Notes of Art of the Ancient Near East

Ancient Near East (Mesopotamia)

Agriculture emerged in the Fertile Crescent before Europe and Egypt.
Later developed in the alluvial plains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq).
The name Mesopotamia, given by the Greeks, means "the land between the rivers."
Need for water control systems due to flooding and drought may have led to the development of cities.
Around 4000-3000 BCE, agricultural villages evolved into cities in northern and southern Mesopotamia.
Prosperous cities and territories formed city-states with their own gods and governments.
Social hierarchies: rulers and workers emerged with specialized skills.
New crafts: brick and pottery kilns, textile and metal workshops.
Increased trade and contact with other cultures due to surplus goods.
Large temples and government buildings were constructed.
Organized religion played a key role; priests controlled rituals and sacred sites.
The people worshiped many gods and goddesses.
Each city had a protective deity; the city's fate depended on its power.
Deity names varied over time and place (e.g., Inanna (Sumerian) = Ishtar (Babylonian)).
Large architectural complexes developed as centers of ritual, worship, and government.
Southern Mesopotamia's wealth and agricultural resources made it vulnerable to political disorder.
Power shifted between north and south, and between local powers and invaders.
First the Sumerians controlled the south and then the Akkadians.
Sumerians regained power locally after invaders conquered the Akkadians.
The city-states of Ur and Lagash flourished under strong leaders.
The Amorites then dominated the south, unifying society under King Hammurabi with Babylon as the capital.

Sumer

Cities and city-states along the rivers of southern Mesopotamia (c. 3500-2340 BCE) were collectively known as Sumer.
Sumerians migrated from the north, origins are obscure.
Inventions: possibly the wagon wheel and the plow.
Greatest contribution: invention of writing on clay tablets (c. 3100 BCE).
Cuneiform: wedge-shaped symbols pressed into clay tablets with a stylus.
Used to keep business records.
Thousands of surviving tablets allow tracing the evolution of writing, arithmetic, and justice systems.
The world’s first literary epic originated in Sumer.
The Epic of Gilgamesh: adventures of a Sumerian king of Uruk and his companion Enkidu.
Gilgamesh seeks immortality after Enkidu's death but ultimately accepts mortality.

Ziggurats

Most impressive Sumerian remains: ziggurats.
Huge, stepped structures with a temple or shrine on top.
Developed from repeated rebuilding at sacred sites.
Elevating buildings protected shrines from flooding.
Ziggurats symbolized wealth, prestige, and stability of rulers.
Also served as bridges between earth and heavens for humans and gods.
Given names like "House of the Mountain" and "Bond between Heaven and Earth."
Large temple complexes in Uruk (present-day Warka, Iraq) mark the first independent Sumerian city-state.
One dedicated to Inanna, the goddess of love and war, the other to the sky god Anu.
The temple platform of Anu rose to about 40 feet.
Around 3100 BCE, the White Temple (whitewashed brick) was erected on top of the platform.
It was a simple rectangle with an off-center doorway leading to a chamber with an altar.
Statues of gods and donors were placed in Sumerian temples.
A marble face from Uruk may represent a goddess, possibly attached to a wooden head and body.
Original paint, wig, and inlay are now stripped away.
Shells were used for the whites of the eyes, lapis lazuli for pupils, and gold for hair.

Carved Vessels from Uruk

Tall alabaster vessels found near the temple complex of Inanna at Uruk.
Show how early Mesopotamian sculptors told stories in stone with clarity.
Visual narrative organized into three registers (horizontal bands).
Lowest register: sources of life (water, plants - date palm, barley, wheat, flax).
Middle register: naked men carrying baskets of foodstuffs.
Top register: goddess Inanna accepts an offering from two standing figures.
Scene may represent the ritual marriage between the goddess and Dumuzi.
Performed during the New Year’s festival to ensure fertility and survival of Uruk.

