Transcript Ancient Civilizations

Why did humankind first create
art?
Cave painters used their mouths
as brushes---20,000-30,000 years
ago
The ancient Sumerians were
the first to divine astrology--the zodiac---5,000 years ago
What is the oldest known piece
of art?
Until 2 years ago, had been:
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Venus of Willendorf
Austria, 22,000 BCE
Limestone, tinted with red ochre
Small, hand-held
Purpose--Fertility?
Worship?
The newest “oldest” is now:
The Venus of Hohle Fels,
Germany
•35,000-40,000 years
old
•2-1/2” high
•Made of wooly
mammoth tusk
•No head---could have
been a pendant
•Discovered in 9/2008
Cave Art --- Paleolithic Era
“Old Stone” Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal, 40,000-10,000 BCE
• First man--2 million years ago in Africa
•Altamira,
First15,000
Homo Sapiens--100,000 years ago in
Lascaux, 17,000
Africa
• First art found made by Cro-Magnon and
Neanderthal Man--Late Paleolithic (40,00010,000 BCE)
Chauvet, 30,000
What might have been used to paint these figures?
How does the rock influence the forms of these images?
Is “spirit” reflected in these paintings?
Cave Paintings—do you see stylistic differences?
Chauvet (European, 30,000 BCE) vs
Laas Geel (African, 8,000 BCE)
Chauvet, France, discovered in 1994
Laas Geel Somaliland, discovered in 2002
Neolithic Era (8,000-2,000 BCE)
how might art have changed when people settled in villages?
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Ice Age ending
People begin to settle in permanent villages—CIVILIZATION
Begin farming and domesticating animals
First systems of writing developed
New arts emerge--pottery, weaving, architecture, megaliths,
pictographs
• Focus of art in Middle East—the Fertile Crescent
Earliest Landscape, Catal Huyuk (Turkey), 6,150 BCE
Civilizations arise around river valleys--Egypt, India and The Fertile Crescent
• The Fertile Crescent---Mesopotania (“land between two rivers”, Iraq) and
Jericho (modern day Syria)
• Settled in towns around 7,000 BCE
• Arts and crafts become specialized
Fertile Crescent
Jericho
Sumerian Culture—3,500 BCE
• Mesopotamia, current-day Iraq
• Invented first numerical system
• Invented first known system of
writing – cuneiform
• Created first written music— hymn
to Goddess Nikkal
• Believed in a pantheon of gods
• Wrote first epic--Gilgamesh
• Wrote down laws—Hammurabi
Code, 1790 BCE
• Discovered how to mine metals—
enter the Bronze Age
What do you think was the purpose
of these statues?
Ziggurats---religious
temples and dwelling
place of gods
Art serves religious and political
purposes— can you name any other
civilizations that have done the same?
Ziggurat of Ur, 2200 BCE
Ishtar Gate, Babylon, 600 BCE,
glazed tile, 47 feet tall,
now in Berlin
animals of worship—mythical
and real
Egyptians
• 3,000-343 BCE
• Believe in a pantheon of gods
• Ruled by pharoahs who were
godlike
Canopic Jars—stomach and livers, lungs and guts
• Conquered by the Persians
led by Alexander the Great in
343 BC
• Developed picture writing-hieroglyphs
• Art concerned with death and
the afterlife—Funerary Art
Great Sphinx of Giza
Cairo, c. 2500 BCE
monolith, 241’x 66’
Khafra’s pyramid, 706’ tall
King and Queen of Giza, 3rd century, BCE,
54.4” slate, at Harvard University, Boston.
What does this statue tell you of their rule
and power?
Papyrus was used as a canvas, minerals and
animal fats as paint.
Is this imagery more idealistic or realistic?
Can you walk like an Egyptian?
Ancient Sub-Saharan African Civilizations
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Aquatic Period---9,000- 2,000 BCE “sedentary” (non-nomadic) societies develop and spread
from Upper Nile regions to other parts of Africa
Wet climate created lakes across the present-day Sahara where fishing and food production
were abundant
After 2,000 BCE, tribes travel away from newly formed desert area to find better climate;
populate West Africa
500 BCE Nok (Nigerian) civilization begins (ancestors to Yoruba and Igbo peoples)
Nok, terracotta masks,
500 BCE-200 CE
Nok, terracotta head, 12”, 550-50 BCE
head may have been broken off a life-sized
body; holes suggest tufts of hair ornamented
head ; women often potters, therefore artists
Ancient Art of the Indus Valley
3,300-1500 BCE
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Parts of modern day Iran, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and India
Communities built on fertile Indus
River land
Ritual practices shape Hinduism,
which emerges at around 1,500 BCE
No major monolithic structures, but
sophisticated artifacts…golden
jewelry, pottery, detailed stone and
terra cotta figures
The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-Daro--a girl with attitude, 4, 500 years old,
4” high, bronze
Ancient Art of China
First Dynasties—2,100 BCE-220 CE
Terracotta Army—Qin Dynasty, 210 BCE
Soldiers guard the first emperor in his vault; painted in colorful
hues; over 8,000 life sized figures, discovered in 1974.
Some on display at National Geographic in 2009
Bronze vessels for sacred rituals
Jade carvings
Ancient Meso American Civilization—the Olmecs
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1500-400 BCE
Olmec means “rubber people”
Settled in fertile river areas of Mexico
Hollow baby with bound head, ceramic with ochre paint, 12”
Colossal heads—20 tons; ancient ball-players?