Chapter 2

Art of Ancient Near East

Ancient near east

• Civilization was merging in several places at the same time

• When Egypt was being united under Pharaonic rule, Syria and another great civilization arose in Mesopotamia

• For 3000 years these two regions kept their distinct characteristics even though they had frequent contact with each other from the beginning

Sumer

• Not a unified nation – made up of city-states which were under the protection of different Mesopotamian deities

• The oldest written documents are Mesopotamian records of administrative acts and commercial transactions

• Pictographs (simplified pictures standing in for words)

• Cuneiform (wedge-shaped signs)

Ziggurats • Ziggurats proclaimed the wealth, prestige and

stability of a city’s rulers and glorified its gods.• The sumerian city plan reflected the central role

of the local god in the daily life as the ziggurat and temple formed the city’s nucleus

• They functioned symbolically as a bridge between earth and the heavens

• They were made of mudbrick

Ziggurats

Warka vase3500 BCE 36” high Alabaster

Registers were used To tell stories with economy And clarity.

A groundline is used to separate the registers.

Size is associated with importance. Such a Convention is called hieratic scale.

Stylized figures (figures that o not conform to natural appearances) are shown in profile or side views.

Eshnunna statues

Votive figures dedicated to the gods.

Each sculpture was used as a stand-in for the Donor who may have commissioned it.

The concept of representation had a very direct meaning for the Sumerians: the godsWere believed to be present in their images and the votive statues offered prayers and transmitted messages to the gods.

Bodies and the faces are simplified so that they do not distract attention from the eyes which are the “window to the soul.”

Next to the woman are the remains of children’s legs.

• What does Mesopotamia mean? • What are the 4 achievements of

Sumerians

Bull lyre from Royal tomb 2550-2400 BCE

Bull lyre

• The association of animals with deities is a carryover from the prehistoric times but the difference in the sacred animals of Sumerian culture is that they play an active role in mythology.

• Some scholars have suggested that the creatures inhabit the land of the dead and that the narrative has a funerary significance

akkad

akkadians

• Spoke a semitic language• Sargon ruled the empire from his capital at

Akkad • He assumed broad earthly powers but

also elevated his status to a god• Under the akkadians the sumerians had a

new task: glorifying the monarch

Head of an akkadian ruler2300-2200 BCE 14 3/8”copper alloy

Stele of Naramsin6’6”2220-2184 BCE Limestone

Sargon’s grandson naram-sin And his army are memorialized in this large stele.

This was a bold rejection of the standard means of telling a story on horizontal registers.

Lagash

• Central figure in Lagash at this time was Gudea

• Nearly two dozen portraits of him survive • Gudea rebuilt or built, at great cost, all the

temples where he placed his statues

Gudea statue• Unlike the Akkadian rulers, Gudea took care to

reserve the title of king to Lagash’s city-god , Ningirsu.

• he shared the same sense of personal importance that the akkadian rulers had biut he prided himself on his relations with gods rather than on secular powers.

• He had many of these figures made.

• Although very small and compact it has a monumental –an impression of grandeur—feeling to it.

• How is this representation different from the “Akkadian Ruler?”

If they are different does that tell us anything about the differences in the cultures?

Law code of Hammurabi

• Made out of diorite • 7’ tall • Hammurabi was Babylon’s most powerful

king • He was famous for his conquests • But is best known today for his code

•

129. If a man's wife be caught lying with another, they shall be strangled and cast into the water. If the wife's husband would save his wife, the king can save his servant.

130. If a man has ravished another's betrothed wife, who is a virgin, while still living in her father's house, and has been caught in the act, that man shall be put to death; the woman shall go free.

21. If a man has broken into a house he shall be killed before the breach and buried there.

22. If a man has committed highway robbery and has been caught, that man shall be put to death

8. If a patrician has stolen ox, sheep, ass, pig, or ship, whether from a temple, or a house, he shall pay thirtyfold. If he be a plebeian, he shall return tenfold. If the thief cannot pay, he shall be put to death.

Here are translations of some laws…

Reflective Questions • Think about the ways in which the social

and political contexts of the time are reflected in the art.

• How are these cultures different from the Neolithic cultures that you read about in the previous chapter?

• If you were to name the two most important values that these cultures emphasized, what would they be?