Votive Figures

Limestone statues (c. 2900-2600 BCE) from the Square Temple in Eshnunna.
Votive figures: images dedicated to the gods.
Related to devotional practice where worshipers set up images of themselves in a shrine.
Inscriptions might identify the figure as "One who offers prayers."
Longer inscriptions recounted accomplishments in the god’s honor.
Each sculpture served as a stand-in for the donor, in eye-contact with the god.
Followed conventions important in Sumerian art.
Represented with stylized faces and bodies, dressed in cylindrical clothing.
Hands clasped in respect, a posture expected in devotional contexts.
Bold, glaring eyes related to Sumerian texts advising attentive gaze towards gods.
Arched brows inlaid with dark shell, stone, or bitumen emphasized eyes.
Male figures: bare-chested, sheepskin skirts, stocky, muscular.
Female figures: massive, long sheepskin skirts.
Artisans worked in precious metals and bronze, combined materials.
Creations decorated with animals or composite creatures.

Lyre from Ur

Lyre from the city of Ur combines wood, gold, lapis lazuli, and shell.
Wood-sculpted head of a bearded bull overlaid with gold projects from the base.
Blue beard created from lapis lazuli, imported from Afghanistan, documenting trade.

Cylinder Seals

Developed around the time written records appeared to identify documents and establish property ownership.
About 3300-3100 BCE, stamp seals were redesigned as cylinders.
Rolled across clay tablets or closures, leaving a raised mirror image.
Attested to authenticity or prevented unauthorized access.
Usually less than 2 inches high and made of hard stone.
Individuals acquired seals as signs of status, buried with them.
Lapis lazuli cylinder seal found in the tomb of Queen Puabi at Ur.
Impression shows two registers of a banquet with female guests.

Akkadian Empire

Akkadians settled north of Uruk and adopted Sumerian culture.
Akkadians spoke a Semitic language.
Under Sargon I (c. 2332-2279 BCE), they conquered most of Mesopotamia.
Sargon, King of the Four Quarters of the World, ruled from Akkad.

Head of a Ruler

Few artifacts identified with Akkad exist.
A life-size bronze head found in Nineveh is thought to date from Sargon's time.
Earliest major work of hollow-cast copper sculpture in the ancient Near East.
Facial features and hairstyle reflect a generalized ideal rather than a specific individual.
Enormous curling beard and braided hair indicate royalty and male appearance.
Deliberate damage suggests symbolic mutilation to destroy power.
**Ears and eyes removed to deprive the head of its ability to hear and see.

Stele of Naram-Sin

The concept of imperial authority was carved in stone by Sargon’s grandson, Naram-Sin.
6-foot-high stele memorializes a military victory.
One of the first works of art created to celebrate an individual ruler’s achievement.
Commemorates the king’s victory over the Lullubi people of the Zagros Mountains.
Watched over by three solar deities (rayed suns) and wearing a horned helmet-crown.
Hieratically scaled king stands above soldiers and fallen foes.
The shape of the stone slab is used as an active part of the composition.
Its tapering top accommodates the carved mountain.

Ur and Lagash

The Akkadian Empire fell around 2180 BCE to the Guti.
The Guti controlled most of the Mesopotamian plain briefly.
The Sumerians regained control in 2112 BCE under King Urnammu of Ur.
He reintroduced the Sumerian language and sponsored building campaigns, including a ziggurat dedicated to the moon god Nanna/Sin.

Nanna Ziggurat

Located on the site of an earlier temple.
Base is a rectangle 205 by 141 feet, with three sets of stairs.
Each platform’s walls slope outward to prevent rainwater puddles.
The first two levels and retaining walls are recent reconstructions.

Gudea

Lagash, with its capital Girsu, remained independent during this period.
Gudea, the ruler, built and restored temples and placed votive statues representing himself as governor.

Votive Statue of Gudea

Made of diorite, a very hard stone.
Compact, simplified forms for the portraits.
Images of Gudea present him as a strong, peaceful, pious ruler.
Wears a long garment with cuneiform inscriptions.
Right shoulder is bare, wears a cap with a wide brim.
Holds a vessel from which life-giving water flows, filled with leaping fish.
Text states he dedicated himself, the statue, and its temple to the goddess Geshtinanna.
Emphasized the power centers of the human body: the eyes, head, chest, and arms.
Face is youthful and serene, eyes oversized and wide open.

Babylon

After 300 years of political disorder, the Amorites reunited Mesopotamia under Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE).
Hammurabi’s capital was Babylon, and his subjects were called Babylonians.
Hammurabi developed a written legal code.

