The Ancient World

Where does the story of the

human spirit begin?
What does this mask have to say?
The first humans
 Prehistoric cultures
Paleolithic (old stone age)
• 40,000-8000 B.C
• Chipped stone tools; earliest stone
sculptures; cave paintings.
Lascaux, France
The Chauvet Cave or Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave is a cave in the
Ardeche department of southern France
 Paleolithic sculpture
The Paleolithic tool industry is characterized by complex
art, which includes

• figurines depicting faunal representations

of the time period associated with now-extinct mammals,
including mammoths, rhinoceros, and the European
horse, along with
• anthropomorphized depictions that
could be inferred as some of the earliest evidence of
Religion.
Paleolithic sculptor also rendered the
human image in a vivid and often
naturalistic style. Carved figures ere
usually female, often pregnant or with
exaggerated sexual features. These
first sculptures were possibly used for
adornment or magical charms to
induce fertility and ease childbirth.
 Female fertility
» Fertility symbols often exaggerate the
sexuality
of the male or the female body. This venus of
Willendorf was found in Austria and is believed
to be from the Paleolithic era, between 25,000
and 30,000 BC

Venus of Hohle Fels (true height 6 cm (2.4 in)),

 Male fertility
» Archaeologists in Germany
found what they believe is the
oldest male statue discovered
in Europe, dating back 7,000
years to the Neolithic
period. Previously only female
statues had been known.
» The statue, dubbed the Adonis
of Zschernitz, was found
during work on a gas pipe
outside the town of Zschernitz,
near the Polish border.
• The oldest musical instruments found to
date are from the Upper Paleolithic period,
and include bullroarers, rasps and even a
marimba-like instrument. But the oldest of
all these are ancient flutes, carved from
the wing bones of birds or from
ancient elephant ivory.

• Paleolithic Flute from Geissenklösterle (Replica).

 Prehistoric cultures continued
Neolithic (new stone age)
• 8000-2300 B.C. Polished stone tools;
domestication of plants and animals; stone
henge; potters’ wheels (Egypt); rock art
(Africa)
 Oriented to mark
the solstice
 Largest stones
50 tons
 c.2100-2000 Stonehenge

 Hauled from site

150 miles away
 Megalithic structure
• Egyptian Pottery was
one of the earliest art forms
undertaken by the ancient
Egyptians. This piece from
the Predynastic period (5000
bc-3000 bc) is decorated with
ostriches, boats, and
geometrical designs.
• In some parts of Africa, experts have been able to develop
chronologies based upon the existence of ancient species such as
the crocodile, now extinct in the Sahara, or the introduction of exotic
new species like the horse, camel or dog.

• Because Africa's rock art was created in exposed places, much has
now disappeared. What we see today was probably created during
the last 12,000 years, while much of it is less than 6,000 years old.
Researchers however believe that Africa's now-vanished art may
have been contemporary with Europe's great Paleolithic cave art -
between 15,000 and 33,000 years old.
 Prehistoric cultures continued
Bronze age
• 2300-1000 B.C.
• Metal tools and weapons
• Development of writing (China, India)
• Shift in human history from food gathering to food
growing economies
• Human settlement stabilized around intensive agriculture
in the Near East (now Turkey, Iran, and Arabia)
• The first cities and the first centers of human civilization
appeared on the plains of Mesopotamia.
Land between two rivers

