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Gilgamesh - Read the first book ever
written - Sumerian.
PREHISTORIC ART PRESENTATION
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THE OLD STONE AGE |
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Homo Habilis |
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PALEOLITHIC
ERA - 2,500,000 - 10,000 BCE, East Africa
Paleolithic is Greek for Old Stone Age. Paleo means
old, and Litho means stone. It was the prehistoric
era before written history. During this era stone tools
were developed by Homo habilis.
They also used tools made of other materials like wood,
antlers, and bone. Homo habilis was short (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 appear, we engaged in religious ritual, and buried
our 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.
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NEANDERTHAL |
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Neanderthal
child from
Gibraltar (University of Zürich) |
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Comparison of Skulls
of modern man and Neanderthal.
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NEANDERTHAL - 200,000-28,000 BCE |
Neanderthal
is an extinct member of the Homo genus. They lived
in Europe, western and central Asia.
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. |
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THE
NEOLITHIC AGE |
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Neolithic
Artifact 5500 BCE |
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Romania -
Seated Woman and Thinker |
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Cooking Tools
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CHINA |
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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.
SUMERIAN ART
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.
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Sumerian Math
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CIVILIZATION REQUIREMENTS:
1.
Agriculture
2.
City
3. Trade
4.
Government
5.
Writing
6. Religion
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ANCIENT EGYPT PRESENTATION
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EGYPT |
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AMENHOTEP |
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Sarcophagus
of Ibi |
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Bob Brier, "Mummification: Resurrection of a Lost
Art"
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.
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CHINA'S SHANG
DYNASTY |
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Ritual Wine
Containers |
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Qin Shi Huang
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(259 BCE – 210 BCE)
First Emperor of a Unified China
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1,400 BCE – China’s Shang
Dynasty develops writing. P 218
Ancestor Worship
Families were responsible for all actions.
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
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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
