Chapter One: The Beginnings of Civilization

1
(No Transcript)
2
(No Transcript)
3

• Urban life permanent constructions
• System of regulatory government
• Class distinction (wealth and occupation)
• Tools/skills -- production/trade
• Written communication
• Shared system of religious belief
• Not a value judgment!

4

• Paleolithic World View (Old Stone Age)
• Art
• Religion
• Neolithic Civilizations (Late Stone Age)
• Domestication of animals
• Cultivation of vegetation
• Community
• War / Weaponry

5

• Image 1.1
• Hall of the Bulls Lascaux

6

• Image 1.2
• Venus of Willendorf

7

• Mesopotamia
• Sumerian (3500-2350 B.C.E.)
• Semitic (2350-612 B.C.E.)
• Egypt
• Aegean Cultures

8

• Agricultural/Urban settlements
• Fertile Crescent
• Writing/record-keeping Cuneiform
• Shared system of religious belief
• Civil ruler / Religious rulers

9

• 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

10

• Akkadian Period
• King Sargon and descendants (2350-2150 B.C.E.)
• Focus on HUMAN achievement
• Gutian invasion / return to tradition
• Babylonian Legacy
• King Hammurabi
• Assyrians
• Culmination of Mesopotamian culture

11

• Image 1.7
• Ziggurat at Ur

12

• Image 1.8
• Seated Statue of Gudea

13

• Image 1.9
• Stele of Hammurabi

14

• Medes
• Nomadic warriors
• Conquered Nineveh in 612 B.C.E.
• Conquered and absorbed by Persians
• Persians
• Nomadic warriors
• Conquered by Alexander the Great (330 B.C.E.)

15

• Manethos History of Egypt (in 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.)

16

• Unified and consistent
• Resistant to change
• Worldview affected by external events

17

• 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

18

• Obsession with immortality / life after death
• Book of the Dead
• Osiris, Isis, Horus
• Deities, subdeities, nature spirits
• Responsible for all aspects of existence

19

• 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
  

20

• 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

21

• Pyramids at Giza (Dynasty IV)
• Cheops
• Chefren
• Mycerinus
• Who built the pyramids?
• Farmers
• Slaves

22

• Constructed of limestone blocks
• Quarried, ferried, cut, dragged into place
• Center chamber contained mummified body of
  pharaoh surrounded by treasures
  
• Plundered by robbers

23

• Created as the guardian for Chefrens tomb at
  Giza
  
• Adopted as a divine symbol of the mysterious and
  enigmatic (Greeks)

24

• Image 1.12
• Great Sphinx

25

• Reflects confidence and certainty
• Idealized realism
• Conceptual, symbolic

26

• Loss of trust in divine providence
• Artists attempted to recapture lofty serenity of
  Old Kingdom
  
• Troubled spirit captured in weight and somber
  expressions
  

27

• Artistic traditions continued
• Conceptual
• Pharaoh Amenhotep IV/ Akhenaton
• Massive religious/political reform
• Tel el-Amarna Art
• Tutankhamen
• Howard Carter (1922-1923)

28

• Image 1.15
• Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and Three of Their Children

29

• Image 1.16
• Queen Nefertiti

30

• Image 1.18
• Death Mask of Tutanhkamen

31

• Image 1.19
• Temple of Ramses II

32

• 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

33

• Crete
• King Minos / Knossos
• Cyclades Islands
• Bronze tools
• Imaginative/humorous pottery
• Marble statues/idols

34

• Image 1.21
• Cycladic Idol

35

• Arthur Evans, 1894-1900
• Early Minoan
• Increasing growth
• Contacts with Egypt and Mesopotamia
• Scattered Towns

36

• Evolution of large urban centers
• Art lively and colorful
• Little interest in monumental art
• Writing system of hieroglyphic signs

37

• Image 1.22
• Palace of Minos at Knossos

38

• Image 1.25
• Wasp Pendant

39

• Image 1.27
• Snake Goddess

40

• Period of rebuilding after earthquakes
• High point of Minoan culture
• Wall paintings
• Religion centered upon mother goddess connected
  with fertility
  

41

• Image 1.28
• Funerary Mask

42

• 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.)

43

• 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.