanged
conservatism of Egyptian art/architecture
New Kingdom - Amarna Period
marked break with the traditional canon of Egyptian art was during the rule of pharaoh Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaton
Akhenaton's "reforms
religion of Aton, abolished the native cult of Amen, moved capital from Thebes downriver to Tel el-Amarna
monotheistic rule
belief in only one god
Heightened degree of realism
temporary relaxation of the preoccupation with death
spirit of the Amarna Period
life-like appearance of individuals appreciated; Queen Nefertiti betrays a search for ideal beauty not unlike that of ancient Greece
1922
discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen
King Tut tomb contained
beaten gold, semiprecious stones
Hall of Bulls, Lascaux, ca. 15,000-18,000 B.C.E., Dordogne, France
Anatomical exaggerations suggest figures served as fertility fetishes
Stonehenge, ca. 2000 B.C.E., Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England
ca. 2100 B.C.E.
Advent of the age of metal
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, ca.
2300-2200 B.C.E., carved sandstone
Stele of Hammurabi, Susa, ca. 1880
B.C.E., carved Basalt stone
The Ishtar Gate, Babylon, ca. 575
B.C.E., glazed brick
Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions and Dying Lioness, Nineveh, ca. 650 B.C.E., carved Alabaster
ca. 500 B.C.E.
Rosetta Stone, Granodiorite stone,
Ptolemaic era (332-30 B.C.E.)
Psychostasis ("soul-raising") of Hu-Nefer, Thebes, Papyrus scroll, Late Period
(716-332 B.C.E.)
Palette of Narmer, Hierakonpolis, Upper
Egypt, ca. 3000 B.C.E., slate
Imhotep, Stepped Pyramid of King Zoser, Saqquara (necropolis of Memphis), ca. 2610 B.C.E.
Great Pyramids of Gizeh: Mykerinus, ca. 2460 B.C.E., Chefren, 2500 B.C.E., Cheops, ca. 2530 B.C.E.
The Great Sphinx, Gizeh, ca. 2530 B.C.E., cut Sandstone
Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri, ca. 1350 B.C.E.
example of a rock-cut funerary temple from the New Kingdom, highlighting the tendency towards monumental (gigantic) art and architecture during that period
Temple of Amen-Mut-Khonsu, Luxor, ca. 1370 B.C.E.
This example dates from the Ptolemaic Period, when Egypt came under Greek dominance
Queen Nefertiti, Tel-el-Amarna, ca. 1360 B.C.E., painted limestone
Death Mask of Tutankhamen, innermost coffin, ca. 1340 B.C.E., gold with inlay of semiprecious stones