APAH U1 SLIDES

What is this? Why is it important?

What is this? Why is it important?

1 - Apollo 11 Stones

• 25,000 BCE, Namibia

• Charcoal on stone, found in a cave

• Found in 1969 (hence the naming)

• Possibly designed for communication or hunting magic

• Silhouette of a creature that has the features of many animals, is in profile

** what is this, why is it important *

* - Venus of Willendorf

• 25,000-20,000 BCE, Austria

• Portable; human-like figure, no face

• Possibly a luck charm for fertility

  • Emphasis on baby-nurturing parts of body (breasts, larger body, vagina)

  • No history and less information, so birth was seen as a miracle

  • Reddish color could have been vaginal blood

What is this? Why is it important?

2 - Great Hall of the Bulls.

• Lascaux, France. 14,000 BCE.

• Rock painting created with paint made with nearby ingredients- Charcoal, ocher, etc.

• Original cave was in total darkness, paintings overlapped and took a lot of effort to make

• Likely no narrative and simply for hunting magic and communication.

• An example of composite view

**** Name and importance

* - “Disemboweled Bull”

• Found in the Hall of the Bulls

• Male humanoid figure, depicted by a penis

• New interactions, possibly some sort of narrative or warning communication

Information and Importance

3 - Camelid sancrum

• Central Mexico. 14,000-7,000 BCE. Bone

• Strangely in the shape of an animal skull, someone carved + added to resemble a face

• Comes from the hip structure of a camelid

• Example of deeper thinking by humans?

4 - Running horned woman
Algeria. 5,000 BCE. Pigment on rock

• Scale: the large lady was likely an important figure

• Presumably a woman wearing regalia and face paint

  • Some sort of ritual could be depicted in this art

5 - Beaker with ibex motifs. Iran. 4,000 BCE. Terra cotta

• Complex clay-working techniques

• Utilitarian tool, glaze was used to decorate

• Multiple registers are seen with an animal motif

• Example of stylized art

12 - White Temple & Ziggurat
3500 BCE, Mud Brick | Sumerian, Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq)

• Ziggurats were religious structures (like Tower of Babel)

• Ziggurats are often the focal point of a city and the theocratic political system, this one was dedicated to the sky god Anu

• The ziggurat had a white temple that was made with mud bricks covered with a layer white gypsum, no longer visible

14 - Votive Figures from the Square Temple
Found in Sumeria (now Iraq), 2,700 BCE. Statues carved from limestone or gypsum

• Handmade in various shapes and sizes

• Stands freely due to coneal shape

• Possibly made for people to pray “in spirit” while they were out

• Large eyes likely symbolic representation

16 - Standard of Ur
Found in Sumeria (now Iraq), 2,500 BCE.
Box made of wood, shell, lapis lazuli and limestone

• Has writing in cuneiform

• 2 long sides depicting “Peace” and “War”

  • Peace: Displays theocracy + a leader on the top, domesticated animals and a “middle class”, poor on the bottom.

  • War: Shows the original leader with warriors on top, middle has warriors with some weaker people, bottom shows the defeated enemies

19 - The Code of Hammurabi
Babylon. Susian, (now Iraq) 1,775 BCE. Basalt

• Hammurabi on the left, Shamash on the right

• Two horizonal registers, top has high relief and laws are written in cuneiform in bottom

  • Displays a set of laws with many harsh punishments

• The art shows sun/justice god Shamash, Hammurabi recieves law from him and hierachy of scale makes them almost equal

25 - Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II
Found in Dur Sharrukin, Neo-Assyrian (modern Khorsabad, Iraq)
715 BCE, made of Alabaster

• Lamassu: person + horse + winged animal

  • Traditionally intimidating “guardians”

• Sculpture-like aspects, but double-aspect relief

• 5 legs from being in composite views

30 - Audience Hall (Apadana) of Darius and Xerxes Persepolis, (Iran) Persian, 500 BCE Limestone

• Apadana = “audience hall“ in Persian

• Hypostyle hall, sacred govt. grounds

• Has a frieze of Persians as their empire grew, showing them not forcing assimilation

  • + Animal fight to show their status

• In ruins today

6 - Anthropomorphic stele
Arabian Peninsula. 3,500 BCE. Sandstone

• Stylized icon that shows tradition and practice, relief work

• Potentially used as a gravestone marker or remembrance,

• Unique for its time and place, due to aniconic traditions

7 - Jade cong. China. 2,700 BCE. Carved jade

• Possibly a flower vase, this was found in burials

• Has a symmetric design that repeats a pattern of spheres

• Subtly stylized face shapes indicate development of skill

• Must have been important since jade was hard to use

8 - Stonehenge. Wiltshire, England. 2,500-1,600 BCE. Sandstone

• A cromlech formed by various trilithons

• Believed order of contstruction: henge built 3100BCE with Aubrey holes, 2900BCE rural area, 2500BCE Sarsen stones*

