ARTH 103 1st Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 3 Key terms Museum curator collect and exhibit works for museums and educate the public about art Art conservator preserves and repair works Critic provides judgments on an art work s cultural value for a general or specific audience Gallery where you can purchase exhibit and sell art works Appraiser studies specific objects and or time periods and provide economic value estimates for works of art based on the object s cultural value Art historian studies and interprets works of art based on the work s historical context and analyzes and interprets an art work s meaning Prehistoric 35 000 3 000 bce Paleolithic ca 35 000 10 000 bce old stone age consisting of nomads and hunter gatherers and a time where sculpture was popular Neolithic ca 8 000 1500 bce new stone age Makapansgat Pebble resembles human face from South Africa c 3 000 000 bce jasperite Megalithic ca 3000 1500 BCE big stone age Nile River every spring the Nile floods its banks and deposits a rich layer of silt on the land which acts as a natural fertilizer This means HUGE harvests are possible Narmer king who first unified Egypt His power is worldly and divine It is of this world and yet eternal and everlasting Imhotep first named artist in western art history designed the funerary complex at Saqqara Ziggurat focal point made of clay bricks Most famous is Nanna Ziggurat Sumer Sumerian society was built on agriculture composed of independent cities that all shared a similar language religion and surrounded the ziggurat Ka Statue a sculpture of the pharaoh meant to act as a vessel for his soul when entering the ka statue the pharaoh s soul could receive the prayers of the living Cuneiform Sumerian writing forms of lines and dots on clay tablets commonly found on stone cylinders roll it across a piece of wet clay acted as a stamp signature for signing contracts between Sumerian business people Mastaba The earliest forms of Egyptian monumental mortuary architecture piles of rocks on top of a burial pit Post and Lintel fundamental type of architecture vertical and horizontal construction Akkadian northern neighbors of the Sumerians introduced concept of divine kingship Mesopotamia land between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates every culture that invades Mesopotamia adopts Sumerian culture claims it as their own demonstrates how powerful Sumerian culture was Monotheism believing in one god Polytheism believing in multiple gods Stonehenge most famous example of megalithic post and lintel construction Corbelling layers of stones stacked on top of each other held together simply by pressure Serdab a room where the Ka Statue could interact with the living inside the Steppe Pyramid Rock Cut Tomb a tomb cut into rock meant to solve the looting problem one has with something like a pyramid Old Kingdom ca 2700 2190 bce dynasties 3 6 in ancient Egypt New Kingdom ca 1552 1069 bce dynasties 18 20 in ancient Egypt Neolithic Revolution drastic changes were made with the invention of agriculture Assyrian overthrew the Babylonians Their art is distinguished by public relations Babylonian essentially Sumerian culture ca 2100 1700 BCE Hatshepsut one of only two female pharaohs and a very good one at that She was defaced by her successor her son She has a huge mortuary palace with a rock cut tomb Key works of art Woman from Willendorf Limestone Austria c 22 000 21 000 Originally painted and worn as a necklace Originally called Venus from Willendorf Paleolithic people practiced Animism belief system everything has a spirit 3matriarchal belief system women were most powerful The artwork was probably a protection charm not a goddess hence why they stopped calling her Venus Stonehenge most famous example of megalithic architecture Salisbury Plain England c 2750 1500 New fundamental type of architecture post vertical and lintel horizontal construction held together by a slight depression mortice deliberately carved so they are thicker at the bottom than at the top Initially simply raised mounds of earth and piles of stones mounds then got increasingly higher Speculation of the significance purpose of the altar stone mid summer sunrise mid winter moonset etc celestial significance Discovery of human remains possibility of human sacrifice Nanna Zigurrat Ur Iraq c 2100 2050 Famous most well preserved ziggurat Every Ziggurat was dedicated to a particular deity seen as the patron deity of that city indicative of standardized religion Every resident had to contribute to the construction of the Ziggurat civic duty BUT only the priests priestesses were able to enter the Ziggurats communicate with the deities Consisted of successively smaller platforms that had a solid core of mud brick which was covered by burnt brick The Great Ziggurat of Ur was dedicated to the moon god Nanna who was the patron deity of the city Bull Lyre Ur c 2500 2400 BCE wood with gold silver lapis lazuli bitumen and shell bearded bull on the front represents the sun god Shamash written in cuneiform Shamash is the divine judge who shines light on all things only Shamash can descend into the underworld and emerge again at sunrise top portion shows a scene of warfare the back shows a myriad of military leaders convening after the way main focus the big man who was the biggest strongest man that priests could find who acted as a temporary king who would lead Sumerian forces into battle most were assassinated by priests and priestesses Stele of Naramsin Iraq c 2254 2218 6 ft 7 in example of hieratic scale biggest figure most important figure script says that Naramsin conquered the four corners of the world everything belongs to Naramsin Stele of Hammurabi Iran c 1792 1750 kickstarts Babylonian culture which was essentially Sumerian culture engraved in Sumerian script which describes the Code of Hammurabi written law approximately 7 4 high Example of Hammurabi law if a man has breached a house and is caught he shall be buried in the front of the door and the door will be kicked down approx 300 laws 68 are domestic problems 20 have to do with physical assault the rest are business laws such as taxation etc Human Headed Winged Lion Lamassu from the palace of Assurnasipal II Assyria modern Iraq c 883 859 BCE Limestone approx 10 2 guardian figures winged man lion horse suggested that it might be another identity for Assyrian kings Blending of humans and animals is seen in Sumerian culture Assurbanipal and His Queen in the Garden from the