MELC 10 Midterm - KEY TERMS, CONCEPTS, AND EXPRESSIONS

Egyptomania

A period of renewed interest in the culture of ancient Egypt, that has influenced European and Western art, architecture, and design for centuries. Also influenced Ancient Greece and Rome and the French (like Napoleon).

Contact with Egyptian culture through literature, art, and architecture.

Hermeticism

Philosophy found by Hermes Trismegistus. The Hermetica contains themes that have to do with alternative medicine & magic, alchemy, etc. Greeks believed this is the “secret knowledge” that ancient Egyptians/Mesopotamians used; later translated into Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, etc.

• (the Hermetica was secretly written between 200-300 CE, essentially a fake text passed off as ancient text; despite this, scholars continued to use it in their study of “secret knowledge”)

Pharaonism

an advocated return to Egypt's great indigenous civilization

Afrocentrism

A perspective that considers ancient Egypt as a powerful African civilization; Africa started to envision itself as one identity and one civilization.

→ looks at how ancient Egypt was connected to african societies (Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, the ahara, & Niger River Valley)

reception history

How do new audiences respond to “old things” and “old ideas”? Modern audiences are constricted by their contemporary, modern cultural circumstances when encountering the past 

… because of this, we are trapped in our contemporary biases. Objects and ideas shed old meanings and acquire new meanings as they move through itineraries (paths)

 Napoleon’s campaign to Egypt; Description de l’Egypte

French soldiers (“savants”) followed Napoleon's army to Egypt, whose job was to document everything they see; ended up staying 60 years to fulfill their mission

(established a research institute in Cairo, employing hundreds of artists, scientists, cartographers, and linguists studying Egypt)

Description de L'Egypte: A comprehensive series of volumes documenting the history, culture, and geography of ancient Egypt, published in the early 19th century as part of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign (provides insight into Egyptians society)

 Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent: “most fertile area to carry out agriculture” int he Middle East. A paradigm, or false idea created by James Henry Breasted that the fertile crescent was the “origin” of agriculture 

Animal Domestication

Domestication allowed humans to select for certain qualities they want to reproduce within animals 

ex.) sheep, goat , cow

• domesticating for secondary products such as milk, the meat /proteins, maneuver (to replenish soil and grow plants), wool for clothing/carpets/tents; neolithics started to identify aspects/characteristics they desired in animals

→ a characteristic they removed were large, bulky antlers/horns, selected/domesticated certain animals for more meat

Plant Domestication

Wheat & barley (bread) lentils, chickpeas (hummus), olives, & grapes (wine) were the basis of mediterranean diet   

• Searched for thicker wheat/barley that could withstand more challenging environments 

• Barley persists in environments w/ less precipitation/moisture & 

• Carbonized seeds: pieces of wheat/barley that become carbonized or well preserved due to close contact with fire

Paleoethnobotany

The study of ancient plant remains We take dirt and use a floatation machine to filter out the dirt and discover all carbonized material.

zooarchaeology

The analysis of ancient animal bones animal bones and ancient animal communities

• common to find & contains just as much information as ancient human communities

• we can reconstruct ancient diet and cuisine, & track the stature of the animal (small, wild → larger, carrying more meat)

Pastoralism

Raising and herding domesticated animals on pastures; people move seasonally w/ their herds.

prehistory v.s. protohistory

Terms used by archaeologists and historians to divide the human past based on the presence and use of writing. Protohistory starts w/ the Bronze Age.

Protohistory’s Challenge

• Archives are fragmentary; although there are texts and art, there is not enough to make complete histories 

• we lack documents reflecting on history

nomenclatures of time-keeping (bp, BC/AD, BCE/CE) 

Ubeidiya

Archaeologists found this campsite with stone tools. Stone tools were used to hit things hard, and hunt. Homo-erectus settled here and practiced being mobile hunter-gatherers, living in a lush, middle-eastern environment, filled with animals, wild plants, & abundance.

archaeology

the study of humans through material remains

elements of visual analysis

• Space 

• Line 

• Shape 

• Form

• Color 

• Texture 

• + effect

Cartographic: describe each box in a grid-like fashion 

Categorical: space, line, shape, form, color, texture

absolute dating vs. relative dating (examples of each)

• Relative dating: time, space, buildings, & objects in relation to each other (what is younger, what is older); cheaper method but not as precise  

  • artifact assemblage 

  • stratigraphy 

• Absolute Dating: Through scientific methods, assign a specific date

  • - radiocarbon (C14)

