1. We move east—but not all the way east.
-from Europe to the Near East, we begin our study approx BCE

2. Present day Middle East

3. The ancient Near East Green area is Fertile Crescent
Title: The Ancient Near East
Near East people domesticated grain much earlier than the people of Europe; First occurrence in Fertile Crescent.
Between 5000 and 4000 BCE, agriculture was developed in
Mesopotamia (greek word for “between the rivers”--between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) where
flooding and droughts necessitated creating water control systems—
these systems may have led to the creation of the first cities in the region
Major cultural shift occurred between 4000 and 3000 BCE when agricultural cities developed simultaneously and independently in North and South Mesopotamia
These cities eventually incorporated the surrounding areas to create city-states: independent cities with their own gods and governments and social hierarchies. Specialization of skills beyond agriculture led to the creation of huge temples and government buildings.
Numerous gods and goddesses were worshipped and people believed the fate of the city was tied to the fate of its primary deity.
Large complexes for religion and government business developed in each city as its center
Much political upheaval throughout the Ancient Near East; one city-state or culture would dominate and eventually be conquered by another and so on.
The ancient Near East
Green area is Fertile Crescent

4. Cuneiform
The origin of written language was borne out of economic necessity
Stylus (reed) writes into wet clay
By 2000 BCE, signs/pictograms began to represent not things but sounds
Art historians study cylinder seals because they record iconography (content) of the time and reflect the pervading artistic styles of the day and the particular region of their use. Each seal is a small time capsule of what sorts of motifs and styles were popular during the lifetime of the owner. Each character, gesture and decorative element can be “read” and reflected back on the owner of the seal, revealing his/her social rank (thousands of seals survive from antiquity, more than wall reliefs, paintings, stelae and terra cotta plaques).
Sumerian tablet from Lagash

5. Timeline of Ruling Cultures in Near East
c Persia
Timeline of Ruling Cultures in Near East
c Neo-Babylonia
c Assyria
c Hittite (Anatolia)
c Babylonia
c Lagash
c Akkad
Ancient near east is characterized by many technological advancements and MANY different ruling cultures, because the land lacks many natural defenses, like mtn, great bodies of water running through the middle of it, etc.
TIMELINE ACTIVITY
c BCE Sumer
c BCE Growth of Jericho
8000 BCE BCE

6. One of earliest settlements in the Near East in today’s West Bank territory
By 8000 BCE, this settlement near a spring grew into a town of mud-brick houses;
town covered 6 to 10 acres and may have had as many as 2000 people living in it in 7500 BCE
Could have been one of several similar towns—we don’t know
Image shows walls and tower used as fortification for the city of Jericho
Earliest stone fortifications discovered to date—wall was 5 ft thick and 20 ft high
Tower: 28 ft high and 33 ft in diameter with a circular stone stair inside; required sophisticated masonry skill
Walls and Tower; Jericho
c – 7000 BCE, mud brick, rubble, stone

10. Another early settlement like Jericho; Ain Ghazal in present-day Jordan, 30 painted plaster figures were found
Represent some of the art from the early period in the Near East
Some almost life size; probably wore wigs and clothing and stood upright
Again, not sure what it was made for
Title: Human Figure
Medium: Fired lime plaster with cowrie shell, bitumen and paint
Size: height approx. 35" (90 cm)
Date: c. 7000–6000 BCE
Source/Museum: Ain Ghazal, Jordan/ National Museum, Amman, Jordan

11. Sumer: developed between 3500 and 2340 BCE—culture that included independent city states along the rivers of southern Mesopotamia
First independent city-state to develop was Uruk
Built 2 large architectural complexes in the 1000 acre city; one dedicated to the goddess of love and war Innana, the other (this one) dedicated to the sky god Anu
Built up in stages over the course of centuries, so they developed a stepped appearance
c BCE a white washed temple was established on top of the previous building on the site—the temple was a simple rectangle oriented to the points of a compass
Title: Ruins of the White Temple
Date: c. 3300–3000 BCE
Source/Museum: Uruk (present-day Warka, Iraq)

12. Then and Now Leonard Wooley’s excavation site 1922-34 (right)
2009 photograph of American soldiers
at ziggurat in Ur/Iraq (below)

