Art of the Ancient Near East — Concise Page-by-Page Summary

Page 1

• Wide range of vessels (shapes, sizes, materials); roles: cooking, serving, storage, ritual, funerary.

• Function deduced mainly from archaeological context.

• Core artistic ideas present by 4^{\text{th}} millennium \text{B.C.}: multiple roles of ruler, use of contrasting colors.

• Continuous regional stylistic diversity; key cultural zones linked through trade: Mesopotamia, Syria, Anatolia, Levant, southwestern Iran, southern Arabia, Indus Valley, Bactria–Margiana.

• Independent polities yet culturally unified; simultaneous flourishing of diverse styles.

Page 2

• Artistic value placed on mastery of materials and techniques (“bringing to life” objects).

• Earliest 3-D sculptures: human/animal clay figurines (8^{\text{th}}–7^{\text{th}} millennia \text{B.C.}).

• Clear royal/divine statuary emerges by 4^{\text{th}} millennium \text{B.C.}

• Relief sculpture dominates: images project from a background; materials include stone, wood, ivory, metal, clay, precious stones.

• Relief applications: architecture, monuments, plaques, vessels, furniture fittings, jewelry, cylinder & stamp seals.

• Cylinder/stamp seals: engraved surface yields raised impression when rolled/pressed into wet clay.

Page 3

• Artistic output highly varied yet interconnected; Near Eastern cities influenced both eastern and western neighbors.

• Study reveals legacy of earliest urban civilizations.

• Key innovations: potter’s wheel, writing, agriculture, metalworking, glassmaking, horse use in transport/warfare.

• Babylonian scholarship laid groundwork for later advances in astronomy, \text{mathematics}, physiology, medicine.

Page 4

• Same core legacy reiterated: Near Eastern breakthroughs fundamentally shaped subsequent world development.

Page 5

• Successive cultures reused earlier monuments/motifs to legitimize power:
  • Achaemenid Persians (ca. 539–331 \text{B.C.}) adopted Assyrian relief style (ca. 911–612 \text{B.C.}).
  • Sasanian kings (from 3^{\text{rd}} century \text{A.D.}) appropriated Achaemenid imagery.
  • Local prince (ca. 2^{\text{nd}} century \text{B.C.}) re-installed statues of Gudea (late 3^{\text{rd}} millennium \text{B.C.}).

• 19^{\text{th}}-century excavator A. H. Layard turned ancient seals into modern jewelry.

• Ancient motifs diffused indirectly (e.g., griffin enters medieval bestiary) and persist today (appearing on modern Middle-Eastern currency).