The Tigris and Euphrates

 Invention of writing
The invention of the first writing systems is roughly
contemporary with the beginning of the Bronze Age
• Cuneiform
• cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs.
Over time, the pictorial representations became
simplified and more abstract.
• Cuneiforms were written on clay tablets, on which
symbols were drawn with a blunt reed called a stylus.
The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped,
thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ("wedge
shaped").
• Pictographs for ox and mountains. Clearly these are simple
pictures of the actual things they represent.
• The ideograph above combines the ox and mountain
pictographs to symbolize the idea of a wild ox, as opposed to
a herded one. It’s no longer just a literal representation.
• Rebus: pictographs of the sea and the sun, is a rebus. The
phonetic sound of each “word” of the rebus is put together to
make a new compound word: seasons
 Hieroglyphs
• The development of Egyptian hieroglyphs
is also parallel to that of the
Mesopotamian scripts, and not necessarily
independent. The Egyptian proto-
hieroglyphic symbol system developed
into archaic hieroglyphs by 3200 BCE
• (Note BC and BCE)
 The people of Mesopotamia
-Sumerians
• 3500 BCE dozen cities
• Cuneiform writing reveals myths
• Reverence for female body, reverence for
earth fertility, renewal of life
• Mesopotamian goddess - Inanna-Ishtar
• Wealth led to leisure and the development
of fine arts.
 People of Mesopotamia - Old
Babylonians
• Gilgamesh
• c. 2000 BCE
• – flood
• (Note on “c”)
• Hammurabi’s
code
 Hammurabi’s code 1-5
1
If any one ensnare another, putting a ban
upon him, but he can not prove it, then he
that ensnared him shall be put to death.
2
If any one bring an accusation against a man,
and the accused go to the river and leap into the
river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take
possession of his house. But if the river prove
that the accused is not guilty, and he escape
unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation
shall be put to death, while he who leaped into
the river shall take possession of the house that
had belonged to his accuser.
3
If any one bring an accusation of any
crime before the elders, and does not
prove what he has charged, he shall, if it
be a capital offense charged, be put to
death.
4
If he satisfy the elders to impose a fine of
grain or money, he shall receive the fine
that the action produces.
5
If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and
present his judgment in writing; if later error shall
appear in his decision, and it be through his own
fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set
by him in the case, and he shall be publicly
removed from the judge's bench, and never
again shall he sit there to render judgment.
 Gilgamesh
• Gilgamesh was an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the
River Euphrates in modern Iraq; he lived about 2700 B.C.E.
Although historians tend to emphasize Hammurabi and his code
of law, the civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates area, among the
first civilizations, focus rather on Gilgamesh and the legends
accruing around him to explain, as it were, themselves.
• Many stories and myths were written about Gilgamesh, some of
which were written down about 2000 B.C. in the Sumerian
language on clay tablets which still survive; the Sumerian
language, as far as we know, bears no relation to any other
human language we know about.
• These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were integrated into a longer
poem, versions of which survive not only in Akkadian (the
Semitic language, related to Hebrew, spoken by the
Babylonians) but also on tablets written in Hurrian and Hittite (an
Indo-European language, a family of languages which includes
Greek and English, spoken in Asia Minor). All the above
languages were written in the script known as cuneiform,
 Summary of Ancient World notes
• Prehistoric cultures
• Paleolithic – cave drawings
• Neolithic – domestication of plants and animals
• Bronze age – writing; stabilized settlements
• Mesopotamia
Sumerians – reverence for fertility – development
of the arts
Old Babylonians – Gilgamesh; Hammurabi – myth
and law define culture
 So, what does Gilgamesh tell us?
• Question 2 – structure – what happened?
• Question 5 – who has power; who has
trust – who’s who?
• Question 1 – themes – what were the big
ideas?
• Question 4 – how were the gods
portrayed?
• Question 3 – what defined “hero”?
 Ancient Egypt
• Near East – upheaval and diversity
– Sumerians – Old Babylonians – Assyrians (skilled and
ruthless warriors) –Babylonian rule revived
(Nebuchadnezzar) – Persians (the last and greatest
Neawr Eastern empire)
– Persepolis –towering columns and a grand staircase,
decorated by a procession bearing taxes and tribute
from Mesopotamia's rich cities. An unmistakable
statement of Persian domination. Eventually fell to the
Greek general “Alexander the Great who left its ruin to
stand in the desert as a reminder of the vanity of
power.

–.
Persepolis is a 2007 French animated film
based on Marjane Satriapi’s autobiographical
graphic novel.

The story follows a young girl as she comes

of age against the backdrop of the Iranian
revolution.

The story ends with Marjane as

a 24-year-old expatriate The title is a ref-
erence to the historic city of Persepolis.

The film won the Jury Prize at the 2007

Cannes film Festival. In her acceptance
speech, Satrapi said "Although this film is
universal, I wish to dedicate the prize to all
Iranians."

