Egyptian and Mesopotamian Artifact Activity

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Egyptian and Mesopotamian Artifact Activity

• Task You must decide whether or not the
  Egyptians and the Mesopotamians should be
  considered civilizations based on the evidence
  you see. As you view the Power Point slides,
  think about what feature(s) of civilization the
  picture is an example of (One artifact as an
  example of more than one feature of
  civilization).
• Go to Slide Show on the Task Bar on the top and
  click on View Show.
• Read the information with each picture to answer
  the bonus questions. When youre done, hand in
  your paper and go to the website link on the last
  slide to explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art
  Website if you wish.

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Egyptian Artifacts
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Egyptian Pyramids
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• Finely carved ivory combs and knife handles
  produced toward the end of Egypt's prehistory
  demonstrate the high standards Egyptian artists
  had achieved, even before the Old Kingdom.
• This comb may have been part of the funeral
  equipment of an elite person who lived about
  5,200 years ago. Parts of the comb's teeth, now
  missing, can be seen along the bottom edge. The
  detailed decoration suggests that it was a
  ceremonial object, not just an instrument for
  arranging the hair.
• On both sides are figures of animals in
  horizontal rows, a spatial organization familiar
  from later Egyptian art. The animals include
  elephants and snakes wading birds and a giraffe
  hyenas cattle and perhaps boars. Similar
  arrangements of these creatures on other carved
  ivory implements suggest that the arrangement and
  choice of animals were not just random. Elephants
  walking on snakes suggest that this part of the
  scene was symbolic. The mythology of many African
  peoples associate elephants and serpents with the
  creation of the universe. The uppermost row of
  this comb may symbolize a creative deity (god) to
  whom the rest of the animals owe their existence.

Ivory Comb
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Wall from Mentuhoptep IIs Tomb

• King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep, often referred to as
  Mentuhotep II, was revered (honored) by the
  Egyptians as the ruler who reunited Egypt after
  an era of disunity known as the First
  Intermediate period. Mentuhotep II was the
  founder of the Middle Kingdom.
• He built his mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri in
  western Thebes, where this relief was uncovered.
  The delicately modeled low relief and the finely
  painted details demonstrate the high artistic
  standards that prevailed (was favored) in the
  royal Theban workshops during this dynamic period
  in Egyptian history. Especially fine is the
  goddess at the right of the block, destroyed at
  the end of Dynasty 18 during the Amarna period.
  She was repaired in plaster in early Dynasty 19,
  indicating that the temple was still in use seven
  centuries after it was built.

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• The estate manager Wah was buried in a small tomb
  near that of his employer, Meketre. First seen in
  an X-ray of Wah's mummy, this magnificent scarab
  bracelet is extraordinary not only for its superb
  craftsmanship but for its material as well.
  Silver was not abundant (plentiful) in Egypt and
  because of the silver is fragile, most silver
  objects have completely disintegrated.
• This scarab is made of several sections soldered
  (welded) together and has a gold suspension tube
  running horizontally between the base and back.
  On its back, inlaid hieroglyphs of pale gold give
  the names and titles of Wah and Meketre. The tomb
  of Wah was uncovered in 1920.

See the hieroglyphics?
Scarab Bracelet
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• Hippo Statuette
• This statuette(small statue) of a hippopotamus
  demonstrates the Egyptian artist's appreciation
  for the natural world. It was molded in faience,
  a ceramic material made of ground quartz. Beneath
  the blue-green glaze, the body was painted with
  the outlines of river plants, symbolizing the
  marshes in which the animal lived.  
• To the ancient Egyptians, the hippopotamus was
  one of the most dangerous animals in their world.
  The huge creatures were a hazard for small
  fishing boats. The beast might also be
  encountered on the waterways in the journey to
  the afterlife. Therefore, the hippopotamus was a
  force of nature that needed to be controlled,
  both in this life and the next. This was one of a
  pair found in a tomb chapel. Three of its legs
  have been restored because they were purposely
  broken to prevent the creature from harming the
  deceased (dead body).