Stele of Hammurabi

From Sippar, found at Susa (present-day Shush, Iran).
Features use of foreshortening in Shamash’s beard and throne.
Rod and ring symbolize the divine right to measure justice and enforce order.

Hammurabi's Code

Formulated a set of nearly 300 laws.
Recorded on a black basalt stele, relief of Hammurabi receiving authority from Shamash.
Governed a wide range of civil, criminal, and economic issues, written in Akkadian cuneiform.
Hammurabi raises his hand in respect as the god extends the rod and ring.
The objects are builders’ tools.
Connote the ruler’s capacity to build social order and render judgments.
Laws governed commerce, property, murder, theft, marital infidelity, inheritance, and the treatment of slaves.

Examples of Laws:

If a man puts out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
If he kills a man’s slave, he shall pay one-third of a man’s salary.
If someone steals property from a temple, he will be put to death, as will the receiver of the stolen goods.
If a married woman dies before bearing sons, her dowry shall be repaid to her father, but if she gave birth to sons, the dowry shall belong to them.
If a man strikes a freeborn woman so that she loses her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss. If the woman dies, his daughter shall be put to death.
If a man is guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be exiled.

Hittites

Outside Mesopotamia, cultures developed in Anatolia (present-day Turkey).
The Hittites, who moved into central Anatolia, were the most powerful and resisted Mesopotamian domination.
They established their capital at Hattusha (near present-day Boghazkoy, Turkey) about 1600 BCE.
Through trade and conquest, they created an empire along the Mediterranean Sea.
This brought them into conflict with the Egyptian Empire.

Lion Gate

At Hattusha (near present-day Boghazkoy, Turkey).
The Hittites may have been the first people to work in iron.
They used iron for war chariot fittings, weapons, chisels, and hammers.
Noted for metalwork and palace citadels with double walls and fortified gateways.
The lower walls were constructed of stone, and the upper walls, stairways, and walkways were finished in brick.
The blocks of stone used to frame doorways at Hattusha were decorated in high relief with guardian figures that some were 7 feet tall.

Assyrian Empire

Began to extend their power by about 1400 BCE; conquered neighboring regions after about 1000 BCE.
By the end of the ninth century BCE, the Assyrians controlled most of Mesopotamia.
By the early seventh century BCE, they had extended their influence west to Egypt.
Assyrian rulers built palaces atop high platforms inside fortified cities.
Decorated these palaces with stone reliefs of battle and hunting scenes, Assyrian victories, and religious imagery.

Neo-Babylonian Empire (c. 626–539 BCE)

At the end of the seventh century BCE, Assyria was invaded by the Medes and the Scythians.
In 612 BCE, the Medes army captured Nineveh.
The Neo-Babylonians controlled a region from modern Turkey to northern Arabia.
The most famous Neo-Babylonian ruler was Nebuchadnezzar II.

Nebuchadnezzar II

Notorious for his suppression of the Jews.
A great patron of architecture.
Built temples dedicated to Babylonian gods.
Transformed Babylon into a splendid city.
Babylon straddled the Euphrates River.

Reconstruction Drawing of Babylon

The Processional Way traversed the eastern sector of Babylon.
This street, paved with stone slabs, was up to 66 feet wide.
It ran from the Euphrates bridge through the temple district and palaces and entered through the Ishtar Gate.
The Ishtar Gate had four crenellated towers which symbolized Babylonian power.
The walls on either side of the route were faced with dark blue glazed bricks.
Molded turquoise, blue, and gold-colored bricks formed images.
Striding lions symbolized Ishtar and dragons were associated with Marduk.

Achaemenid and Sasanian Art (Persian Empire)

In the sixth century BCE, the Persians began to seize power in Mesopotamia.
From Parsa (present-day Fars, Iran), they established a vast empire.
The rulers traced their ancestry to Achaemenes and are known as the Achaemenids.

Cyrus II the Great

The expansion began in 559 BCE with the ascension of Cyrus II the Great.
The Persian Empire included Babylonia, Media, and some Aegean islands.
Only the Greeks stood fast against them.