  • Dendrochronology: wood samples, reading tree rings and using those cycles to understanding how events line up when excavated evidence 

  • inscription/image 

carbon-14 dating

A scientific method that determines the age of organic materials by measuring the decay of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 (half-life).

four goals of archaeology

1. Form: describe and classify archaeological evidence that we find

ex.) finding a water bottle, you must describe what you see (visual analysis) → light blue, cylindrical, when it was made 

2. Function: reconstruct how ancient objects were used, what was their purpose

3. Process: determine how and why societies change overtime

4. Meaning: understand how ppl. in the past thought about the world and their place in it

ex.) ideologies of past societies 

Philology

The analysis of ancient texts, in their historical & cultural context. It examines how words and their meanings change over time 

ex.) translations

Speech Community

Members of a “speech community” share explicit/implicit rules about the ‘rules’ of language (& the ‘meanings’ of words and expressions)

textual analysis

• Close reading

• Context

• External (where/when text was made)

• Internal (whats made before/after text)

• Speaker (goals, biases)

• Structure (how ideas are organized)

Inductive

deductive

• language 

• Connections

 tell

An artificial mound consisting of human debris that accumulated over millennia of time they find materials, like stone, to build their own settlement; at the bottom is bedrock ancient sites and anthrosol (soil that has been heavily modified by humans over time)

artifact vs. feature vs. assemblage

*Artifact: a  portable, discrete object that is created or altered by human behavior; they are portable so they have its limits

ex.) broken pottery, text, fragments on animal bones found in a settlement (altered by humans b/c the bones were damaged as a human butchered it while hunting for food for their family )

*Feature: a non-portable artifact unrecoverable from its excavated context 

ex.) Neolithic Tower in Palestine, temples in Karnak, Egypt 

*Assemblage: all artifacts and features that are associated w/ a particular time period or ancient society 

Law of Superposition

Objects from the bottom tend to be older than objects on top, or objects when the bottom were deposited first and objects on the top were deposited after.

stratigraphy

The more you dig further down, the more ancient the thing will be. It is the vertical relationship between discrete layers; when does this geologic establish - what comes at the bottom and what comes at the top? 

ex.) during an earthquake: floor, desk, laptop, and then everything that fell on top over

flood narratives (Gilgamesh XI & Genesis),

Incantation Against the Toothache   

A dialogue story. It depicts a worm’s complaint to Ea, the god of creation, and his desire to infest teeth to find food. The incantation is important as evidence for Mesopotamian medial practices. This test illustrates how philology can be used to rediscover the ways account Sumerians understood disease.

 cuneiform 

(MESOPOTAMIAN) “Cuneiform” = a script

• sumerian & akkadian languages 

• this was written primarily on a clay tablet w/ a reed stylus

• 4,000 years in which the script has been in use; as early as from 3200 BCE in the ancient Mesopotamian city Uruk

scribe

a person who writes or copies documents by hand, or a sharp tool

lexical lists

Long lines of texts for some kind of categories. They stay very important for the entirety of Mesopotamian history b/c they are ways of organizing things are kept for thousands of years; part of scribal education.

• a demonstration of how ancient scribes saw and organized the world around them; making decisions of what kind of thing belongs in what category/list

ex.) a list of things made out of wood

hieroglyphs

A complex writing system devised by the Egyptians. Extensive history/usage; at least 3,00 years of Egyptian history between different forms (Pyramid texts vs. graffiti on the side of temple). Hieroglyphs are the characteristic visual expression of Ancient Egypt culture 

• They are monumental and are carved in stone; often made by people skilled at stone sculptures 

• Hieroglyphs are ultimately a form of art

stele/stela

A free-standing monument decorated w/ texts + images; often public monuments, set up for display

Rosetta Stone

Composed in 196 BCE in honor of an old Egyptian leader, Ptolemy V. Found by the French in the town of Rosetta; it had been reused by the Egyptian army as a stone for building a fort. Written in 3 different scripts: hieroglyphs, demotic, & greek. Greek and Demotic was used to work backwards and decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs

abecedary

A list of the letters of an alphabet. This writing system was eventually communicated to the Greeks & Romans, because Greeks and Phoenican merchants interact w/ each other when trading at the Mediterranean 

logographic vs. syllabic

Logographic: A symbol represents a whole word or unit

Syllabic: Each character represents a whole syllable

source criticism

Ancient Primary Sources (textual/visual) are imperfect witnesses to the past. Sources created to communicate political messages, record mundane economic transactions, or please/honor the Gods. Only rarely were sources created for the purpose of preserving info. For long-term purposes

*Remember: ancient writers never imagined their works would be read millenia later; because we were not thought of as an audience…

Sources therefore must be interpreted within the political/cultural contexts in which they were created

• Ancient sources are therefore biased (unintentionally, not with any negative intent)

historical consciousness

What Does it Mean to Possess a Historical Consciousness? 