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• Faience Sphinx
• The inscription (carved symbols) and the facial
  features of this faience sphinx identify it as
  Amenhotep III, pharaoh of Egypt. The graceful
  body of the lion transforms quite naturally into
  human forearms and hands, an innovation (new
  technique) of Dynasty 18. In this form, the
  sphinx combines the protective power of the lion
  with the royal function of offering to the gods.
  The even tone of the fine blue glaze and the
  almost flawless condition of this sculpture make
  it unique among ancient Egyptian faience
  statuettes.

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• Shawabti
• As the parents of Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep
  III, Yuya and Tchuya were granted burial in the
  Valley of the Kings. They were provided with
  funerary equipment from the finest royal
  workshops, as demonstrated by this superbly
  carved shawabti on which even the knees are
  subtly indicated. The text on these mummiform
  figurines states that the shawabti will
  substitute for the spirit in any obligatory tasks
  it is called upon to perform in the afterlife.

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• Whip Handle
• The horse was a relative latecomer to Egypt. It
  was introduced in the Second Intermediate period
  during the Hyksos (people from Mesopotamia)
  domination of northern Egypt (ca. 16671570
  B.C.E.), when new elements of warfare, notably
  the horse and chariot, were brought from the Near
  East. During the New Kingdom, this animal became
  a familiar sight, and there were many depictions
  of horses in art.
• This small ivory handle of a light whip is carved
  in the form of a prancing or running horse
  stained reddish brown with a black mane. The
  eyes, one of which has fallen out, were inlaid
  with garnet. The lively carving of this piece,
  especially the gracefully arched back, is typical
  of the ability of Egyptian artists to bring out
  the essential qualities of animals. It also
  exemplifies (is an example of) the fine quality
  attained (achieved) in the decorative arts during
  the reign of Amenhotep III.

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• Coffin
• The brilliantly painted exterior of the coffin of
  Khnumnakht, an individual unknown except for his
  name, displays the use of multiple texts and
  decorative panels characteristic of coffin
  decoration in the late Middle Kingdom. It has at
  least one featurethe figure of the goddess on
  the head endthat is rare before the late Middle
  Kingdom. The figures and hieroglyphs have been
  drawn by the confident hand of a skilled artist
  and each hieroglyph has been carefully painted in
  the prescribed manner of the time and place in
  which the coffin was made.  
• On the left side of the coffin box there is a
  small doorway in the center at the bottom. This
  is basically a false door, which allowed the
  spirit of the deceased (dead person) to move
  between the land of the dead and the land of the
  living. Above the door are two eyes that look
  forth into the land of the living. The face of
  the mummy would have been directly behind this
  panel. The rest of the exterior is inscribed with
  prayers to various gods, particularly those
  associated with death and rebirth, such as
  Osiris, foremost god of the dead, and Anubis, god
  of embalming.

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Egyptian hieroglyphics
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The boat and more than twenty other models of
boats, gardens, and workshops were found in a
small chamber in the tomb of Meketre, a Theban
official. Boat Model
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Book of the Dead This scene from the Book of the
Dead shows the journey to the afterlife. Nany, a
woman stands the Hall of Judgment to the left of
a scale. Her heart is being weighed against Maat,
the goddess of justice and truth, wearing a
single large feather. On the right is Osiris, god
of the underworld and rebirth. He wears the white
crown of Upper Egypt and the curving beard of a
god. On the table before him is an offering of a
joint of beef. Jackal-headed Anubis, overseer of
mummification, adjusts the scales, while a
baboonsymbolizing Thoth, the god of wisdom and
writingsits on the balance beam and prepares to
write down the result. Behind Nany stands the
goddess Isis, both wife and sister of Osiris.
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Mesopotamian Artifacts
Roar
Hi
Euphrates R.
Tigris R.
Peoples who lived here Assyrians, Babylonians,
Sumerians, Akkadians and many others
Mediterranean Sea
Nile R.
Also Called Mesopotamia
AFRICA
Red Sea
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Babylonian Cuneiform
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Mesopotamian Ziggurat or Stepped Temple
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Sphinx Furniture Decoration
This sphinx was carved as furniture decoration.
It is from a karum, or "merchant colony around
the northern Mesopotamian (Assyrian) city of
Ashur from around 1900 B.C. These decorations
were carved to represent the creatures important
in the mythology of the ancient Near East. This
small female sphinx is an idea borrowed from the
Egyptians. Her large almond-shaped eyes and
spiral locks are similar to the Egyptian goddess
Hathor.