Darius I

When Darius I took the throne, he proclaimed himself “King of Kings."
He organized the Persian lands into 20 tribute-paying areas under Persian governors.
He often left local rulers in place, winning the Persians loyalty.

*Visible Symbols of Authority:

Like many powerful rulers, Darius created palaces and citadels as visible symbols of his authority.
He made Susa his first capital.
In about 515 BCE, Darius began construction of Parsa, a new capital known as Persepolis.

Persepolis

One of the best-preserved ancient sites in the Near East.
Darius imported materials, workers, and artists from all over his empire.
The result was a new multicultural style of art combining Persian, Mede, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Greek traditions.

Imperial Complex at Persepolis

Set on a raised platform, 40 feet high and 1,500 by 900 feet.
Accessible only from a single approach of wide, shallow steps.
Laid out on a rectangular grid, like Egyptian and Greek cities.
Darius only saw the completion of a treasury, the Apadana (audience hall), and a small palace for himself.

Apadana

Set above the rest of the complex on a second terrace.
Had open porches on three sides and a square hall large enough to hold several thousand people.
*Darius’s son, Xerxes I added a sprawling palace complex, enlarged the treasury, and began Hall of 100 columns.

Stair of Darius’s Apadana

Displays reliefs of animal combat, royal guards, and delegations of tribute bearers.
Lions attack bulls at each side of the Persian generals.
Animal combats emphasize the ferocity of the leaders and their men.
Ranks of warriors cover the walls and seem ready to defend the palace.
The drawing, composition, and modeling reflect the Persians’ knowledge of Greek art.

Decline of Persian Empire

At its height, the Persian Empire extended from Africa to India.
Darius and Xerxes sent armies west to conquer Greece, but mainland Greeks successfully resisted.
In 334 BCE, Alexander the Great of Macedonia swept through Mesopotamia, defeating Darius III and destroying Persepolis in 330 BCE.
Although the Achaemenid Empire ended, Persia eventually revived, and the Persian style influenced Greek artists and became one of the foundations of Islamic art.

Egyptian Art

The Nile defined the cultures that developed along its banks.

Rich Pantheon of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt has majestic pyramids, hieroglyphs, and culture.
The Egyptians worshipped numerous gods and goddesses.

Isis

The Mother Goddess, revered as the ideal mother and wife.
Embodied love, fertility, and protection.
Often depicted as a woman with a throne on her head.
Played a crucial role in the story of Osiris.
Associated with healing and magic.
Temples dedicated to Isis were centers of healing.

Ra

The Sun God, believed to be the creator and ruler of the heavens and earth.
Often depicted as a man with the head of a falcon, wearing a sun disk.
Associated with the sun, the source of all life and energy.
Cycle of sunrise and sunset represented the struggle between order and chaos.
Closely associated with kingship; the pharaoh was believed to be the earthly embodiment of Ra.
During the Middle Ages, knowledge of the Egyptians was forgotten.
The Enlightenment of the 18th century: Scholars began piecing together Egypt's history.
Manetho described the succession of Egyptian rulers and divided them into dynasties.
Manetho’s chronology is inaccurate, and historians still disagree on the dates of the kings.
The modern discipline of Egyptology dates to the late 18th century.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Took a team of scholars to Egypt.
In 1804, they published Description of Egypt, a collaborative work.

Rosetta Stone

Discovered during Napoleon’s expedition, providing the key to deciphering hieroglyphic writing.
Inscription in three sections: Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphic.
Jean Francois Champollion and others deduced that hieroglyphs were signs of a language.
The Rosetta Stone allowed reading hieroglyphs and revolutionized Egyptian civilization and art study.

Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods

Prehistoric beginnings of Egyptian civilization precede writing.
Tombs, paintings, pottery, and artifacts attest to a sophisticated culture around 3500 BCE.
Known as the Predynastic period.

Painting and Sculpture

Egypt was divided into Upper Egypt (southern) and Lower Egypt (northern).
Major finds come from Upper Egypt, especially Abydos and Hierakonpolis.
A tomb dating between 3500 and 3200 BCE Series of mural paintings, identified by some Egyptologists with Narmer, by others with Aha.
The image and name of King Narmer appear on both sides of a ceremonial palette found at Hierakonpolis.
The palette is one of the earliest historical artworks.
Historians believe that the formation of the “Kingdom of the Two Lands” occurred over centuries.
Narmer’s palette is an elaborate version of a utilitarian object used to prepare eye makeup.