13. Ur: another Sumerian city-state, civilization south of Uruk built this ziggurat approx years after the temple of Innana at Uruk
Unlike the temples at Uruk, which got their stepped appearance b/c they were built over; the stepped appearance of this structure dedicated to the moon god Nanna was deliberate
Ziggurats were:
tall, stepped towers of earthen materials, (mud bricks) often supporting a shrine on top
initially created by Sumerians in Southern Mesopotamia between 3500 and 2340 BCE
may have developed from the practice of repeatedly building over older structures (resulting in the stepped appearance) like Uruk Temple of Anu
elevation also protected them from flooding
demonstrated a city’s wealth, prestige and stability
Nanna Ziggurat; Ur; c BCE
partly restored

14. Statues of gods and donors were placed in the temples, like the White Temple
This life-size marble face from Uruk may represent a goddess and might have originally been attached to a wooden body
Originally had a wig and inlaid brows and eyes; shells may have made the eyes, and lapis, the pupils
Title: Face of a woman, (known as the Warka Head)
Medium: Marble
Size: height approx. 8" (20.3 cm)
Date: c. 3300–3000 BCE
Source/Museum: Uruk (present-day Warka, Iraq) / Iraq Museum, Baghdad (stolen and recovered in 2003)

15. Alabaster vase found near the Uruk temple of Inanna
Indicates Near Eastern style of storytelling; great economy and clarity
Picture organized into registers (bands)
Condensed narrative like modern comic books
Lower register shows the natural world (landscape), then rams and ewes on the next line
Middle register shows nude men carrying baskets of food
Top register shows Inanna (goddess of love and war) in front of her shrine accepting an offering from the priest-king
Scene usually interpreted as the ritual marriage between the goddess and a human priest-king during the New Year’s festival; a ritual meant to ensure the fertility of crops, animals and people
Title: Carved vase (known as the Uruk Vase)
Medium: Alabaster
Size: height 36' (91 cm)
Date: c. 3300–3000 BCE
Source/Museum: Uruk (present-day Warka, Iraq) / Iraq Museum, Baghdad (stolen and recovered in 2003)

16. These figures excavated from a valley in Iraq indicate another aspect of Sumerian god/goddess worship
Represent temple donors in prayer to their deities—large eyes indicate importance of approaching a deity with an “attentive gaze”
Many of these figures are women
Simple inscription might say “one who offers prayer”—longer inscriptions on the figure might detail all the things the donor had accomplished in god’s honor
Sculpture was intended as a stand-in; at perpetual attention, making eye contact with the god and chanting the donor’s praises
Show conventions of Sumerian art with big eyes, simplified bodies and faces and clothing that emphasized the cylindrical shape of the body; like the White face of Uruk, the brows would have been inlaid
Women are shown just as thick and massive as men; just no beards and different clothes
Votive Figures; c BCE; Sumerian

18. Ziggurat from Ur - Built 1000 years after Uruk
Ur: another Sumerian city-state, civilization south of Uruk built this ziggurat approx years after the temple of Innana at Uruk
Unlike the temples at Uruk, which got their stepped appearance b/c they were built over; the stepped appearance of this structure dedicated to the moon god Nanna was deliberate
Ziggurats were:
tall, stepped towers of earthen materials, (mud bricks) often supporting a shrine on top
initially created by Sumerians in Southern Mesopotamia between 3500 and 2340 BCE
may have developed from the practice of repeatedly building over older structures (resulting in the stepped appearance) like Uruk Temple of Anu
elevation also protected them from flooding
demonstrated a city’s wealth, prestige and stability
Nanna Ziggurat; Ur; c BCE

22. Lyre with Bull’s head from Ur (left)
Front panel
(right)
Sumerians worked in precious materials from about 3000 BCE on
Many of their creations were decorated with or in the shape of animals, like this lyre (kind of harp)—from a ROYAL TOMB
Uses wood, gold, lapis and shell; head is a bearded bull—very lifelike despite the beard (the lapis had to be imported from Afghanistan which shows the widespread trade in the Near East)
Front panel shows four registers depicting different scenes:
Bottom: scorpion man; scorpion men are associated with the land of demons, the mtns of sunrise and sunset; part of the journey of the dead—shown with a gazelle on hind legs
Next row: trio of animal musicians—shows how instruments of the time were played; donkey plays a lyre while a bear holds it still and a seated animal plays a rattle; sistrum
Next row: animal attendants bringing food and drinks to a feast
Top row: probably represents the deceased (man). Long hair and full-beard suggest semi-diving status
Imagery may have been inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh (1st great literary epic) that told of strange beasts like scorpion men
Story is likely based on Sumerian legends dating back thousands of years about a ruler, Gilgamesh (probably real ruler) and his close friend Enkidu—their journeys together and Gilgamesh’s search for immortality after Enkidu dies
Introduction of writing and literature lets us study the “iconography”—symbolism—of works of art; not just guess
Title: The Great Lyre with bull’s head
Medium: Wood with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, bitumen, and shell, reassembled in modern wood support
Size: height of head 14" (35.6 cm) height of front panel 13" (33 cm) maximum length
of lyre 55½" (140 cm), height of upright back arm 46½" (117 cm)
Date: c. 2550–2400 BCE
Source/Museum: Royal tomb, Ur (present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq) / University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia
Title: Front panel, the sound box of the Great Lyre
Medium: Wood with shell inlaid in bitumen
Size: height 12¼ X 4½" (31.1 X 11cm)
Source/Museum: Ur (present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq) / University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia (T4-29C)