                                                    
What is that an example of? HINT! What term
means the spread and blending of culture?
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Carved Cylinder Stamp Carved stones had been
used to stamp impressions on clay from as early
as the seventh millennium B.C. In the fourth
millennium B.C. carved cylinders were invented.
They could be rolled over clay and had complex
designs. Seals were either pressed on clay masses
that were used to close jars, doors, and baskets,
or they were rolled onto inscribed clay tablets
that recorded information about commercial or
legal transactions. (Late Akkadian)
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Iron Age Cup On the body of the cup from the Iron
Age, four gazelles, framed horizontally by
guilloche bands, walk in procession to the left.
Their bodies are detailed with finely chased
lines to indicate hair and muscles. The
projecting heads were made separately and were
fastened invisibly in place by soldering, a
process much practiced in Iran involving glue and
copper salt.
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These earrings come from the so-called Great
Death Pit, which was probably part of a royal
tomb with an almost totally destroyed stone
chamber. Laid out in the pit were the bodies of
six armed men and sixty-eight people thought to
be women or young girls, all adorned with the
most splendid jewelry made of gold, lapis lazuli
(a blue gem stone), and carnelian.
Earrings
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Assyrian King Assurbanipal said, "I built thereon
a palace with halls of cedar, cypress, juniper,
boxwood, teak, terebinth, and tamarisk as my
royal dwelling and for the enduring leisure life
of my lordship. Beasts of the mountains and the
seas, which I had fashioned out of white
limestone and alabaster, I had set up in its
gates. I made the palace fittingly imposing. In
other words, he had a pair of these limestone
beasts, called lamassu, protect and support
important doorways in Assyrian palaces. They are
the human-headed, winged bull and lion creatures.
The horned cap shows to their divinity, and the
belt signifies their power. The sculptor gave
these guardian figures five legs so that they
appear to be standing firmly when viewed from the
front but striding forward when seen from the
side. Assyrian Lamassu
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This 8th century Neo-Assyrian ivory carving would
have been one of a group of similar panels used
in the back of a chair. It depicts (shows) a
bearded man, perhaps a warrior, holding the stem
of a lotus plant. Above him, a winged disc
provides protection.
Assyrian Ivory Carving
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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
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Man carrying a box, possibly for offerings, Early
Dynastic III 29002600 B.C.Mesopotamia
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Ax head This ax head was found along the Oxus
and Murghab rivers in modern Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. While these areas
were barely inhabited during much of the third
millennium B.C., by about 2200 B.C. permanent
settlements with distinctive forms of
architecture, burial practices, and material
culture had been established, supported in part
by active trade with parts of Iran, Mesopotamia,
and the Indus Valley.   This silver-gilt ax is a
masterpiece of three-dimensional sculpture.
Expertly cast and gilded with foil, it represents
a bird-headed hero grappling (fighting) with a
wild boar and a winged dragon. The idea of the
heroic bird-headed creature probably came from
western Iran, where it is first documented on a
cylinder seal impression. The hero's muscular
body is human except for the bird talons that
replace the hands and feet. He is represented
twice, once on each side of the axe, so he
appears to have two heads. On one side, he grasps
the boar by the belly and on the other, by the
tusks. On the other side, the bird-headed hero
grasps the winged dragon by the neck.
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This figure strides with one arm raised and the
other held out, each having held a weapon such as
a spear and mace or thunderbolt. His pierced ears
had earrings, perhaps of gold, and he is clad in
an Egyptian-style kilt. The crown is the
distinctive Egyptian crown of Osiris, god of the
dead. Here the figure represented is not the
Egyptian king but rather an ancient Near Eastern
depiction of a local deity (god) of the Levant
area.     In the Late Bronze Age, a time of
intense international economic, political, and
cultural connections, artistic elements of a
variety of cultures were incorporated (brought
into) into local styles. Egyptian art especially
influenced the art of the Levant at this time,
resulting in an "Egyptianizing" style.
Excavations in Syria unearthed numerous examples
of small statues of local gods. While the designs
used may be similar to Egyptian ones, the meaning
was probably different and adapted to a local
gods likeness. Much is known about the local
religions through the text sources.
AGAIN! What is that an example of? HINT! What
term means the spread and blending of culture?
Levant God
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• This tiny pendant was probably intended to be
  worn round the neck as an amulet (charm). Small
  gold figures with loops survive from Iran,
  Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt, so there was
  widespread use of such objects. Similar objects
  from Hittite culture suggest that these small
  figures were portable representations of Hittite
  gods. The figure shown here, cast in gold using
  the lost-wax process, is of a seated goddess in a
  long gown, with large oval eyes and a thin mouth
  with creases at the sides. She is wearing simple,
  looped earrings and a necklace. Her disk-like
  headdress probably represents the sun, which
  would lead to the conclusion that this may be the
  sun goddess, Arinna, a major Hittite
  divinity(god). A loop for suspension protrudes
  (comes out) from the back of the headdress. On
  her lap the goddess holds a naked child, cast
  separately of solid gold and then attached. The
  chair on which they are seated is backless and
  has lion paws.
• Hittite Sun Goddess