• does history have a direction? 

  •  linear 

• who or what brings about historical change?

  • political leaders, groups of people/communities collectively working together  

• what is the role of memory?

• what is a “historical event”?

• who gets to decide what “is” history? 

  • journalists, historians, politicians, the "winners" 

importance of the planet Venus

• the planet Venus: for the god Ishtar; he dictated whether the king was assassinated, the weather, etc…

→ symbolic meaning: the appearance/disappearance or the brightness of Venus told Mesopotamian astronomers how Ishtar was feeling; Venus was less predictable compared to the phases of the moon

ex.) Enuma Anu Enlil

lunar calendar

Mesopotamian civilizations (Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians) used a lunisolar calendar as their main system for civil, economic, and religious life. The lunar-solar system marked critical seasonal transitions/changes in agriculture.

ma’at

A persistent Egyptian virtue that emphasized truth, order, & justice (honesty, courage, being a good leader, parent, or obedient child). All Egyptians (especially leaders) expected to practice ma’at principles in daily life.

• Ma’at is manifested in a personified form as the Goddess Ma’at; she has an ostrich feather and ankh (ankh: a symbol of life)

• the feather is the symbol for ma’at; the soul, when you die, will be weighed against the feather**; if your soul is lighter than the feather, you will reach heave/afterlife

Sustaining ma’at held back chaos & sustained the balance of the universe. Sometimes it meant going to war, or castrating/beheading your enemies.

Battle of Kadesh

A battle between Ramses and the Hittite empire; Despite walking into a massive Hittite ambush, Ramesses II used the Ramesseum reliefs to project an image of triumph. The carvings depict the pharaoh as a larger-than-life, divine warrior single-handedly turning the tide of battle when his troops abandoned him. Linked his military prowess with the gods. It reinforced his role as the protector of Ma'at (cosmic order) crushing foreign chaos

Cyrus Cylinder

Records the Persian conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great. Cyrus reports his good deeds in Babylon and emphasizes his power over kings & duty to the gods and cities (e.g. “...all kings who sit on thrones, from every quarter brought their weighty tribute [...] and kissed my feet [...] I collected together all of their people and returned them to their settlements…”)

• presents him as a benevolent ruler chosen by the Babylonian god Marduk to bring peace and reverse the harsh policies of the previous king, Nabonidus (biased)

Enuma Anu Enlil

This tablet has diary entries with the diagnosis of Venus’ disappearance and reappearance: the water springs will open, the Thunder God will bring rain (great for agriculture) ; the Water God’s floods will bring, kings will get along with each other w/ no war,... etc.

• tells us how they thought about history & historical consciousness; for them, deities drive the direction of history

Sumerian Kings List

As it gets closer in time to the most recent king, the year gets quite accurate; doesn’t mean the Sumerians were bad at math, but thought of these kings are more "mythical" than real. It lists Sumerian cities, the kings that ruled there, and the lengths of their reigns.

• Line 40: the flood that different middle eastern societies adopt is a key historical event to where the world "starts over”...

Narim Sin Victory Stele

(MESOPOTAMIAN) A Two-meter high stone monument created in c. 2260 BCE. It records the victory over King Satuni of the Lullubi tribe in western Iran

• the stone itself is signalling to viewers that this is a mountain; the shape of the stone itself is a spectacle

• the stone used for this object is from where the event actually happened  

• encountering this would convey that the king is a warrior 

Naram-Sin is depicted wearing a horned helmet, an emblem previously reserved strictly for the gods, marking the first time an Akkadian ruler claimed living divinity and styled himself as an Akkadian God.

Berossos

Berossus (320 BCE-?) - a babylonian astronomer; wrote history of Mesopotamia entitled Babyloniaca in Greek; now lost. Texts used original cuneiform sources to write history for a Greek audience who understood history as a narrative of events & characters 

• the Babyloniaca was lost; portions were quoted by other ancient writers in Greek, Latin, and Armenian texts 

Manetho

• Manetho: a priest living in 4th century Egypt

• wrote the now lost 3-vol. Aegyptiaca in Greek, possibly for Egypt’s Greek Ptolemaic rulers, so they can read and appreciate the depth of Egypt's history 

• he travelled around Egypt, consulting visible sources to compile lists of kings

• not completely lost; copied down by other Greek writers 

• Trying to blend Greek and Egyptian gods for the sake of Greek audiences' understanding  

Manetho has a major contribution to how we understand Egyptian dynastic history today.