23. Head of a man (known as Akkadian ruler) From Nineveh
Akkadians were Semitic speaking people (same language origin of Hebrew and Arabic) from N of Uruk (adopted Sumerian culture, but spoke different language)
Conquered Samaria and ruled for 300 years
Life size head is the earliest major work of hollow cast copper sculpture known in the Ancient Near East
One of few Akkadian artifacts that remains
Probably a generalized idea of a ruler—not a specific one
Head was probably intentionally mutilated to take its power
Title: Head of a man (known as Akkadian ruler)
Medium: Copper Alloy
Size: height 14⅜" (36.5 cm)
Date: c. 2300–2200 BCE
Source/Museum: Nineveh (present-day Kuyunjik, Iraq) / Iraq Museum, Baghdad
Head of a man (known as Akkadian ruler) From Nineveh
c BCE
Copper alloy

24. Stele of Naram-Sin; c. 2220 BCE; Akkadian
Memorializes a victory by Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin over people of the Zagros Mountains; one of 1st works of art made to commemorate a single achievement
Hieratic scale: bigger = more important
Naram-Sin considered himself a god-king; a new concept
Breaks with visual tradition of Mesopotamia by using wavy ground lines
Artist: Akkadian
Title: Stele of Naram-Sin
Medium: Limestone
Size: height 6'6" (1.98 m)
Date: c. 2220–2184 BCE
Source/Museum: Musée du Louvre, Paris

25. In 2180 BCE, Guti people conquered the Akkadians—only ruled for a brief time before the Sumerians regained control
Lagash; a Sumerian city-state the remained independent throughout the period
Gudea was Lagash ruler and he made and restored many temples where he placed statues of himself—representing himself as governor and the embodiment of just rule
The images show him as a strong, peaceful, pious ruler worthy of divine favor
Always shown with a bare shoulder and barefooted
This sculpture shows him with a vessel from which life-giving water flows in 2 streams down his body
Statue only 2 ½ ft tall—but imposing nonetheless—emphasizes the power centers of the body; eyes, head, muscled chest and arms
Title: Votive Statue of Gudea
Medium: Diorite
Size: height 29" (73.7 cm)
Date: c BCE
Source/Museum: Girsu (present-day Telloh, Iraq) / Musée du Louvre, Paris

26. Periods of turmoil alternated with periods of stable rule in Mesopotamia until Hammurabi united the region as the Babylonians in 1792
One of Hammurabi’s greatest achievements was this written legal code describing the laws of his kingdom and the penalties for breaking them.
Depicts Hammurabi (standing) having a conversation with the sun (and justice) god, Shamash—suggesting divine origin of laws
Groundbreaking as it established a rule of law based on a written code, rather than the whim of a ruler
Title: Stele of Hammurabi (pronounced Steely)
Medium: Diorite
Size: height of stele approx. 7' (2.13 m) height of relief 28“ (71.1 cm)
Date: c. 1792–1750 BCE
Source/Museum: Susa (present-day Shush, Iran) / Musée du Louvre, Paris

27. Outside Mesopotamia, other cultures flourished in the Near East (the Persians—modern Iran) ultimately conquered them all, but one culture; Hittites in Anatolia (modern Turkey) ruled for a time c BCE
Large Hittite empire stretched to the south near Egypt where they came into conflict with each other
Hittites may have been the first people to work in iron—noted for their fine metalwork and imposing palace citadels with fortified gateways
This gate is an example from the Hittite capitol—shows lions rendered in high relief—lions seem to emerge from the building stone
Title: Lion Gate
Medium: Limestone
Date: c BCE
Source/Museum: Hattusha (near present-day Boghazkoy, Turkey)