Narmer's Palette Significance

Marks the transition from the prehistoric to the historical period.
One of the earliest examples of the formula for figure representation.
At the top of each side are two heads of a cow, identified as Hathor or Bat.
Between the heads is a hieroglyph giving Narmer’s name.
On the back, the king slaying a captured enemy, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt.
Slaying motif resembles the Hierakonpolis mural signifying triumph over foes.
The falcon stands for the king’s victory over Lower Egypt.
Below the king are two fallen enemies.
On the front, elongated necks of two felines form the circular depression for eye makeup.
The intertwined necks symbolize Egypt’s unification.
In the uppermost register, Narmer reviews the beheaded bodies of the enemy.
The Egyptian artist combined profile views with frontal views of the eye and torso.
The sculptor subdivided the surface into registers.
Narmer’s palette established this compositional scheme as the norm in Egypt for millennia.
Most of the monuments were dedicated to ensuring safety and happiness in the next life.

Early Funerary Architectural Forms/ Mastabas

The standard tomb type in early Egypt.
A rectangular structure with sloping sides erected over an underground burial chamber.
Form probably developed from earthen mounds.
Main feature: the chapel with a false door for the ka.
Some mastabas had a serdab, a small room housing a statue of the deceased.

Imhotep and Djoser

One of the most renowned figures in Egyptian history was Imhotep.
Master builder for King Djoser (r. 2630-2611 BCE) of the Third Dynasty.
Imhotep’s is the first recorded name of an artist anywhere in the world.
A man of legendary talent, Imhotep also served as high priest of the sun god Ra.
Architectural historians attribute the stepped pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara to him.

Saqqara Pyramid

Saqqara was the ancient necropolis of Memphis.
Built before 2600 BCE, it is one of the oldest stone structures in Egypt.
Begun as a large mastaba, the tomb was enlarged several times, and became a stepped pyramid.
About 200 feet high, Djoser’s stepped pyramid is the first truly grandiose Egyptian tomb.
Composed of a series of mastabas of diminishing size.
Unlike a ziggurat, the Djoser pyramid is a tomb.
Its function was to protect the mummified king and symbolize his godlike power.
Beneath Djoser’s pyramid was a network of underground rooms and galleries.
The vast subterranean complex resembles a palace and was to be the king’s home in the afterlife.
The divine king could join with the northern star.
Priests performed daily rituals at the temple.
Djoser’s funerary temple was one of many buildings arranged around courts.
Most of the others were dummy structures.
The stone buildings imitate temporary structures made of plant stems and mats.
These were erected in Upper and Lower Egypt to celebrate the Jubilee Festival, which reaffirmed the royal existence.
The translation into stone of structural forms previously made out of plants is seen in columns.
The north palace of Djoser’s funerary precinct is such an example.
Djoser’s columns are engaged columns, attached to walls, and the earliest known stone columns.

Old Kingdom Architecture

The rulers of the Old Kingdom amassed great wealth.
They expended it on architectural projects, the most spectacular were the Fourth Dynasty pyramids of Gizeh.
The Gizeh pyramids are the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

Gizeh Pyramids

The Egyptians constructed the three major pyramids at Gizeh over the course of about 75 years.
They were to serve as the tombs of the Fourth Dynasty kings Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.
They represent the culmination of an architectural evolution that began with the mastaba.
The new tomb shape reflected the influence of Heliopolis, the seat of the cult of Re.
The pyramids are symbols of the sun.
The Pyramid Texts refer to the sun’s rays as the ladder the god-king uses to ascend to the heavens.
The pyramids were where Egyptian kings were reborn in the afterlife.
The four sides of each of the Gizeh pyramids are oriented to the cardinal points.
Funerary temples associated with the Gizeh pyramids are not on the north side.
*Archaeologists have been able to reconstruct an entire funerary complex of Khafre with pyramid itself, mortuary temple, roofed causeway, and valley temple.

