Prehistoric Art and Ancient Near East Study Guide Notes module 2

Prehistoric Art

• The definition of "prehistoric" generally means before written history.

• Paleolithic cave paintings, such as those found in the Hall of the Bulls, are characterized by images/scenes of animals.

• Two types of Paleolithic art are cave and portable.

• When referring to the images of animals, "twisted perspective" is when the animal is depicted in a composite viewpoint, showing multiple angles at once.

• Stonehenge is part of the Neolithic period.

• One of the earliest fortified cities in the Neolithic period was Jericho.

• Çatalhöyük, across its history, witnesses the transition from exclusively hunting and gathering subsistence to increasing skill in plant and animal domestication.

• Stonehenge was created in three stages.

• Monuments from the Neolithic period in Western Europe, such as Stonehenge, are characterized by megalithic architecture.

• (True) Monumental architecture is powerful human-made topography.

Ancient Near East

• (True) The use of bronze allowed the beginnings of urban civilization, metal tools, government, and proto-writing. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, which is stronger and more durable than copper alone, enabling the development of more effective tools and weapons. This technological advancement facilitated increased agricultural productivity, urbanization, and the formation of complex social and political structures.

• Theocratic society was ruled by the priests.

• Some of the earliest complex urban centers can be found in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

• Earliest known writing emerged in southern Mesopotamia around 3400 BC called cuneiform.

• Head of an Akkadian Ruler was made using the lost wax technique. In this casting process, the materials clay, wax, and bronze are used. The lost-wax technique (also known as "cire perdue") is a method of metal casting in which a molten metal is poured into a mold that has been created by means of a wax model. Once the mold is made, the wax model is melted and drained away.

• Victory Stele of Naram-Sin represents a victory over the Lullubi Mountain People.

• (True) After 612 BCE, the Babylonian kings Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II were able to claim much of the Assyrian empire and rebuilt Babylon on a grand scale.

• The Code of Hammurabi is inscribed into the stele of Hammurabi. The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved ancient law code, created ca. 1754 BC (Middle Bronze Age) in ancient Babylon.

• The Ishtar Gate was the most elaborate of the inner-city gates constructed in Babylon in antiquity.

• The Assyrian empire dominated Mesopotamia and all of the Near East for the first half of the first millennium BCE.