28. After centuries of struggle between Sumer, Akkad and Lagash in southern Mesopotamia, a power from N Mesopotamia came to dominate
Assyria--Ruled region by the end of the 9th century, BCE
Assyrian rulers built huge palaces, on top of high platforms inside fortified cities—one early capitol had walls 5 miles long and 42 feet high
Most buildings of mud-brick with limestone and alabaster to cover them
Colossal guardian figures, called Lamassus, flanked the major entryways—like the Hittite Lion Gate—this example; seems to stride independent of the building, not come out of it like the Hittite gate
Title: Human-Headed Winged Lion (Lamassu)
Medium: Limestone
Size: height 10'3½" (3.11 m)
Date: 883–859 BCE
Source/Museum: Colossal Gateway Figure, Palace of Assurnasirpal II, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Kalhu (present-day Nimrud, Iraq). / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1932 ( )

29. Assyrian palaces were decorated with relief images with scenes of battles between men and men and beasts, religious imagery, Assyrian victories, and tributes to the King,
This relief shows an Assyrian ruler and his Queen in a garden—representing Assyrian palace life—but tranquil scene is actually a victory celebration (kings weapons are on the table behind him and the upside down head of an enemy is on a tree to the left)
Title: Assurbanipal and His Queen in the Garden
Medium: Alabaster
Size: height approx. 21" (53.3 cm)
Date: c. 647 BCE
Source/Museum: The Palace at Nineveh (present-day Kuyunjik, Iraq) / The British Museum, London

30. Created by Nebuchadnezzar
At end of 7th century BCE, the Babylonians (who still existed in the Near East) joined forces with other powers to conquer the Assyrians—new culture called Neo-Babylonian
Built temples dedicated to the Babylonian gods throughout their empire—transformed Babylon (hub of the empire) into one of the most splendid cities of its time
Ishtar Gate was the ceremonial entrance to the city—symbol of Babylonian power
Blue glazed bricks used (film of glass laid over the brick and fired to melt on it) with gold, turquoise and blue molded bricks decorating the processional path
Babylon’s famous hanging gardens were part of the ancient wonders of the world
Title: Ishtar Gate and throne room wall
Medium: Glazed brick
Size: height of gate originally 40 feet (12.2 m) with towers rising 100 feet (30.5 m)
Date: c. 575 BCE
Source/Museum: Reconstructed in a Berlin museum, originally from Babylon (Present-day Iraq) Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Ishtar gate, from Babylon (reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin)

31. In 500s BCE; the Persians, formerly nomadic people from Europe area began to seize power in Mesopotamia—eventually established a vast empire that had a lot of influence on other ancient cultures—only the Greeks successfully defended themselves against them
Persian rulers established a new artistic style that blended many of the conventions from other culture’s styles in the Near East
This audience hall is on a raised platform (Assyrian style)—relief images show animal combat (common Near East theme), tiered ranks of royal guards and delegations of tribute bearers
Animal combat emphasizes the ferocity of the leaders and their men
Elegant drawing, balanced composition and sleek modeling of the figures suggests the Persians were influenced by (and maybe used) Greek artists
Originally, panels were painted in rich colors with metal objects covered in gold leaf
Title: Apadana (audience hall) of Darius and Xerxes
Date: 518–c. 460 BCE
Source/Museum: Ceremonial Complex, Persepolis Iran
Title: Darius and Xerxes Receiving Tribute
Medium: Limestone
Size: height 8'4" (2.54 m)
Date: 491–486 BCE
Source/Museum: Detail of a relief from the stairway leading to the Apadana (ceremonial complex), Persepolis, Iran / Courtesy the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

32. Key Achievements of the Near East:
-invented writing and record keeping; provides us with much information about the cultures
-invented metal coinage
-built massive palaces called ziggurats
-created political and religious artwork designed to reinforce the power of their rulers and gods

33. Written Language:
-3100 BCE; Sumerians invent writing for record keeping—originally pictographs (pictures)
BCE; pictures evolve into phonograms; symbols representing the sounds of words (true written language)
-700 BCE; highly abstract system of marks for writing is developed
-Thousands of Sumerian tablets document the evolution of writing and arithmetic; also contain the origins of the Epic of Gilgamesh; world’s first literary epic
Cuneiform Writing

