1

Chapter One:

Beginnings

Map 1.1 The Ancient World

Defining “Civilized”

• Urban life: permanent constructions

• System of regulatory government

• Class distinction (wealth and

occupation)

• Tools/skills --> production/trade

• Written communication

• Shared system of religious belief

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Origins of Western Civilization

• Paleolithic Developments

• Tools

• Art

• Neolithic Developments

• Domestication of animals

• Cultivation of vegetation

• Community

• Tools / Weapons

1.4 Hall of the Bulls, c. 15,000–13,000 bce. Left wall, Lascaux (Dordogne), France. Largest bull c.

11´6˝ (3.5 m) long. © Caves of Lascaux, Dordogne, France/The Bridgeman Art Library

1.6 Venus of

Willendorf, c.

28,000–

23,000 bce.

From

Willendorf,

Austria.

Limestone,

41⁄4˝ (11 cm)

high.

Naturhistorisc

hes Museum,

Vienna,

Austria//©

Erich

Lessing/Art

Resource, NY

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The Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.E.)

• Mesopotamia

• Sumerian (3500-2350 B.C.E.)

• Semitic (2350-612 B.C.E.)

• Egypt

• Aegean Cultures

Sumerian Culture

• Agricultural/Urban settlements

• “Fertile Crescent”

• Writing/record-keeping: Cuneiform

• Shared system of religious belief

• Civil ruler / Religious rulers

Epic of Gilgamesh

• Gilgamesh ruled at Uruk c. 2700 B.C.E.

• Composed in Sumerian (2000 B.C.E.) on

cuneiform tablets

• Pessimistic work

• Asserts universal questions about

human existence

4

Semitic Culture

• Akkadian Period

• King Sargon and descendants (2350-2150 B.C.E.)

• Focus on HUMAN achievement

• Babylonian Legacy

• King Hammurabi

• Assyrians

• Culmination of Mesopotamian culture

1.21 Stele of Hammurabi

(upper part), c. 1780 bce.

From Susa, Iran. Basalt,

entire stele height 7´4˝

(2.25 m) high. Louvre,

Paris, France//© Réunion

des Musées Nationaux

(Hervé Lewandowki)/Art

Resource, NY

• Asharnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.)

• Babylonian Kings

• Persia

The Assyrians

5

1.15B Reconstruction of the

White Temple and ziggurat

Ancient Egypt

• Manetho’s History of Egyptian Greek

• 31 dynasties / 4 groups:

• Old Kingdom (2700 B.C.E.)

• Middle Kingdom (1990 B.C.E.)

• New Kingdom (1570 B.C.E.)

• Late Period (1185-500 B.C.E.)

Ancient Egyptian Culture

• Unified and consistent

• Resistant to change

• Worldview affected by external events

6

Political Structure

• Pharaoh • Head of the central government

• Regarded as a living god

• Exercised absolute power

• Ordered and controlled visible world

• Priests • Preservation of religious beliefs

• Divine kingship of Pharaohs

Egyptian Religion

• Obsession with immortality / life after

death

• Book of the Dead

• Osiris, Isis, Horus

• Deities, subdeities, nature spirits

• Responsible for all aspects of existence

Egyptian Art

• Principal function of artists: to produce

images of deities

• Form of worship

• Standards set forth by Pharaoh

• Artists also provided temples and

shrines for honoring deities

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The Old Kingdom

• Imhotep

• First architect known to history

• Pyramids

• Funerary monuments for pharaohs, upper class

• Mummification

• Preservation of the body was necessary for the survival of the soul

Great Age of the Pyramid

• Pyramids at Giza (Dynasty IV)

• Cheops

• Chefren

• Mycerinus

• Who built the pyramids?