Palermo Stone

It preserves a year-by-year chronological account of Egyptian rulers alongside the events that occurred during their reign. Each square is telling you an event from the year of the king’s reign. It describes the depth of the Nile, which determines how fruitful the agricultural year will be. It lists early rulers of Lower Egypt (identified by the Red Crown) and mythical/god-like rulers.

Sea Peoples Relief from Ramses III’s Mortuary Complex

Ramses went to battle w/ the sea people (foreigners trying to invade Egypt) Ramses is the largest. long boats of the sea people create horizontal registers; this is a maritime battle taking place on the nile.

• Ramses III claimed he won and conquered/settled the sea people the pharaoh wanted to put this achievement on his Mortuary Temple because this was a major achievement in his career, and one of the ways he upheld the principles of ma’at

Autobiography of Pepynakht Heqaib 

The Autobiography of Pepynakht Heqaib is an inscription from ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom (6th Dynasty) that describes the accomplishments of an Egyptian official. It provides a firsthand record of the king ordering Pepinakht to "devastate" these areas, capture foreign chieftains, and suppress local resistance (in general, importance of serving the king to preserve order and ma’at)

• Military power: Shows how Egypt used military expeditions to defeat enemies and maintain control.

• Loyalty to the pharaoh: Demonstrates the importance of serving and obeying the king.

• Egyptian expansion: Reveals Egypt’s interactions and conflicts with Nubia and surrounding regions.

• Afterlife and reputation: Egyptians recorded their achievements in tombs to preserve their legacy after death.

Pepynakht Heqaib = Egyptian official who recorded his military victories and loyalty to the pharaoh, showing Egypt’s military power and the importance of serving the king.

 sovereignty (popular vs. absolute)

Popular sovereignty: a characteristic of modern democracies; consent to govern is granted by the ‘people’

• people begin questioning if power should really be concentrated on one individual or family

Absolute sovereignty: Gods granted kings the authority to rule over ppl & territory

→ critical Q: if consent did not originate from the gov’t, how did kings sustain their authority over them? 

→ answer: Mesopotamian kingship descended from heaven (ex. The Sumerian Kings’ List) 

 cultural hegemony

Antonio Gramsci considered how gov’ts and leaders sustain the consent of the governed?

It is ideas + practices promotes a “common sense” ideology that the king was the sanctioned ruler

• intellectuals (priests, scribes, artists) promoted this ideology

• Ideologies expressed in spectacles like monuments, festivals, and performances that required the governed to participate 

investiture

Upon the pharaoh’s death a new pharaoh was delcared & took office immediately. After ceremonies, the new pharaoh traveled throughout Egypt to worship at diff. temples, & receive gifts + oaths of loyalty from local leaders. Royal investiture scene: when the gods turn an ordinary person into a king and gives them the right to be a king 

• Coronation ceremony would be performed at each stop to demonstrate king’s legitimacy

cosmopolitanism

A display of difference but unity of authority; a cosmopolitan vision of the world focused on the person of the king.

LUGAL 𒈗

LUGAL: word for king; repeated in the list. LU = man GAL = big. The cuneiform sign for Lugal (𒈗) eventually became the universal symbol used across Mesopotamia to write the office of kingship, even in later Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian texts. 

DINGER 𒀭

DINGER = logogram for “god” — is the Sumerian word for "god" or "goddess". In the Mesopotamian worldview, the gods were active, ever-present forces that controlled every aspect of nature and human fate. Dingir is represented by an eight-pointed star symbol (𒀭).

• later powerful rulers (beginning w/ Naram-Sin of Akkad) took the radical step of placing the Dingir star symbol directly in front of their own names. By merging Lugal and Dingir, these emperors claimed they had transitioned from mortal kings into living, divine gods.

