Introduction to Prehistoric and Ancient Art History

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, cultural developments, artistic conventions, and historical concepts from the Paleolithic era through ancient Egyptian civilization.

Paleolithic

Meaning 'old stone,' this time period refers to the old stone age characterized by nomadic hunter-gatherers living in small clans of 20 to 30 individuals.

Mesolithic

The middle stone age period between the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages that is skipped in major cultural studies due to a lack of significant cultural development.

Neolithic

The new stone age period characterized by a temperate climate, permanent dwellings, the rise of civilization, agriculture, and animal domestication.

Mesopotamia

A region named by the Greeks meaning 'the land between the rivers,' also called the Fertile Crescent, which served as the origin of civilization.

Sumer

An ancient city in Mesopotamia recognized as the origin place of written language, urban centers, currency, organized religion, and structured economy.

Pantheon

A structured group or hierarchy of gods and goddesses within a polytheistic religion.

Anu

The Sumerian god located at the top of the pantheon hierarchy, representing the god of the heavens or sky wall.

Abstract Thinking

The cognitive ability to contemplate non-survival ideas, faith, and concepts that cannot be seen or proven, which enabled the development of religion.

Cuneiform

The earliest known form of non-pictorial written language, made by pressing a wedge-shaped stone into damp clay tablets for record-keeping.

Cuneus

A wedge-shaped piece of stone used by Sumerians to impress characters into damp clay tablets.

Epic of Gilgamesh

The earliest known piece of written literature, recorded on multiple clay tablets, detailing the journey and moral lesson of a long-lived Sumerian ruler.

Stelae

An upright stone slab containing information, laws, or carved relief sculptures.

Relief Sculpture

A sculptural technique where carved figures project outward from a flat surface, such as the raised imagery on a coin.

Hammurabi's Code

An upright stelae featuring 282 written laws in cuneiform topped with a relief carving of the god Shamash delivering the cylinder rule of law to Hammurabi.

Great Hall of Bulls

A specific location inside the Lascaux Caves in Dordonia, France, featuring paleolithic cave paintings made continuously between 16,000 and 14,000 BCE.

Ka

The ancient Egyptian term for a person's soul or life force, which temporarily leaves the physical body upon death before returning to its mummified remains.

Composite Drawing

An ancient Egyptian artistic convention that combines frontal and profile perspectives of the human body in a single unified drawing.

Idealize

To depict a figure or object according to an elevated standard of perfection or symbolic meaning rather than exact realistic appearance.

Stylized

An artistic representation designed according to specific non-realistic conventions, traits, and artistic patterns characteristic of a particular group or era.

Egyptian Proportional Grid

A red paint grid system applied to tomb walls that allowed Egyptian sculptors and painters to maintain exact proportional ratios across 3,000 years.

Nemes Headdress

A striped royal headdress worn by Egyptian pharaohs featuring cobra and vulture symbols representing the unified Upper and Lower Egypt.

Akhenaten

An Egyptian pharaoh (formerly Amenhotep IV) who briefly replaced polytheism with monotheism and introduced naturalistic artistic portrayals.