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By the middle of the first millennium B.C.,
kingdoms had emerged in southern Arabia based on
a monopoly of two of the most prized materials of
ancient times, frankincense and myrrh, which are
native to the region. Every temple and wealthy
home in the Mediterranean and Near East burnt
these incense resins on altars. Saba was
initially the most important kingdom but others,
such as Qataban and Macin, grew to rival it in
power.   Bronze castings of large sculptures, as
well as smaller objects, were made through most
of the first millennium B.C. and the early
centuries A.D. in southwestern Arabia. Among the
types of animal images, bullsa symbol of
strength and potencyare the most common and can
be found on funeral sites, seals, and sculptures
of the period.
Part of a Urartian throne with a god on a bull,
Arabian Bull Sculpture

• Urartu was a powerful kingdom that rivaled the
  Assyrian Empire in the first millennium B.C. It
  extended from northeastern Turkey into
  northwestern Iran. Its settlements were
  palace-fortresses that protected agricultural
  production and supported many crafts, especially
  an extensive metalworking industry. In the late
  seventh century B.C., Urartian centers were
  destroyed by an enemy whose identity remains
  unknown.
•  
• This object, with the lower part of a figure
  standing along the flanks of a bull, was most
  likely part of a throne. From better-preserved
  examples, we know that the figure wore the horned
  crown of a deity. The whole would have been
  gilded (covered in gold). A throne and footstool
  supported by four deities (like this one) and
  their animal companions would have been a potent
  symbol of the Urartian king's power.

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• Babylonian Panel with Striding Lion
• The Assyrian Empire fell when attacked by the
  Babylonians and Medes in 614 and 612 B.C. A new
  dynasty was established with its capital in
  Babylon. The new empire thrived under King
  Nebuchadnezzar II. He maintained friendly
  relations with the Medes and successfully dealing
  with Egypt for the control of trade on the
  eastern Mediterranean coast. Babylon became the
  city of splendor. Because stone is rare in
  southern Mesopotamia, molded glazed bricks were
  used for building and Babylon became a city of
  brilliant color.
•  
• The most important street in Babylon was the
  Processional Way, leading from the inner city
  through the Ishtar Gate to the Bit Akitu, or
  "House of the New Year's Festival." The Ishtar
  Gate, built by Nebuchadnezzar II, was a
  glazed-brick structure decorated with figures of
  bulls and dragons, symbols of the weather god
  Adad and of Marduk. North of the gate the roadway
  was lined with glazed figures of striding lions.
  This relief of a lion, the animal associated with
  Ishtar, goddess of love and war, served to
  protect the street its repeated design served as
  a guide for the ritual processions from the city
  to the temple.

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