Crenellations
Alternating High and low sections of a wall, giving a notched appearance and creating permanent defensive shields on top of the fortified buildings.
Cuneiform
An early form of writing with wedge shaped marks impressed into wet clay with a stylus, primarily used by ancient Mesopotamians.
Cylinder seals
A small cylindrical stone decorated with incised patterns. When rolled across soft cay or wax, the resulting raised pattern or design served in Mesopotamian and Indus Valley vultures as an identifying signature.
Gold leaf
Paper-thin sheets of hammered gold that are used in gilding. In some cases also used as a ground for paintings.
Hieratic scale
The use of differences in size to indicate relative importance. For example, with human figures, the larger the figure, the greater her or his importance.
Inlay
To set pieces of a material or materials into a surface to form a design. Also: material used in or decoration formed by this technique.
Lamassu
Supernatural guardian-protector of ancient Near Eastern palaces and throne rooms, often represented sculpturally as a combination of the bearded head of a man, powerful body of a lion or bull, wings of an eagle, and the horned headdress of a god, usually
Low relief
lower extent of projection of an image from its background (sculpture).
Portals
A grand entrance, door, or gate, usually to an important public and often decorated with sculpture.
Registers
A device used in systems of spatial definition. In painting, a register indicates the use of differing ground lines to differentiate layers of space within an image.
Registers in a relief Sculpture
The placement of self-contained bands or reliefs in a vertical arrangement.
Stele
A stone slab placed vertically and decorated with inscriptions or reliefs. Used as a grave marker or commemorative monument.
Stylus
An instrument with a pointed end (used for writing and printmaking), which makes a delicate line or scratch. Also a special writing tool for cuneiform writing with one pointed end and one triangular.
Votive figures
An image created as a devotional offering to a deity.
Ziggurat
In ancient Mesopotamia, a tall stepped tower of earthen materials, often supporting a shrine.
The Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia was the "land between the rivers" fertile for agriculture. Today known as Fertile Crescent.
Sumer
The cities and city-states developed along rivers of southern mesopotamia.
Cuneiform Writing Technique
Cuneiform was done onto wet clay with a stylus. Cuneiform originated from pictographs.
The Sound Box of the Great Lyre
From Ur, wood with inlaid shell in bitumen.
Stele of Naram-sin
One of the first works of art created to celebrate a specific achievement of an individual ruler. Carved in stone by Sargon's grandson Naram-sin.
Conforms to artistic practice: hierarchic scale.
Shape of stone slab is part of the composition.
King Urnammu of Ur
sponsored building campaigns, Nanna Ziggurat
Babylon
Hammurabi's capital city
Hittites
Most powerful culture in Anatolia Mountains to resist Mesopotamian domination.
First to work with iron.
The Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi's systematic codification of his people's rights, duties, and punishments for wrong doings.
Stele of Hammurabi
c. 1792-1750 BCE. Discovered in Susa, made of Basalt.
Had Code of Hammurabi engraved on it.
Lion Gate
Hattusha, c. 1400 BCE. Limestone.
Assyria
Northern Mesopotamia.
Assyrian rulers built huge palaces, decorated with relief sculptures of battle scenes.
Kalhu (Nimrud)
Assyrian ruler. Established capital Kalhu named after himself. Undertook an ambitious building program using mainly giant mud bricks.
Dur Sharrukin (Khorsabad)
Assyrian capital for Sargon II.
Home to Sargon's palace complex, guarded by lamassuses.
Nineveh
Capital for Assyrian King Assurbanipal.
Neo-Babylonia
Assyria after being invaded and conquered.
sumerian temples
names such as "the offering table of heaven" and "the waiting room of the gods" were given to
polytheism
worshipping many gods and godesses
cylindrical
adjective that would best describe sumerian votive figures
pictograph
a highly styleized depiction of something that serves as the symbol of that things
crenellation
alternating higher and lower sections of a wall
bronze
metal first created in mesopotamia
epic of Gilgamesh
the worlds oldest epic tale, told in poetry
votive figure
an image created as a devotional offering to a deity, small sculpture
glaze
the liquid applied to a surface, that when fired in a kiln, produces a shiny waterproof surface