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Chapter 1: Prehistory and the First Civilizations
Preview: This chapter surveys developments in art in the prehistoric Paleolithic and Neolithic
periods, the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Persia, and ancient Egypt under the pharaohs.
The art discovered in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods ranges from cave paintings and figures,
to architectural structures. Mesopotamian and Persian cultures thrived between ca. 3500 BCE and
636 CE in the area of present-day Iraq and Iran, and included the Sumerian, Babylonian and NeoBabylonian cultures. The art of these cultures ranges from sculptures of rulers, to enormous
temples and ziggurats, to elaborate fortified buildings and palace complexes. Ancient Egyptian
cultures developed between 3500 BCE and 30CE, and were characterized by complex social
organizations under the leadership of Pharoahs. Much of their art and architecture was produced
to honor these rulers, who were thought to be divine, as well as the gods in the Egyptian pantheon,
the most important of which were Amen, the supreme god, and Re, god of the sun. Ancient
Egyptian culture is divided into periods according to dynastic rule: the Predynastic and Early
Dynastic period (ca. 3500-2575 BCE), the Old Kingdom (c. 2575-2040 BCE), the Middle Kingdom
(ca. 2040-1550 BCE), the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1070 BCE), and the final period, the First
Millennium (ca. 1070 BCE – 30 CE), in which Egypt came increasingly under foreign rule. Among
the most significant productions of the ancient Egyptians are the Great Pyramids at Gizeh,
constructed during the Old Kingdom; Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombs; and enormous New
Kingdom Temple of Amen-Re at Karnak.
Key Terms:
Prehistoric:
 Paleolithic, Neolithic
 twisted perspective, composite view; incise
 henge, post-and-lintel, megalith, tumulus
Mesopotamia and Persia:
 city-state; cuneiform, pictographs; cylinder seal, votive offering
 Epic of Gilgamesh
 heraldic composition, hierarchy of scale, registers or friezes, ground line, conceptual vs.
optical representation
 bent-axis plan, cella, zigurrat, stele, arcuated, apadana, iwan, vault, blind arcade, façade
 lamassu, griffin, protome
 Figures: Sargon of Akkad, Narum-Sin, Gudea, Hammurabi, Napir-Asu, Enheduanna,
Ashurnasirpal II, Ashurbanipal, Nebuchadnezzer II, Cyrus, Darius I, Xerxes, Alexander the
Great
Egypt under the Pharoahs
 palette, amulet, scarab, uraeus; mastaba, ka, serdab, canopic jars, mummification
 engaged columns, papyrus, temple, ashlar masonry, courses, fluted columns, rock-cut
tombs, axial plan, colonnades, pier, pylon, hypostyle hall, lintel, clerestory,
 bilateral symmetry, subtractive sculpture, high relief, idealism, canon, sunken relief,
atlantid, caryatid, sphinx, block statues, fresco secco
 Place Names: Upper and Lower Egypt, Saqqara, Gizeh, Heliopolis, Dashur, Beni Hasan, Deir
el-Bahri, Thebes, Abu Simbel, Karnak, Amarna, Kush, Edfu
 Deities: Amen, re, Osiris, Isis, Hathor, Anubis, Unas, Aton, Maat, Thoth, Horus

Pharoahs: Early Dynastic: Menes (Narmer), Djoser; Old Kingdom: Sneferu, Khufu, Khafre,
Menkaure; Middle Kingdom: Mentuhotep, Senusret III, Thutmose II, Hatshepsut; New
Kingdom: Ramses II, Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton (Amarna Period), Tutankhamen
Lecture Notes:
Introductory Notes:
Paleolithic Age:
Artworks in the Paleolithic period:

Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf), from Willendorf, Austria
o Date:
o Medium, materials, and size/scale:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:

Two bison, reliefs in the cave at Le Tuc d’Audoubert, France
o Date:
o Medium, materials, and size/scale:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:

Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-Merle, France
o Date:
o Medium, materials, and size/scale:
o Subjects represented, stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:

Left wall of the Hall of the Bulls in the cave at Lascaux, France
o Date:
o Medium, materials, and size/scale:
o Subject represented & stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:

Rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison, painting in the well of the cave at
Lascaux, France
o Date:
o Medium, materials, and size/scale:
o Subjects represented, stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Neolithic Age:

Human figure, from Ain Ghazal, Jordan
o Date:
o Medium, materials, and size/scale:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:

Deer hunt, detail of a wall painting from level III, Çatal Höyük, Turkey
o Date:
o Medium/materials:
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England
o Date:
o Materials & construction method:
o Function & significance:
Ancient Mesopotamia and Persia:
Sumer:

White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq, ca. 3200-3000 BCE
o Materials:
o Orientation/Plan:
o Function & significance:

Ziggurat, Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 2100 BCE
o Materials:
o Structural features:
o Function & significance:

Presentation of offerings to Inanna (Warka Vase), from Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq, ca.
3200-3000 BCE.
o Materials:
o Size/Scale:
o Figures/narrative represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Statuettes of two worshipers, from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar),
Iraq, ca. 2700 BCE.
o Materials:
o Size/Scale:
o Figures/narrative represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:

o Function & significance:

