HOAAID: [1] Introduction/Pre-history/Mesopotamian/Egyptian

Venus

Figurines depicting female of child-bearing build are called ______.

Venus

Sculpture symbolizing fertility

Lascaux, France

Site of the "Hall of the Bulls"

Altamira

Cave paintings in Spain; "Bison"

Makapangsat pebble

Example of paleolithic art of a carved reddish brown jasperite with a human face.

Terra Amata

Holds the oldest artificial structure (with evidence). It is oval in shape, 8-15 m. in length and 4-6 m. in width. Branches braced with stone.

Megalith

A large stone which has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or with other stones.

Menhir

A large, single upright standing stone.

Dolmen

A free standing chamber, consisting of standing stones covered by a capstone as a lid. Used for burial and were covered by mounds.

Cromlech

Stone circle.

Jericho

Earliest prehistoric settlement.

(Mesolithic era)

hearth

Found in the middle. A louver is cut in the roof for light and ventilation.

Skara Brae

A neolithic settlement found in Scotland.

Catal Hoyuk

A neolithic settlement in Turkey (Anatolia). Comprised of square dwellings with entry via the ceiling. Exhibited art and landscape painting.

passage grave

Normally consists of square, circular or cruciform chamber with a slabbed or corbelled roof, accessed bg a long, straight passageway with the whole structure covered by a circular mound of earth.

corbelling

Successive courses (layers) are made to project inward.

tumuli

Large man-made mounds often covering one or more passages or coffins.

Bronze Age

Age where copper and tin were widely used; use of semi-precious stones; advanced pottery.

Orthostat

An upright slab forming part of a larger structure.

Taula

A straight standing stone, topped with another forming a "T" shape.

Trilithon

Two parallel upright stones with a horizontal stone (called a lintel) placed on top. (Example: Stonehenge)

Mesopotamian Civilization

Cradle of civilizations

Sumerian

Contributed the cuneiform and the ziggurat architecture. Invented writing and produced the world's first literature: the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Akkadian

First Mesopotamian rulers to call themselves kings. May have been the first to cast hollow life-sized bronze sculptures.

Neo-Sumerian

Constructed one of the largest ziggurats in Mesopotamia at Ur.

Babylonian or Chaldean Period

Period where King Hammurabi formulated wide-ranging laws immortalized on the Code of Hammurabi stele.

Assyrian

Palaces were fortified citadels with lamassu guardians.

Persian

Built Persepolis

Cuneiform

A system of writing typified by the use o characters formed by the arrangement of small wedge-shaped elements.

Lamassu

Human-headed winged bull.

Persian

Introduced the use of columns using bull capitals.

crenellation

A rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns

ziggurat

Artificial mountains made of tiered rectangular layers which rose in number from one to seven.

temple

Provided for civic, commercial and even industrial activities often raised upon a platform.

palace

Assyrians introduced polychrome ornamental brickwork and also high plinths or dadoes made of great stone slabs placed on edges.

Ishtar Gate

Entrance to the Palace of Sargon. Supported a semi-circular arch covered with brilliantly-colored tiles.

Tower of Babel

A seven-tiered ziggurat rising from a 297 sq. ft. base.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

A great palace built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife.

Amon

God of Thebes.

Anubis

Jackal-god of necropolis

Aten

God of the sun-disk.

Bes

Helper of women in childbirth, protector against snakes and other dangers. Depicted as a dwarf with features of a lion.

Hapi

God of the Nile flood. Depicted as a man with female breasts.

Hathor

Goddess of children. Depicted as a cow.

Horus

Falcon-god

Imhotep

Architect who was later defied as the god of learning and medicine.

Isis

Divine mother protector of coffins and canopic jars.

Maat

Goddess of truth depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head.

Mut

Wife of Amon, originally the vulture goddess.

Osiris

God of the underworld.

Ptah

Creator god of Memphis, patron god of craftsmen.

Ra

Sun god of Heliopolis

Seth

God of storms and violence

Lotus

Sacred life; symbol of the sun god and the pharoah.

