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- Human Skull
- Era: Ancient Near East
- Techniques:
- actual human skull
- people were decapitated after death, had their skulls picked clean by birds and then covered in mud and stuck on a stick where they were buried
- spirit trap used to preserve the soul
- decorated the skull to make it life-like
- in laid shells and stones for the eyes
- paint hair on the skull or use a wig
- individualistic
- both sculpture and portraiture
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- Seated Goddess
- Era: Ancient Near East 5900 BCE
- Techniques:
- painted clay
- 2 inches tall
- cross-like pattern could mean that she is an agrarian goddess
- small hands and feet with no face
- represents fertility of the earth
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- Human Figure
- Era: Ancient Near East 6750-6250 BCE
- Location: Ain Ghazal
- Techniques:
- 3'5" tall
- plaster with a core of reeds and twine
- beginning of monumental sculpture in ANE
- often found buried signifying a ritualistic purpose
- painted and in laid with shells
- eyes outlines in bitumen (black, tar-like substance)
- hair and clothing painted on
- not gender specific
- tattoos served a religious purpose
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- Reconstruction of Shrine
- Era: Ancient Near East
- Location: Catal Huyuk
- Techniques:
- animals painted on the walls
- bucrania (bull skulls) were hung to protect dieties and ward off evil
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- Schematic Reconstruction of Catal Huyuk
- Era: Ancient Near East
- Techniques:
- 32 acres
- all houses shared walls
- no roads
- enter or exit a house through windows or doors to the roof to provide security
- shared a think outer wall for portection
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- Deer Hunt
- Era: Ancient Near East
- Location: Catal Huyuk
- Techniques:
- realistic
- composite figures (frontal bodies but profile head and legs)
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- Dancing Hunter
- Era: Ancient Near East
- Location: Catal Huuk, Deer Hunt
- Techniques:
- painted on dry plaster on a wall
- compostie figure
- dots represent the movement of skirt
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- Landscape with Volcanic Eruption
- Era: Ancient Near East,
- Techniques:
- twin volcanos, Hasan-dag
- 6000 ft mountain
- fear of nature
- goal- to strike fear and awe in the viewer
- Underworld rising up
- abstract-homes reduced to basic geometric shapes
- story, not a landscape painting
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- Kneeling Man-Bull
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 6000 BCE
- Techniques:
- made out of silver
- seated to mak an offering that he is holding in between his hooves
- sweeping planes and contours
- curvilinear
- sad and graceful gesture
- observation of nature
- incredible skill to bend metal
- patern on body could be ritualistic
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- White Temple
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 3200-3000 BCE
- Techniques:
- 40 foot ziggurat shows that gods were ranked above men
- dedicated to sun god, Amu
- temple for priests and leaders of the city
- located in center of city and surrounded by enbattlement wall
- central hall in temple call cella - lacation of main alter, extremely sacred
- cella was waiting room for priests to meet with gods
- serpentine entrance to temple provided protection
- bent axis approach (corners hit north, south, east, and west)
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- Ziggurat at Ur
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 2100 BCE
- Techniques:
- mud bricks mixed with bitumin
- 3 levels, a sort of step pyramid
- 3 main entrance stairways each with 100 steps
- 2 side stairways steeper than middle one designed for animals and carts
- top level only priests could enter
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- Female Head
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 3500-3000 BCE
- Techniques:
- sculpture out of marble and alabaster
- not complete head
- should have been attached to wooden backboard
- in laid with shells, white stones, onyx and lapis lazuli
- elaborate wig because of slit in head
- soft, rounded cheeks
- delicate, soft, tiny, sophisticated, beautifully formed lips
- extraordinary skill of the artists creates exceptional beauty showing that she was a goddess
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- Statuettes from the Temple Abu
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 2700-2600 BCE
- Techniques:
- marble
- in laid with shells and black limestone
- position suggests prayer or holding a ritualistic vessel
- cone-shaped lower bodies and cylindrical bodies
- corigated hair on males
- female hair in braids or buns
- Abu's skirts have distinctive markings
- Abu's eyes are very wide showing his commitment to the gods
- tiny hands heads tilted upward
- types not individuals (no detail in face)
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- Scenes of War
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 2700 BCE
- Techniques:
- in laid with lapis lazuli in background and red limestone
- types
- stylized figures, not realistic
- some animals have too many legs demonstrating movement and that there are multiple animals in profile
- hierarchy of size - all figures same size except king at top center
- story line from left to right, bottom to top
- ground line
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- Warka Vase
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 3200-2000 BCE
- Techniques:
- base made of alabster
- first narrative relief sculpture
- frieze - continuous relieft sculpture across a band
- ground line
- wavy line represents water
- alternate male and female animals
- no overlap of figures
- compostie figures
- giant frontal eye, conceptual
- female with horned headress either goddess or priestess
- hierarchy of scale
- clothed man could be priest king
- symbolic marriage between king and goddess supports good will
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- Panel from Sound Box of Royal Lyre
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 2600 BCE
- Techniques:
- in laid shells demonstrate mythological scene of animals and men
- background carved away and filled with bitumin
- ivory figures stand out against black
- top register - master of animals scene
- second reigster - animals bringing animal food to table
- third register - animal musicians
- man dominating animal theme
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- Bull's Head from Sound Box of Royal Lyre
- Era: Ancient Near East, Sumerian 2600 BCE
- Techniques:
- gold sheets painted on around wooden core
- hair and horns made of lapis lazuli to give it lively color
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- Head of Akkadian Ruler
- Era: Ancient Near East, Akkadian 2200 BCE
- Techniques:
- made of bronze
- could be Sargon
- in laid eyes to make face life-like
- different textures of hair and flesh
- eyebrows engraved in high arches show character
- earliest hollow cast bronze
- serenity, dignity, and authority*
- combination of naturalism and abstration
- high paTina shine in bronze
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- Victory Stele of Naram-Sim
- Era: Ancient Near East, Akkadian 2200 BCE
- Techniques:
- made of pink sandstone
- horned helmet and 3 stars symbolize divine support
- divinely granted authority over another people
- hierarchy of scale
- first time king appears as a god in Mesopotamian art
- orderly placement of troops shows control
- compostie figures
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- Gudea Worshiping
- Era: Ancient Near East, Guti 2100 BCE
- Techniques:
- made out of dolerite (very rich stone that had to be imported)
- multiple versions
- vacant eyes - dutiful, wakeful
- cylindrical compact bodies
- cunea form of body (possibly could be rolled in ink and then on paper
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- Stele of Hammurabi
- Era: Ancient Near East, Babylonian 1780 BCE
- Techniques:
- black basalt
- relief sculpture
- Hammurabi recieving laws from god Shumash
- bodies at 3/4 angle toward viewer
- hierarchy of scale with the god seated
- curved parallel lines up turban show that turban is wrapped, attempt at foreshortening* to create depth
- throne is made of geometric shapes
- recession into space is attempted in the god's beard
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