The film was also nominated for

The Academy Award for Best Animated
Feature, but lost to Ratatouille.
 Back to the Ancient World
• Egypt – stable and homogeneous
civilization
• Lasted 3000 years
• Geographically unified by the Nile river
and enriched by its annual floods.
• Political and religious unity under the
pharaohs– god kings
• Pharaohs erected stupendous monuments
along the banks of the Nile
 The first pyramids
• Summerian “ziggurats” – a sacred altar
• .
 Polytheism
• According to Greek historian Herodotus,
Egyptiona were the most relitous pleopel
he knew and their reltious faith inspired
much of Egypts’ greatest aret
• Mythology – Isis and Osiris
 The god Seth murders and dismembers his
brother Osiris.
• Upon Osiris' return, an evil plot was put into motion. Seth secretly
acquired the measurements of Osiris and began having a wonderfully
decorated box built to fit those measurements. When the box was
finished, Seth had a great feast to which he invited Osiris and the 72
conspirators. Having absolutely no evil in him, Osiris suspected nothing.
•

• When the feasting was done, Seth had the box brought out. He offered
it as a gift to anyone whom the box fit. One at a time they tried to fit into
the box until it was Osiris' turn. He layed in the box suspecting nothing.
The conspirators slammed the lid, nailed it closed, and poured molten
lead in the seam to seal his fate. They threw the great chest into the Nile
river. Osiris was never seen again, walking in the land of the living.
Seth later discovers Osiris’s wife, Isis, has found the body and is
mourning over it. He dismembers the body and tosses the pieces. Isis
gathers his scattered limbs and resurrects him in the underworld.

She once again sets out to find

her husbands remains. Where
ever she finds a piece of Osiris,
she buries it, and builds a shrine
in that place. This is the reason
that Osiris has so many tombs
in Egypt.

Later Osiris is resurrected as

the king of the dead in the
underworld.
 Why pyramids?

• Life continued unchanged after death.

• Pyramids at Giza
• Largest covered 13 acres at its base
• Built of more than 2 million huge stone
blocks
• Valley of the Kings tombs
 The Pharoaohs
• Akhenaton – established a cult to the sun god Aten
• Queen – Nefertiti
• Rule is renown for artistic and religious innovation,
intimacy
 Tutankhamen
• Restored the cult of Amon-re and
destroyed most of the buliding dedicated
to Aten
 Ramesses II
• Continued monuments to power and richly
decorated tombs.
 Queen Hatshepsut
• Ruled for two decades. Possibly ended
her life in pain
• Excerpts from article by Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

• Obese, plagued with decayed teeth and perhaps a skin disease,

Queen Hatshepsut might have spent her last days in pain,
according to a preliminary examination of the 3,000-year-old
mummy thought to be that of Egypt's greatest female pharaoh.
Bald in front but with long hair in back, the mummy shows an
overweight woman just over 5 feet tall, who died at about 50.

• When her husband-brother died, Hatshepsut became regent for the

boy-king Tuthmosis III. But hieroglyphic carvings suggest she
donned a royal headdress and false beard, and proclaimed herself
pharaoh.
"First of all, the mummy was not just overweight, she was obese,"
Obesity and poor oral hygiene suggested to Selim and colleagues
that she might have suffered from diabetes.
One thing, however, is certain: Hatshepsut had cancer, cancer that
had metastasized into the bone – a very painful form of cancer.
The Aegean world
 The Aegean world
• Minoans
c. 2500-1250 BCE
• Crete
• Pleasure loving people
• Skilled in small crafts
• 1400 BCE high point for arts
• King Minos (Minotaur story)
(sounds violent – but it’s all about love…)
King Minos
King Minos’s wife Pasiphae
The minotaur
King Aegeus
Ariadne (Daughter of King Minos) and
Theseus (son of King Aegeus)
 Famous works of the Minoan
period

Mask of Agamemnon c.
1500 BCE (note: King Tut
Snake goddess c. 1600 funerary mask c 1330
BCE)
 Mycenaean civilization
• C. 1600-1150 BCE
• Aggressive warrior civilization
• Fabulous wealth
• Brooding palace-cities
• Greek mainland
• City of Mycenae – most well preserved ruins
• Mycenaean palaces reveal a civilization swollen by
plunder and fascinated by death and the afterlife
• Fell in c. 1150 BCE
• Greece entered a dark age
• From these ruins emerged what we now call Greece
That’s it for the Ancient World…