Woman from Willendorf
Paleolithic
Limestone
Fits in your had due to being a nomadic society
Made during a time survival was main concern
Self-portrait of pregnant woman when viewed from top
Wall Painting with Horses, Rhinoceroses and Aurochs
Paleolithic
Main concern of people is survival
People are hunter gatherers
People art nomadic
No farming or domesticated animals
Style is naturalistic
Natural minerals binded with spit or fat
Bird Headed Man with Bison
Paleolithic
Paint on limestone
Human is depicted which is unusual
Human is simplified or stylized
Image is narrative
Possibly the vision of a shaman as a way to reach spirits
Not an easy area to reach
People took time out of survial to make paintings
Men Taunting a Deer
Neolithic
Wall Painting
Hunting scene of some sort of ritual
Narrative showing people interacting with animals
Society has begun agriculture and domestication of animals
Societies are begining, no longer nomadic
Image is stylized
Stonehenge
Salisbury Plain, England
Neolithic
Example of megalithic architecture
Built in three main stages
Place of the dead. Cremated remains found
Large stones made of sarsen-sandstone
Small stones made of bluestone
Bluestone is from the ancestial origin of builders
Stele of Naram-sin
Ancient Near East
Limestone
Example of hierarchic scale. Naramsin is larger than others to show he's king.
Horns of helmet represents gods
He is highest up and closest to the dieties
Stele commemorates defeat of the Lullibi people
A propoganda tool to be a symbol of devine authority
Captured as a spoil of war when society fell
Cuneiform added after its capture
Suns represents deities
Stele of Hammurabi
Ancient Near East
Diorite
Written in Babylonian cunneiform
Shows about 300 laws, mostly representing property issues
About 78 laws about social issues
About 20 laws about physical assault
Figures shown in hierarchic scale
Figure on left is Hammurabi
Figure on right is Shamash the sun god and god of justice
Bodies in composite view
Shamash is handing the tools of justice to Hammurabi
Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions
Ancient Near East
Alabaster
Shows king hunting and killing lions in a controlled environment
Placed on walls leading to the throne room to show the power of the king and his ability to pretect his people
Image is a narrative
Animals done in naturalistic style
Shows the power of the king as only kings are allowed to kill lions
Guardian Lamassu figures
Ancient Near East
Limestone
Protective guardian diety with lion's body, eagle's wings, and human head and inscribed with cunneiform
Symbol of power placed at entrances to a city or palace and carved into the gate's arches
Has five legs so that from the front it appears to be standing and from the side it appears to be walking
Triple horn crown on the head show that it is a diety
Animal body parts are stylized
Votive Figures
Ancient Near East
Limestone and other materials
Places in temple to be shown as a donor as well as showing devotion to the god
Statue acts as a stand in for the person's wishes
Wide eyes show absolute devotion to the diety
Holding vessels to represent the ritual pouring of liquids
Stylized and simplified form of a human
Nanna Ziggurat
Ancient Near East
Ur (Modern day Iraq)
Nelieved to have a shrine or tmple on top
Temple on top to be closer to the deities
No surviving temple found
Zuggurat means height or pinnacle
Functions as a symbol of power
Solid core of mud brick
Bull Lyre
Ancient Near East
Wood, gold, lapus lazuli, shell
13 inch panel and 14 inch bull head
Found in a royal gravesite
Register panels made of shell inlayed with bitumen possibly showing the Epic of Gilgamesh
Animals seen as guardians of the gateway to the afterlife
Bull's head made of gold and lapus lazuli
At this time, animals in art was always used as symbols of metaphors
