History of Art Midterm 10/22

Pillars, Göbekli Tepe

c. 10,000 BCE
- Göbekli Tepe is in modern Turkey
- T-shaped limestone stelai
- Between 2.6 and 5.5 meter-tall
- Some detailed relief carvings include
images of lion and an "H" shaped
symbol that may represent the word
"god" in ancient script indicating the
site was used for worshipping gods

Çatalhöyük Settlement
6,500-5,500 BCE

- Çatalhöyük is also in modern Turkey
- Neolithic settlement made of
mudbrick houses, housing up to
8,000 people; marking a significant
transformation from nomadic to settled life
- burials under house floors
- One significant find: seated woman
made from clay, (“Mother Goddess”),

Uruk Ziggurat
After c. 3,100 BCE

- In the south of Modern Iraq
- Ancient Mesopotamia, Land
between Euphrates and Tigris
- In Uruk the Gilgamesh Epic was composed
- Ziggurat = ancient temple like
structures, made from mudbrick
- Ziggurats have also been
excavated at many other sites
including Ur, Chogha Zanbil,
Babylon (“Tower of Babel”)
- Modern name of the site: Warka

Uruk:
Mask of Warka, “Lady of Warka

- 3,100 BCE
- Marble, eyes and eyebrows were
inlaid with different materials, lost
today
- Probably depiction of Inanna
- c. 20 cm (8 inches) tall
- Today: National Museum Iraq,
Baghdad
- Stolen during illegal U.S. invasion to
Iraq, 2003 but returned in same year

- Headdress and Jewelry of Queen
Puabi from the Royal Cemetery of Ur
- Ur is also in Mesopotamia in what is
modern Iraq
- c. 2,500 BCE
- Gold, lapis lazuli (from Afghanistan),
carneol
- Human remains of Puabi are in
London, Natural History Museum
while jewelry and gold is shared
between Philadelphia (Penn
Museum) and London (British
Museum)

-Cylinder sea; of Queen Puabi and Modern impression with cunieform inscription

-Ur, Royal cemetery, Mesopotamia, Irap excavated next to the body of Puabi 

-C. 2,600-2,500 BCE

-Lapis Lazuli

-British Museum

-One of three excavated belonging to Puabi 

- Ur Cemetery
- Lyre of Ur from the “King’s Grave”
- Gold, Silver, Lapis, Shell, Bitumen, wood
- c. 2,500 BCE
- c. 36 cm
- Two of them were found
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
- British Museum, London 

Standard of Ur, Iraq
• shell, red limestone, lapis lazuli on wood
• 21.59 cm high and 49.53 cm long (8.5 x 19.6 inches)
• Front panel “War”, Back panel “Peace”
• Today: British Museum, London

Khufu Pyramid, c. 2,500 BCE
-Old Kingdom, Egypt
• c. 2.3 million blocks of limestone and granite
• Construction time c. 15-20 years
• Population 1.6 million around 2,500 BCE in
Upper and Lower Egypt together (Mark
Lehner)
• Architect’s Name: Hemiunu
• According to the Turin Kings list Pharaoh
Khufu reigned for about 23 years

Khufu’s Five Boats

3 on eastern side, 2 on southern side of the
Khufu pyramid, dismantled in pits
• Large timbers of cedar, smaller parts made of
sycamore
• Once fully assembled: 43 m in length, 6m
across the beam, 40 tons displacement

Sphinx, Egypt, Gizeh, 2,500 BCE

-Limestone 

-Originally Painted, guardian to pyramids

-Inspired many later arts such as Greek tombstones in forms of Sphinxes 

Seated Scribe 

-C. 2,500 BCE

-Old Kingdom, Egypt 

-Louvre, Paris 

-Limestone, painted 

-Inlaid glass eye 

-Holding a papyrus scroll

Kaper
Old Kingdom
c. 2,500 BCE
Wood, Glass
Cairo, Egyptian Museum

Statuette of a Woman carrying Offerings
From the Tomb of Meketre and Wah,
Middle Kingdom, Upper Egypt, c. 2,000 BCE
Wood, painted
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Statuette of a Woman carrying Offerings
From the Tomb of Meketre and Wah,
Middle Kingdom, Upper Egypt, c. 2,000 BCE
Wood, painted
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Yor

Tomb of Mesehti, c. 2,000 BCE (Middle Kingdom)
Wooden platform with Nubian soldiers with
painted shields
From Illegal Excavations around 1900
Today in Cairo, Egyptian Museum

Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut
c. 1450 BCE
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18
Granite
Upper Egypt
Excavated in Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri
Statues of H. were mostly destroyed after her death,
excavated 1927-1928, and are now in Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York
Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II
Hatshepsut = “Foremost of Noble Ladies”

Wall Painting Fragment
Tomb of Sobekhotep
near Thebes
c. 1,400 BCE (New
Kingdom)
Depicting People from
Nubia (modern Sudan)
Today the relief is in the
British Museum, London

Colossal Statue of Pharaoh
Akhenaten
1,353 to 1,336 BCE
18th Dynasty, New Kingdom
Excavated at Karnak near
Thebes
Cairo Museum
The Art of Amarna Period:
- Fluid, often exaggerated
body forms
- Intimate postures, even
kissing, embracing

Portrait Bust of Nefertiti
1370-1330 BCE
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18
Egypt
Limestone, Glass, Paint
Excavated in Amarna, in a
sculptor’s workshop in 1912.
Today in the Egyptian
Museum in Berlin,
Germany.

Mask from the body of
Tutankhamun
Tomb of Tutankhamun,
c. 1330 BCE, New
Kingdom, Egypt,
excavated in 1922

Cylinder Seal
Material: Chalcedon
C. 1250 BCE
Elamite Culture
Excavated at Chogha Zanbil = ancient Dur Untash, Modern Iran
Also: Modern Seal Impression and Drawing in the Morgan Library
in New York City while the original seal is in Tehran 

Ishtar Gate, Reconstructed 

Originally in Babylon, Iraq

c.560 BCE

Berlin Museum 

Glazed Bricks 

Nebuchadnezzar II

Close by the Procession street with lions 

Near Euphrates River 

Babylon, ancient Mesopotamia, modern Iraq
Lion from Procession Street in front of Ishtar Gate
Glazed Brick
Original: c. 560 BCE
Modern Reconstruction in Berlin

Assyrian Art
Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions
Limestone
Nineveh, Iraq
640 BCE
London, British Museum

Assyrian Art
Dying Lioness
Limestone
Nineveh, Iraq
640 BCE
London, British Museum

Assyrian Art
Banquet Scene (Man and Woman, maybe a king and queen?; musicians; fan holder;
hanging skulls from the tree)
Limestone
Nineveh, Iraq
640 BCE
London, British Museum