Ancient Art

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CHAPTER 9

ANCIENT ART

PREHISTORIC ART PRESENTATION
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh on Bonobos

THE OLD STONE AGE

Homo Habilis

PALEOLITHIC ERA - 2,500,000 - 10,000 BCE, East Africa

Paleolithic is Greek for Old Stone Age. Paleo means old, and Litho means stone. During this prehistoric era (before written history) stone tools were developed by Homo habilis. They also made tools from other materials like wood, antler, and bone. Homo habilis was about four feet tall, had long arms, and half the cranial capacity of modern humans.

During the Paleolithic era Homo habilis gradually evolved into Homo sapiens (modern humans). By the end of the Paleolithic era the first works of art appeared, they engaged in religious rituals, and buried their dead.

ART STAGES:

1. Lines are scratched in clay or stone - or drawn on stone.

2. Outline images are drawn.

3. Outline images are filled with one color.

4. Outlines are filled with two colors to create chiaroscuro.

5. Multicolored drawings appear.

Australopithecus Afarensis

Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.7 and 2.9 million years ago.

NEANDERTHAL

Neanderthal child from Gibraltar (University of Z�rich)

View map of Europe

Comparison of Skulls of modern man and Neanderthal.

NEANDERTHAL (200,000-28,000 BCE)

Modern humans (Homo sapiens) evolved from Cro-Magnon while Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus. The Neanderthal lived in Europe, western and central Asia. They are classified either as a subspecies (or race) of modern humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a separate human species (Homo neanderthalensis).

The Neanderthal's cranial capacity was larger than modern humans. They stood about five and a half feet tall, were stockier, and stronger than us. Neanderthals were carnivorous. Carnivores only eat meat. Herbivores only eat vegetation, and omnivores eat everything.

THE NEOLITHIC AGE

Neolithic Artifact 5,500 BCE

Romania - Seated Woman and Thinker

Cooking Tools

VIDEOS:	APE TO MAN
Part 1 \| Part 2 \| Part 3 \| Part 4 \| Part 5 Part 6 \| Part 7 \| Part 8 \| Part 9 \| Part 10

CHINA

The Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, farming, and the domestication of animals. It began around 9,500 BCE in the Middle East.

The increase of available food made civilization possible.

SUMER

SUMERIAN ART

Ox Man

FATHERS of CIVILIZATION

Sumer (Sumerian) the first civilization, was located in Southern Iraq (Mesopotamia). It flourished from 6,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE. The Sumerians were the first to practice intensive year-round agriculture. The surplus of food allowed the population to settle in one place instead of migrating. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and required an extensive labor force. This led to the necessity of record keeping - and the development of writing (3,500 BCE). In addition to the first writing system, they invented the potter's wheel, then the vehicular wheel, and mill wheels. They created the first centralized governments, laws, and empires, and laid the foundations for the fields of medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. Sumerian math was based on 60. We owe our system of time to them (60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour). Sumerian writing is called Cuneiform.

CUNEIFORM

CUNEIFORM NUMBERS

CIVILIZATION REQUIREMENTS:

1. Agriculture

2. City

3. Trade

4. Government

5. Writing

6. Religion

EGYPT

ANCIENT EGYPT PRESENTATION

AMENHOTEP

Sarcophagus of Ibi

Khufu's Ship - 2500 BCE

Khufu's unassembled ship was found in pristine condition. It was sealed in a pit by the Great Pyramid of Giza. It would have tied together with robe bade from halfah grass.

Bob Brier on Mummification

The ancient Egyptian civilization was in eastern North Africa - along the lower Nile River.

Egypt entered a period of decline, and was conquered by foreign powers. The rule of the pharaohs ended in 31 BCE when the Roman Empire conquered Egypt, and made it a province.

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying, surveying, and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation of the Nile River, and agricultural production techniques, the first known ships, glass technology, and literature.

Egyptian art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers for centuries.

FACTS:

3,150 BCE - EGYPT P 209
Eastern North Africa
Women were painted with light skin.
Men were painted with dark skin.
The pyramids are the oldest buildings.
They are 40 stories tall, and 80 exist
Akhenaton's wife was Nefertiti, and his son was Tutankhamun.
Nefertiti had 6 daughters, but there is no mention of a son.
She disappeared from history.

CHINA'S SHANG DYNASTY

Ritual Wine Containers




Qin Shi Huang - (259 BCE � 210 BCE) First Emperor of a Unified China

OLMEC

1,200 - 400 BCE - Olmecs of the Gulf of Mexico
1,000 BCE - First Mexican Art by the Olmecs
Pyramid at La Venta
Practiced ritual bloodletting
Played a game similar to basketball.
Art is anything well done.
Pre-Columbian or Post-Columbian -

The Arawak of the Bahama Islands. Columbus wrote:

"They... brought us parrots, balls of cotton, spears, and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

TIMELINE:

2,500,000 BCE � Stone Tools Appear

200,000-28,000 BCE - Neanderthals Lived

100,000 BCE � Art and Religion

50,000 BCE � Neanderthals Use Symbols

30,000 BCE � First Sculpture, Man from Brno, Czech Republic p200
- Venus Figures from France to Russia
- Women from Willendorf
- European Cave Paintings

8,000 BCE � New Stone Age (Neolithic): Animal Husbandry

6,000 BCE � First Civilization formed in Iraq � the Sumerians.
Gilgamesh is the oldest written story

3,150 BCE - EGYPT

3,000 BCE � Sumerians had the wheel.

1,400 BCE � China�s Shang Dynasty develops writing. P 218
                  Ancestor Worship
                  Families were responsible their members' actions.
                  Weapons, sculpture, jade, ceremonial vessels called hu

1,200 BCE - Olmecs of the Gulf of Mexico flourished.
For Native Americans, art is skill.
Pre-Columbian or Post-Columbian - Do you want to know who Columbus really was? Read an excerpt from a People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn: www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Columbus_PeoplesHx.html

1,000 BCE � Assyrians replace the Sumerians. They fell after 400 years of war.

1,000 BCE - First Mexican Art by the Olmecs
Great Pyramid at La Venta

800 BCE � Greek�s Archaic Period

Kouroi statues (Koo-roy) means male youth

Position: one foot forward for movement. No contrapposto position

Post and lintel architecture

Homer�s Iliad and Odyssey�s mythical history was accepted as true.

776 BCE � First Olympic Games

630 - 570 BCE - Sappho � She was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from the island of Lesbos. The bulk of her work was lost.

400 BCE - Olmec Civilization ended.

Sappho

PRESENTATIONS
Maps of War - 500 years of history in 90 seconds.
Ancient Nigerian Art
The Lascaux Prehistory Of Art
Virtual Museum
Prehistoric Art Timeline
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline
Gilgamesh - Read the first book ever written.