Great Sphinx

Beside the causeway and dominating the valley temple of Khafre.
Carved from a spur of rock in the Gizeh quarry.
Largest statue in Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Persia.
Probably an image of Khafre (complete with beard and headdress).
May portray Khufu.
It is a lion with a human head was an appropriate image for a king.
The form suggests that the Egyptian king combined human intelligence with strength and authority.

Sculpture

Old Kingdom sculptors produced statues because they fulfilled an important function.
*Egyptian sculptors worked with wood, clay, and other materials, but most surviving statues are of stone.

Khafre's Statue

Perhaps the finest example of Old Kingdom royal portraiture.
One of a series of similar statues carved for the god-king’s valley temple.
The stone is diorite, brought from royal quarries in the south.

Menkaure Statues

Seated statue is one of a small number of standard types that sculptors used to represent the human figure.
*Another is the image of a person or deity standing, either alone or in a group.
Two-figure group of Menkaure and a female figure, Khamerernebty or the goddess Hathor.
This statue once stood in the valley temple of Menkaure’s pyramid complex at Gizeh.
The figures remain wedded to the stone block.
Stone backdrop is as high and wide as the figures.
Those portraits could be classified as high-relief sculptures rather than freestanding statues.
Menkaure’s pose is rigidly frontal, arms hanging straight down.
Menkaure clenches his fists with the thumbs forward and advances his left leg slightly.
Khamerernebty stands in a similar position but has right arm circles the king’s waist.
This gesture indicates their shared status.
The figures show no other sign of affection or emotion.
Not to portray vibrant living figures but to suggest the timeless nature of the stone statue.

Seated Statue

*Traces of paint remain on the portrait of Menkaure.
Egyptian artists painted statues but sometimes left the natural color of the stone exposed.
*Striking examples of painted sculpture are the seated statues of Rahotep and Nofret and the statue found at Saqqara portraying a Fourth Dynasty scribe.
Poses are still upright and frontality of head and body, the coloration lends a lifelike quality to the stone images.
Saqqara: sculptor conveyed the personality of an intelligent and alert scribe

Scribe: Not as exalted as a king: not idealized. Sculptor reproduced scribe’s chest muscles and protruding belly.

Tomb of Ti

Images of the deceased also appear in relief sculptures and in mural painting.
The painted limestone relief scenes decorating the walls of the mastaba of a Fifth Dynasty official named Ti typify the subjects.
Depictions of the deceased at his funerary meal and scenes of agriculture and hunting fill Ti’s tomb.
The Egyptians associated farming and hunting and dining with providing nourishment for the ka and symbolic overtones. Success in the hunt was a metaphor for triumph over evil.

Ti's Tomb - Marshes

Wall: Ti, men, and boats move slowly through the marshes hunting hippopotami and birds.
The sculptor delineated the reedy stems of the plants with repeated fine grooves that fan out at the top into birds and stalking foxes.

The water beneath the boats is signified by a pattern of wavy lines, hippopotami and fish.
The basic conventions of Egyptian figure representation appear again
The artist exaggerated the size of Ti to announce his rank.
Combined frontal and profile views of Ti’s body
. Not an actor to the hunt. Does not do anything. The idealized image of Ti is typical of Egyptian relief sculpture
Egyptian artists ignore variations in body types of real human beings.

Pain

Painter Artists applied a strict canon, system of proportions, to the human figure.
First drew a grid on the wall Various human body parts/height/predetermined squares within the grid.

Animal Scenes

Repeated poses, anecdotal details. The fording of the Nile symbolizes deceased passage.
Full of details.

Middle Kingdom
In 2040 BCE, Mentuhotep II united Egypt again and established the Middle Kingdom (11th to 14th Dynasties).
Sculpture:
Although Middle Kingdom sculptors adhered to conventions, there were innovations.

Senusret

Senusret III fought military campaigns.
Senusret portraits break with Old Kingdom Idealized bodies: Realism in features in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
King: Mature man, protruding ears/round eyes, lined forehead.
Pessimistic expression but may reflect the intention.
Architecture: Senusret’s tomb, is mud-brick pyramid.

Beni Hasan

Rock-cut tombs replaced the mastaba for most wealthy patrons.
Khnumhotep II tomb (12th Dynasty) has a shallow columnar porch, columned hall, for niche statues as Amenemhe, for columns are more like Doric orders