Ur-Nanshe plaque and inscription

Sumerian plaque displays the king as a builder

• a circle in the center used to attach to a wall it was meant to be displayed in the very building they are building

• Prominent figures are kings; chairs were a privilege to sit on due to scarcity of resources

• kings are very proud of their building activities b/c it is a gift to the gods, a spectacle to the people, and shows his legitimacy, capacity, and ability to oversee materials

Stele and Legal Code of Hammurabi

A two-meter high black diorite stele w/ cuneiform inscription, treated as the oldest legal law code (although it isn't). Contains a prologue (typical royal propaganda) & epilogue describes how stele was to be used. Code presents an idealized view of Babylonian social structure; this is a royal investiture scene: when the gods (Shamash) turn an ordinary person (Hammurabi) into a king and gives them the right to be a king 

• Rod & the Ring: a symbol of justice in Ancient Mesopotamia; being handed the right to govern, rule, enforce laws, etc. 

 the teaching of King Amenemhat I

(ANCIENT EGYPTIAN) Former Pharaoh Amenhemhat I offers advice to his successor, Senwosret I, on how to be a successful leader. Letter instructs Senwosret I to be weary of everyone who might attempt to steal his throne 

• theme of the text: advice from father to the son after he’s been assassinated (from ‘beyond the grave’)

• other passages describe priorities of the pharaoh in ritual, military, & charitable duties 

• a text was a way for the literate scribes of the court to understand the motivations of the Pharaoh 

• the text does the same manufactured consent function that the Narmer steele also does 

Myth of Osiris

Origins of Kingship in Egypt: The Myth of Osiris

• Osiris was a “good” king who ruled over Egypt in primordial mythic past 

• Set, Osiris’ brother, killed him to gain kingship control & introduced chaos into the world

• Osiris, now dead, retained kingship in the afterlife & becomes ‘god of the underworld’

• Isis (Osiris’ spouse) gave birth to Horus after his death 

• Horus hidden until adulthood and battled Set (Osiris’ brother) for the throne

• Horus & Set establish a truce in most accounts & Horus assumes the throne and Set establishes himself outside of Egypt  

The Myth of Osiris Conveys Key Themes of Egyptian Kingship

• The pharaoh was to follow Osiris and Horus’ example tp up-hold ma’at and battle isfet, or chaos (i.e. Set)

• office of the pharaoh was ideally passed from father to eldest son (i.e., from Osiris to Horus)

• Kingship was based on the cult of Horus + Horus frequently portrayed as a falcon  

Isis Cult for Pharaonic Queens + Queens Mothers

• Isis was the role model for how queen and queen mothers were to behave & relate to the pharaoh

• must raise and protect the crown prince until he can take over

• Pharaohs married multiple women and produced children w/ all of them, & one woman was singled out as the Pharaoh’s favorite and whose son would be his successor

Narmer Palette

An Egyptian relief; major theme is the unification of lower and upper Egypt (white and red crown from left and right side respectively). It shows King farmer performing a smiting scene of his enemies, as witnessed by Horus the Falcon (divine protector of the pharaoh) and a sandal-bearer.

• shows the legitimacy of Narmer’s role as a king and his ma’at.

• Palette possibly used to grind minerals for eye makeup for scared statues + priests (circle center on the right) 

Ashurnasirpall II’s palace

The Assyrian capital (ancient Mesopotamia). Shows the distinction between private and public spaces. Contains storage rooms (more to the right) and a treasury room that close access to the king (room 75). A throne room (room B); amount of entrances/exits matter.

Persepolis

shows the King as a Builder

Persepolis Complex

• work of several Persian kings

• Ceremonial & administrative center 

• “The Hundred Columns” ‘

• melding urban and pastoral features 

• Persepolis is not just Babylon; kingship beyond mesopotamian urban landscapes

• palace circuit to maintain presence in many lands

—> The architectural and relief programs absorbed deep Mesopotamian motifs, such as glazed brickwork, winged bulls, hybrid protective creatures, and monumental stairways.

Apadana

Apadana Staircase of Persepolis: The shallow stairs force the individual to inch and process slowly towards the king, who stands on a more wider space (the king has more controls). Reliefs of the nation’s many state delegates/elites (Satrapals) show them as voluntary or orderly participants in a unified imperial system based on mutual order.

Royal Audience Hall: It functioned as the primary ceremonial throne room where the Persian King of Kings received foreign dignitaries, court officials, and delegations from across the empire.

Behistun Inscription

A mountain relief displaying the victory of Darius the Great; displays three different types of cuneiform — Babylonian (Akkadian), old Persian, & Elamite.