Palm

Symbol of purity.

Sun disk

Emblematic of the sun god.

Vulture

Symbol of upper Egypt; loyal protection.

Scarab

Rebirth of eternal life; symbol of god Khephera who was believed to cause the sun to move.

Serpent

Symbol of loyalty.

Ankh

Symbol of life.

Law of Frontality

Face must look straight ahead and each side must be exactly like the other, although the hands and feet are in profile. Eyes and shoulder in front view.

Sphinx

Mythical beast of ancient Egypt, frequently symbolizing the pharaoh as an incarnation of the sun god Ra.

Sarcophagus

Carved, generally stone case in which the linen-wrapped mummy was placed.

trabeated

System of column and lintel

Imhotep

The first recorded artist of Western history, architect to Zoser.

Mastaba

Funerary temple for commoners.

Necropolis

City of mastabas.

Pyramid

Burial place for Egyptian royalty.

Obelisk

Square shaft of stone with a pyramidal top used as a monument.

Temple

Post and lintel construction characterized as a forest of columns.

Mortuary Temples

For the dead pharaoh.

Cult Temples

For popular worship of the ancient gods.

Rock-hewn tombs/temples

Located on cliffs where they cut labyrinth passageways that led to ceremonial and burial chambers which were later replaced by temples.

Pylon

The entrance gate of an Egyptian temple.

Peristyle

The open court of an Egyptian temple.

Hypostyle

Part of an Egyptian temple where it contains a double row of columns higher than the others.

Sanctuary

Part of an Egyptian temple where it contains a small shrine which was used as a receptacle for the small statue of a god.

Papyrus bundle

Symbolized lower Egypt. Suggests the presence of a temple.

Lotiform

Used in non-secular buildings.

Campaniform

Flower or bell-shaped form.

incised carving

Outline is carved.

relief carving

Design is raised.

Art

An aesthetically pleasing and meaningful arrangement of elements, as words, sounds, colors, shapes, etc. Form of human activity whose chief character is determined by such arrangement.

Architecture

The science or profession of designing and constructing buildings or other structures.

Decorative Arts

Any of the arts pertaining to or referring to the following: painting, sculpture, glass and glassware, ceramic and pottery, metallurgy and plants.

Practical, Historical and Aesthetics

Approaches to Historical Style Analysis.

Practical

Seeks to establish what was built, when, by whom and for whom.

Historical

The whys and its relationship to the social, economic, political, cultural and religious environment.

Aesthetics

Accounts visual and stylistic differences and to explain how styles change and why they do so.

1. Rational, Technological & Constructional

2. Social and Religious

3. Economic, Cultural and Political

4. Spirit of the Age (Zeitgeist)

Factors of Historical Development

Paleolithic Age

Old Stone Age.

Mousterian

A sub-period of Paleolithic Age known to use pigments for bodily ornamentation.

Aurignacian

A sub-period of Paleolithic Age known for cave paintings.

Magdalenian

A sub-period of Paleolithic Age known for 'the last of the hunter-gatherers, live for 6 centuries. Art found: engravings of horses, bison, ibex, stag, reindeer, bear, wildcats on bone.

Mesolithic Age or Middle Stone Age

Beginning of settled communities and farming, the invention of bow and arrow, pottery for food storage and domestication of small animals.

Neolithic Age or New Stone Age

Men first developed agriculture and settled in permanent villages; Mud bricks were first used.

Stone row

A linear arrangement of upright, parallel standing stones.

Mesopotamian Civilization

Known as the cradle of civilizations because of its enormous advances and contributions including domestication of animals, trade and coinage, legal government, potter's wheel, wagon wheel, alphabet, architecture, mathematics and astronomy, monotheism and monogamy.

Neo-Babylonian

Period where Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and has been associated with the architectural wonders of Babylon.

Venus of Willendorf (Austria)

Figurine in the Paleolithic age, 4 1/2" tall and made of limestone.