• The structure has alignment with the solstices

• Axis leading into the center

9 - The Ambum Stone
Papua New Guinea. 1,500 BCE. Greywacke (type of sandstone)

• Utilitarian tool— but likely lost function due to form

• Appears to be a mortar, but now just a little sculpture

• IDEA: Form can kill function

10 - Tlatilco female figure. Central Mexico. 1,000 BCE. Ceramic

• Found in burials well preserved

• Stylized body elements

• Small, hand-made and meant to lay flat

• Two-faced figure symbolized duality and beliefs

11 - Terra cotta fragment. Solomon Islands. 1,000 BCE. Terra cotta

• Similar pieces were found 1000s of miles apart on islands

  • Indicate impressive ocean navigation skills and the Lapita would move + make these often

• Geometric repetition and face-like shape on the fragment

• Likely made through low-fire pottery

13 - Palette of King Narmer.
Predynastic Egypt. 3,000 BCE. Greywacke (type of sandstone)

• Front and back artwork

• Narmer was a ruler before the idea of pharaohs came

  • His artwork shows his power, and he is being blessed by what would represent future Egpytian gods, has someone holding his things

  • Artwork is divided in registers

15 - Seated scribe.
Saqqara, Egypt. Old Kingdom, 2,600 BCE. Painted limestone

• Painted and sculpted with detail on face and arms, due to the importance of scribes in Ancient Egyptian society. Less detail on the overall body

• The pose of the scribe indicates obedience and active listening, holding papyrus with large eyes open

18 - King Menkaure & queen
Old Kingdom of Egypt, 2,490 BCE. Greywacke

• Memorial structure for Menkaure

  • Traditional clothes with nude upper bodies, Menkaure is shown as more important

  • Both stepping forward with left foot symbolizes stepping into the afterlife

• Made of a durable material hard to work with, to hold the pharaoh in afterlife and shows his importance

17 - Great Pyramids (Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu) & Great Sphinx
Giza, Egypt. Old Kingdom, 2550-2490 BCE. Limestone

• 3 Great Pyramids built for Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure (in order of largest to smallest, and chonologically)

  • Khafre’s Pyramid has a Sphinx (lion with human head) nearby, carved into the bedrock as a symbol of royal power

• Symbolic properties

  • 4 corners aligned with cardinal points, once had a white layer covering

• Burial sites for pharaohs

  • 3 major pyramids for 3 rulers over 3 generations

20 - Temple of Amun-Re & Hypostyle Hall - Karnak, Egypt. New Kingdom, 1,550 & 1,250 BCE. Sandstone & Mud brick

• Some areas are restrictive, only accessed by elite

• Natural lighting from opening above and occasional flooding used to create spiritual feelings

• Hypostyled, Axial (on all cardinal directionals), longitudinal symmetry, had “pylons” monumental gate ways

• Center of god Amun-Re, Also honors several Egyptian gods

21 - Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut.
Luxor, Egypt. New Kingdom, 1,450 BCE. Sandstone

• Partially carved into a rock cliff

  • Colonnades, reliefs of the pharaoh w gods

• Statue depicts Hatshepsut with more traditional masculine features of pharaohs

  • Kneeling statue was made of granite

Akhenaton, Nefertiti & three daughters.
New Kingdom at Amarna, 1,350 BCE. Limestone

• Akhenaton and Nefertiti represented Aten

• Depicts Akhenaton, Nefertiti and his three daughters sitting on a throne

  • Ankhs radiate from the sun toward the family, Aten’s presence shows connection to Aten

• Bas-relief carving, Disproportionate bodies, Softer body positions, stylized and an example of iconography

23 - Tutankhamun’s tomb's innermost coffin
New Kingdom, 1,325 BCE. Gold, Enamel & Semi Precious stones

• Overall temple

  • Found in 1922 by Howard Carter around the VK, tomb had multiple sarcophagi and coffins for Tut

  • Crook and flail, symbols of control + providing

• Innermost coffin, made of solid gold

  • Damage to cranium in the body

  • Famous death mask, blue and gold colors in death. Bones-silver, Skin-gold, Lapis lazuli-hair

  • cobra Wadjet (L) + vulture Nekhbet (U): the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt

  • Skilled casting craftsmanship- inlays, ground-down dye, for a mediocre pharaoh

24 - Last judgment of the Hu-Nefer, Book of the Dead.
New Kingdom. 1,275 BCE. Painted papyrus scroll

• Text with spells, prayers and inscriptions that helped the dead in the afterlife

• Top register: group of Egyptian gods holding the ankh, showing it to Hu Nefer

• Ammit - Crocodile head, jackal front legs, hippo back legs

• Horus presents to Osiris, who presides over the afterlife, Isis and 4 kids too

• Horus also appears next to Osiris and Isis

• Horus eye and ostrich feather symbols

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