• Farmers

• Slaves

Pyramids

• Constructed of limestone blocks

• Quarried, ferried, cut, dragged into place

• Center chamber contained mummified

body of pharaoh surrounded by

treasures

• Plundered by robbers

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Chefren’s Sphinx

• Created as the guardian for Chefren’s

tomb at Giza

• Adopted as a divine symbol of the

mysterious and enigmatic (Greeks)

1.29 The Great Sphinx, c. 2575–2525 bce. At Gizeh, Egypt. Sandstone, c. 65´ (19.8 m) high, 240´ (73.2 m) long. © Steve Vidler/SuperStock

Art of the Old Kingdom

• Reflects confidence and certainty

• Idealized realism

• Conceptual, symbolic

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Art of the Middle Kingdom

• Loss of trust in divine providence

• Artists attempted to recapture lofty

serenity of Old Kingdom

• Troubled spirit captured in weight and

somber expressions

The New Kingdom

• Artistic traditions continued

• Conceptual

• Pharaoh Amenhotep IV/ “Akhenaton”

• Massive religious/political reform

• Tel el-Amarna Art

• Tutankhamen

• Howard Carter (1922-1923)

1.36

Akhenaton,

Nefertiti, and

Three of

Their

Children, c.

1370–1350

bce. From

Amarna,

Egypt.

Limestone

relief, 17˝ (43

cm) high.

Ägyptisches

Museum,

Staatliche

Museen zu

Berlin, Berlin,

Germany//©

Bildarchiv

Preussischer

Kulturbesitz/

Art

Resource,

NY

10

1.35 Queen Nefertiti,

c. 1355–1335 bce.

From Tel el-Amarna,

Egypt. Painted

limestone, 20˝ (50.8

cm) high.

Ägyptisches

Museum, Staatliche

Museen zu Berlin,

Berlin, Germany//©

Bildarchiv

Preussischer

Kulturbesitz

(Margarete

Büsing)/Art

Resource, NY

1.32 Temple of Ramses II, c. 1275–1225 bce. At Abu Simbel (now relocated), Egypt. Colossi c. 65´ (19.8 m) high. © Vanni/Art Resource, NY

The Late Period

• Artists revisited earlier period styles

• Recapture realism, volume

• Return to pyramid-shaped tombs

• Egypt invaded by Nubians (the Cush)

750-720 B.C.E.

• Nubians and Nobatae preserved ancient

culture

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Aegean Culture

• Crete

• King Minos / Knossos

• Cyclades Islands

• Bronze tools

• Imaginative/humorous pottery

• Marble statues/idols

1.39 Female idol, ca.

2000 B.C.E.

Chalandriani, Syros,

Greece. Marble, 18 (22.8 cm) high.

National Archaeological Museum,

Athens, Greece.

The Bronze Age in Crete

• Arthur Evans, 1894-1900

• Early Minoan

• Increasing growth

• Contacts with Egypt and Mesopotamia

• Scattered Towns

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Middle Minoan

• Evolution of large urban centers

• Art = lively and colorful

• Little interest in monumental art

• Writing system of hieroglyphic signs

1.43

Reconstruct

ion drawing

of the

palace at

Knossos

(Crete),

Greece, ca.

1700-1370

B.C.E

1.46 Snake

Goddess, ca.

1600 B.C.E.,

Temple

Repository,

palace at

Knossos

(Crete), Greece.

Faience, 13 ½” (34.3 cm) high.

Archaeological

Museum,

Herakleion,

Greece.

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Late Minoan

• Period of rebuilding after earthquakes

• High point of Minoan culture

• Wall paintings

• Religion centered upon mother goddess

connected with fertility

1.50

Funerary

mask, c.

1600–1500

bce. From

Grave

Circle A,

Shaft

Grave V,

Mycenae,

Greece.

Beaten

gold, 101⁄8˝

(26 cm)

high.

National

Archaeolog

ical

Museum,

Athens,

Greece// ©

Nimatallah/

Art

Resource,

NY

Mycenaean Culture

• Heinrich Schliemann, 1870-1873

• The Trojan War (1250 B.C.E.)

• Strongly influenced by Minoan Culture

• Art = preoccupied with death and war

• Fall of the Mycenaean empire (1200

B.C.E.)

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Chapter 1: Discussion Questions

• What can be determined about the roles of women in early civilizations based on their artistic depictions? Explain, citing examples from each culture.

• Based on the universal questions evoked in the Epic of Gilgamesh, what can we assume about the Sumerian people and their lifestyles? In what ways are their concerns shared by people of our culture and generation? Explain.

• What role did geography play in the development and preservation of Ancient Egyptian culture? In what fundamental ways was Egyptian culture different from the Mesopotamian and Aegean cultures?

• Discuss the role of the archeologist. What impact do the discoveries of ancient cultures have on us today? Explain.