Standard of Ur, from tomb 779, Royal Cemetery, Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 26002400 BCE (War side, Peace side)
o Materials:
o Size/Scale:
o Figures/narrative represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Akkad:


Head of an Akkadian ruler, from Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik), Iraq, ca. 2250-2200 BCE.
o Materials:
o Size/Scale:
o Figures/narrative represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Victory stele of Naram-Sin, from Susa, Iran, 2254-2218 BCE.
o Materials:
o Size/Scale:
o Figures/narrative represented:
o Stylistic characteristics (esp. compositional device):
o Function & significance:
Babylon:
 Stele with the laws of Hammurabi, from Susa, Iran, ca. 1760 BCE
o
o
o
o
o
o
Materials (and their significance):
Size/Scale:
Subject (Laws of Hammurabi):
Figures represented:
Stylistic characteristics:
Function & significance:
Assyria:
 Lamassu (man-headed winged bull), from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern
Khorsabad), Iraq, ca. 720-705 BCE
o Materials:
o Size/Scale:
o Figures represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
 Assyrian archers pursuing enemies, relief from the northwest palace of Ashurnasirpal II,
Kalhu (modern Nimrud), Iraq, ca. 875-860 BCE
o Materials:
o
o
o
o
Size/Scale:
Figures & narrative represented:
Stylistic characteristics:
Function & significance:
Neo-Babylonia:
 Ishtar Gate, Babylon, Iraq, ca. 575 BCE
o Built for ruler:
o Materials:
o Figures represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
Achaemenid Persia:

Palace/citadel of Persepolis, Iran, ca. 521-465 BCE
o General description:
o Function:
o Describe features:
Egypt Under the Pharaohs:
Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods:



Palette of King Narmer, from Hierakonpolis, Egypt, ca. 3000-2920 BCE
o Materials:
o Size/Scale:
o Figures/narrative represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Egyptian mastaba tombs, section, plan, and restored view
o General Description:
o Materials:
o Function:
Stepped pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt, Third Dynasty, ca. 2630-2611 BCE
o Architect:
o General Description:
o Materials:
o Function & significance:
Old Kingdom:

Great Pyramids, Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty
 Pyramid of Menkaure, ca. 2490-2474 BCE
 Pyramid of Khafre, ca. 2520-2494 BCE
 Pyramid of Khufu, ca. 2551-2528 BCE
o Materials:
o
o
o
o
o




Construction methods:
Size/Scale of each:
Interior structures:
Function:
Symbolism & significance:
Great Sphinx, Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2520-2494 BCE
o Location relative to Great Pyramids:
o Materials:
o Figure represented:
o Function & significance:
Khafre enthroned, from Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2520-2494 BCE
o Materials:
o Figure represented:
o Symbols represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Menkaure and Khamerernebty (?), from Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2490-2472 BCE
o Materials:
o Figures represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt; Goats treading seed and cattle fording a canal; reliefs in
the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara, Egypt, Fifth Dynasty, ca. 2450-2350
o Materials:
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
New Kingdom:
 Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1473-1458 BCE
o Built for:
o Materials/Construction Techniques:
o General description—architectural arrangement, locale:
o Function & significance:
 Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1290-1224 BCE
o Façade: Description
o Interior: Description
o Construction methods:
o Subjects/symbols represented:
o Function & significance:
 Temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, Egypt, begun 15th century BCE
o General description:




o Construction method:
o Architectural features:
o Function & significance:
Temple of Amen-Re, Luxor, begun early 14th century BCE
o Description:
o Architectural features:
o Function & significance:
Model of the hypostyle hall, temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, Egypt
o Description:
o Architectural features:
o Decorative features:
Senmut with Princess Nefrura, from Thebes, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1470-1460 BCE
o Materials/medium:
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Painted scenes from the tomb of Nabamun (funerary banquet, hunting fowl), Thebes,
Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1400-1350 BCE
o Materials/medium:
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
Akhenaton:
 Akhenaton, from the temple of Aton, Karnak, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1353-1335 BCE
o Materials/medium:
o Size/Scale:
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
 Nefertiti, from Amarna, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1353-1335 BCE
o Sculptor:
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic characteristics:
o Function & significance:
 Innermost coffin of Tutankhamen, from his tomb at Thebes, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1323
BCE
o Materials:
o Subject & objects represented:
o Function & significance:
 Death mask of Tutankhamen, from the innermost coffin in his tomb at Thebes, Egypt, 18th
Dynasty, ca. 1323 BCE
o Materials:
o Subject and objects represented:
o Function & significance:
Exercises for Study:
1. Summarize the social and economic changes that mark the shift from the Paleolithic period to
the Neolithic period. How are these changes reflected in artworks?
2. Compare and contrast the following pairs of artworks, using the points of comparison as a
guide.
A. Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf), from Willendorf, Austria; Human figure, from Ain Ghazal,
Jordan
o Periods
o Medium/materials
o Subjects
o Stylistic features
o Probable functions
B. Standard of Ur, from tomb 779, Royal Cemetery, Ur; Victory stele of Naram-Sin, from Susa, Iran:
o Periods
o Subjects
o Stylistic features & composition
C. Pyramid of Khufu, Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty; Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri,
Egypt, 18th Dynasty
o Periods
o Structural composition
o Location & orientation
o Function