34. Title: Cylinder seal from Sumer and its impression
Medium: Lapis lazuli
Size: height, 1⅝" (4.1 cm)
Date: c. 2550–2400 BCE
Source/Museum: Ur (present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq)
Cylinder seals also developed in Near East as method of “printing” words or images into soft clay, c BCE

35. Stele of Hammurabi; c. 1792-1750 BCE, 7 ft tall.
-Hammurabi, ruler of Babylon, created this written legal code describing the laws of his kingdom and the penalties for breaking them.
-Depicts Hammurabi (standing) having a conversation with the sun (and justice) god, Shamash—suggesting divine origin of laws
-Groundbreaking as it established a rule of law based on a written code, rather than the whim of a ruler
Title: Stele of Hammurabi (pronounced Steely)
Medium: Diorite
Size: height of stele approx. 7' (2.13 m) height of relief 28“ (71.1 cm)
Date: c. 1792–1750 BCE
Source/Museum: Susa (present-day Shush, Iran) / Musée du Louvre, Paris

36. c. 560–546 BCE; First minted under Croesus, king of Lydia
Front of gold coin;
c. 560–546 BCE; First minted under Croesus, king of Lydia
Back of gold coin
Daric; c. 300 BCE; first coin to depict ruling monarch; minted under Darius I of Persia; ½” diameter
Technique: Coining Money—in 7th century BCE, Lydian’s on Western Anatolia (present day Turkey) adapted the Sumerian seal idea to make coins of regular weights for use as money.
Until 525 BCE, coins only stamped on one side (square depression on back; seen above)
Darius I of Persia, first to put image of King (himself) on coins; using ruler’s images on the coins so the coins served as political propaganda, as well as money. B/c coins depict rulers, and we generally know when rulers ruled different kingdoms, coins found in excavation help to date the surrounding objects (relative dating)
Title: Daric
Medium: Gold
Size: Diameter approximately 1/2" (1.45cm)
Date: 4th century BCE
Source/Museum: A coin first minted under Darius I of Persia / Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

37. -elevation also protected them from flooding
Nanna Ziggurat; Ur; c BCE
Ziggurat: tall, stepped tower of earthen materials, often supporting a shrine
-initially created by Sumerians in Southern Mesopotamia between 3500 and BCE
-may have developed from the practice of repeatedly building over older structures (resulting in the stepped appearance)
-elevation also protected them from flooding
-demonstrated a city’s wealth, prestige and stability
Made of mud-brick
This ziggurat dedicated to the moon god Nanna, or Sin
3 sets of stairs converge at the entrance on top—where a temple or shrine was located
Thought of a bridge between the earth and the heavens; meeting place for humans and their gods
Title: Nanna Ziggurat, Ur
Date: c. 2100–2050 BCE
Source/Museum: Present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq

38. Votive Figures; c. 2900-2600 BCE; Sumerian
-Representation of temple donors in prayer to their deities—large eyes indicate importance of approaching a deity with an “attentive gaze. “
Political and Religious Art work:
Artist: Sumerian
Title: Votive Figures
Medium: Limestone, alabaster, and gypsum
Size: height of largest figure approx. 30" ( 76.3 cm)
Date: c. 2900–2600 BCE
Source/Museum: The Square Temple, Eshnunna (present-day Tell Asmar, Iraq). The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Artist: Akkadian
Title: Stele of Naram-Sin
Medium: Limestone
Size: height 6'6" (1.98 m)
Date: c. 2220–2184 BCE
Source/Museum: Musée du Louvre, Paris
Stele of Naram-Sin; c BCE; Akkadian
-Memorializes a victory by Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin; one of 1st works of art made to commemorate a single achievement
-Hieratic scale: bigger = more important
-Naram-Sin considered himself a god-king; a new concept

39. Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions; Assyrian; c. 850 BCE
Later Mesopotamian Art: Assyrians ruled from 800s BCE to early 600s BCE
This image showing ruler Assurnsirpal shifts Near Eastern style from commemorating timelessness to narrative
Artist: Assyrian
Title: Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions
Medium: Alabaster
Size: height approx. 39" (99.1 cm)
Date: c. 850 BCE
Source/Museum: Palace complex of Assurnasirpal II, Kalhu (present-day Nimrud, Iraq) / The British Museum, London

40. Static/timeless Action/visual narrative
Assurnasirpal

41. The Skinny