Prehistoric and Ancient Near Eastern Art Lecture Notes

Vocabulary practice cards covering prehistoric art world-wide and ancient Mesopotamian religious and political artworks based on the lecture transcript.

Apollo 11 stones

Prehistoric art found in Namibia (dated $25,500 - 25,300$ B.C.E.) consisting of seven charcoal-on-stone slabs depicting animals in strict profile, named after the NASA mission occurring at the time of its discovery.

Great Hall of Bulls

Cave painting in Lascaux, France ($15,000 - 13,000$ B.C.E.) featuring animals in twisted perspective, likely painted at different times by different people for unknown functions.

Camelid sacrum in shape of a canine

A prehistoric bone carving from central Mexico ($14,000 - 7000$ B.C.E.) made from the pelvic bone of an extinct camel, most likely used for shamanistic rituals.

Jade Cong

A Liangzhu culture artifact from China ($3300 - 2200$ B.C.E.) featuring a tube with a square cross section and circular hole, carved with stylized faces and geometric forms to represent status and spiritual beliefs.

Stonehenge

A prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England ($2500 - 1600$ B.C.E.) using post and lintel construction with sarsen and bluestones, serving as an astronomical observatory and funeral site.

The Ambum stone

A greywacke stone carving from Papua New Guinea ($1500$ B.C.E.) depicting an anteater, which functioned as a mortar and pestle for spiritual or ritualistic purposes.

Running horned woman

Saharan rock art from Algeria ($6000 - 4000$ B.C.E.) depicting a horned deity in a raffia skirt, made during a period when the Sahara was green and supported human life.

Beaker with ibex motifs

A painted terracotta funerary object from Susa, Iran ($4200 - 3500$ B.C.E.) featuring a geometric goat (ibex), birds, and dogs, including an owner's family symbol within the horns.

Anthropomorphic stele

An abstract, human-like sandstone slab from the Arabian Peninsula (fourth millennium B.C.E.) used for religious and funerary practices before the development of written language.

Tlatilco female figurine

A ceramic figurine from central Mexico ($1200 - 900$ B.C.E.) featuring intimate poses and sometimes two heads, representing beauty standards and fertility.

Terra Cotta fragment

A Lapita culture artifact from the Solomon Islands ($1000$ B.C.E.) featuring repeating geometric patterns and faces stamped onto clay, influence of which is seen in modern tattoos.

White Temple and its ziggurat

A Sumerian mud brick structure in Uruk, Iraq ($3500 - 3000$ B.C.E.) dedicated to the sky God Anu, featuring a bent-axis layout and a 'waiting room' for communicating with the divine.

Statues of votive figures

Sumerian gypsum statues from the square temple at Eshnunna ($2700$ B.C.E.) carved in the round with enlarged eyes to represent wakefulness and hands in prayer to connect with divinity.

Standard of Ur

A Sumerian wooden box ($2600 - 2400$ B.C.E.) inlaid with lapis lazuli and red limestone, organized into registers showing narrative scenes of 'war' and 'peace'.

The Code of Hammurabi

A Babylonian basalt stele ($1792 - 1750$ B.C.E.) inscribed with over $300$ laws in the Akkadian language, depicting the king receiving the right to rule from the God Shamash.

Lamassu

Colossal guardian figures from the Citadel of Sargon II ($720 - 705$ B.C.E.) featuring a human head, wings, and five legs, carved from a single block of stone.