• the king is the largest figure 

• the figures are reaching their arms up; the prisoners are stuck in place by rope, whereas the king is showing his power over who he defeated 

It is extremely similar to Naram-Sin; a king physically overpowers enemies

serekh; shenu; cartouche

In general, the pharaoh's names were given special visual treatment 

• pharoah meant ‘big house’ in Egyptian, but was not a common form of address

• Serekh was the earliest form used until the Fifth Dynasty: image of palace or building often portrayed in image

• Serekh of Narmer (from Narmer Palette)
  

• The Shenu became the standard method of representing the pharaoh's name 

• known popularly as “cartouche,” the french word for “gun cartridge," given the symbol's shape; oval rings “protects” the name of the Pharaoh

red crown; white crown; double crown;

• Red crown: lower egypt

• White crown: upper egypt

• Double crown: unified lower + upper Egypt

smiting scenes

Smiting scenes in ancient Egypt are enduring, iconic symbols of royal authority, cosmic order, and the pharaoh's sacred duty to defeat chaos and establish truth and justice (maat); the pharaoh acts as the divine agent of the gods, physically crushing foreign or internal enemies to push back disorder and protect the cosmos. 

ex.) in the Narmer Palette

• Narmer (wearing the white crown of upper Egypt) raises a mace to strike a nude victim & Horus pulls a victim’s head from the marsh (reference to Nila Delta of lower Egypt)

• Sandal bearer + additional victims watching the smiting scenes 

population aggregation

• Households come to lie close to each other in specific locations w/ abundant resources + they “aggregated: overtime in specific locations to share scalar benefits of larger population

• when groups cluster together based on shared characteristics, concerns, or geographic proximity.

urbanism

the study of how people who live in cities and towns interact with their built environment, as well as the distinctive way of life and culture characteristic of urban areas. 

sedentarism 

the practice of living in one place for a long time or permanently (settling), rather than moving around as a nomad

 Uruk

Uruk - The "First" Sumerian City

• Uruk was legendary in later Mesopotamia as the ‘First City’

• so praised and amazing that it was mentioned in the first page of the first epic of Gilgamesh  

• people was so proud of Uruk that everybody had claimed to build Uruk at one point or another

The Uruk vase tells us that the urban society of Uruk (and Sumerian society) prioritizes priests (who had much more control over the population; able to command wealth to enter the Ziggurat & the temple)

Chatalhoyuk

Chatalhoyuk - a Neolithic Metropolis

• occupied from 7100-5600 BCE, population estimated between 2500 - 8000 people

• Chatalhoyuk was able to collaborate and cooperate; these households had to cooperate with each other to share resources 

  • many ancestors and skeletons buried underneath houses instead of cemeteries

• people favor animals living with them as they provided what during the winter time, people are working on their roofs

• houses are arranged right next to each other tells us how people value space and collaborate with each other) 

Babylon

Babylon was a sacred City

• Temples scattered across the city for diff. deities 

• Most important deity: Marduk (principal babylonian deity)

• It is the capital of mesopotamia & considered the center of the world (known from Spian to India as a megacity) & becomes a megacty because of the Babylonian empire; after it conquered a town, it forced residents to live in Babylon itself 

cylinder seals

A part of Mesopotamian bureaucracy was being able to certify the contents/authority of the materials

• Seal impressions emerged (rolling a stone on the left-hand side, with a reversed stamp) to make an impression to sign your name in ancient Mesopotamia

• cylinder seals acted as "signatures" communicating authority 

Beveled-rim Bowl

A standard volume for solid and liquid payments all across southern Mesopotamia; the capacity is strikingly similar to each bevel bowl found. This bowl becomes the Sumerian symbol/sign for ‘food ration’

• Thousands of bowls found in sumerian settlement 

• volume varied from .5 to 1.5

Uruk Vase

Alabaster, 1 meter tall. Is early evidence of religious worship and offerings in Ancient Mesopotamia.

• It is found inside the Temple of Imana, the patron goddess of Uruk

• The vase divided into four distinct registers each w/ a relief scene; vase should be ‘read’ from bottom to top 

• Gifts of food are presented from Patron Uruk King to Ianna Priest 

→ The Uruk vase tells us that the urban society of Uruk (and Sumerian society) prioritizes priests (who had much more control over the population; able to command wealth to enter the Ziggurat & the temple) 

• humans bring good (food=wealth) to the temple 

Ishtar Gate

It was built in 575 BCE by Babylonian emperors, 50 feet high & 45 feet deep foundation 

• composed of mudbrick (baked bricks) core + wrapped w/ glazed mudbricks (early form of glazing/glass production)

• animals representing Babylonian deities composed in low-relief using glazed brick; they were multi-beast representing a Babylonian deity.  

• When the sun would hit the blue bricks, it would be blinding/almost glowing