Çatalhöyük or Çatal Höyük (pronounced "cha-tal hay OOK") is not the oldest site of the Neolithic era

or the largest, but it is extremely important to the beginning of art. Located near the modern city of
Konya in south central Turkey, it was inhabited 9000 years ago by up to 8000 people who lived
together in a large town. Çatalhöyük, across its history, witnesses the transition from exclusively
hunting and gathering subsistence to increasing skill in plant and animal domestication. We might see
Çatalhöyük as a site whose history is about one of man’s most important transformations: from nomad
to settler. It is also a site at which we see art, both painting and sculpture, appear to play a newly
important role in the lives of settled people.
Nearly every house excavated at Çatalhöyük was
found to contain decorations on its walls and
platforms, most often in the main room of the
house. Moreover, this work was constantly being
renewed; the plaster of the main room of a house
seems to have been redone as frequently as every
month or season. Both geometric and figural
images were popular in two-dimensional wall
painting and the excavator of the site believes that
geometric wall painting was particularly associated
with adjacent buried youths. Figural paintings
show the animal world alone, such as, for
instance, two cranes facing each other standing
behind a fox, or in interaction with people, such as
a vulture pecking at a human corpse or hunting
scenes. Wall reliefs are found at Çatalhöyük with
some frequency, most often representing animals,
such as pairs of animals facing each other and
human-like creatures. These latter reliefs,
alternatively thought to be bears, goddesses or
regular humans, are always represented splayed,
with their heads, hands and feet removed,
presumably at the time the house was abandoned.
The most remarkable art found at Çatalhöyük, however, are the installations of animal remains and
among these the most striking are the bull bucrania. In many houses the main room was
decorated with several plastered skulls of bulls set into the walls (most common on East or West
walls) or platforms, the pointed horns thrust out into the communal space. Often the bucrania
would be painted ochre red. In addition to these, the remains of other animals’ skulls, teeth, beaks,
tusks or horns were set into the walls and platforms, plastered and painted. It would appear that
the ancient residents of Çatalhöyük were only interested in taking the pointy parts of the animals
back to their homes!
How can we possibly understand this practice of interior decoration with the remains of
animals? A clue might be in the types of creatures found and represented. Most of the animals
represented in the art of Çatalhöyük were not domesticated; wild animals dominate the art at the
site. Interestingly, examination of bone refuse shows that the majority of the meat which was
consumed was of wild animals, especially bulls. The excavator believes this selection in art and
cuisine had to do with the contemporary era of increased domestication of animals and what is
being celebrated are the animals which are part of the memory of the recent cultural past, when
hunting was much more important for survival.
The ancient Sumerians, the "black-headed ones," lived in the southern part of what is now Iraq. The
heartland of Sumer lay between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in what the Greeks later called
Mesopotamia. This territory, once skillfully irrigated, proved very fertile, and major cities had long been
in existence before the period when archaeologists can identify the Sumerian people themselves.

The Sumerians were characteristically inventive, and are likely to have been responsible for the
development of the first writing. Well before 3000 B.C.E. Sumerians were recording their language
using simple pictures. They wrote on tablets of clay, later evolving the script that to us is known as
cuneiform, or "wedge-shaped.”

They were energetic farmers, traders and sailors. Their religion recognized many gods, whose feats
and escapades were described in stories that were often preserved for generations. Rituals as well as
parties were enlivened by skillful harpists and singers, and Sumerian musical instruments have even
been excavated by modern archaeologists.

Book-keeping was a feature of Sumerian life, and very detailed records on clay tablets of offerings,
rations, taxes and agricultural work have come down to us. Their favorite board game, Royal Game of
Ur, achieved popularity throughout the whole Middle Eastern world. Imported lapis lazuli and carnelian
was much prized for inlays and jewelry.

Archaeology has shown that in about 2500 B.C.E. the ruling elite in the city of Ur went to their final
resting place surrounded by their wealth and the attendant bodies of their court personnel.
 Uruk (modern Warka in Iraq)—where city life began more than five thousand years ago and where
the first writing emerged—was clearly one of the most important places in southern Mesopotamia.
Within Uruk, the greatest monument was the Anu Ziggurat on which the White Temple was built.
Dating to the late 4th millennium B.C.E. (the Late Uruk Period, or Uruk III) and dedicated to the sky
god Anu, this temple would have towered well above (approximately 40 feet) the flat plain of Uruk,
and been visible from a great distance—even over the defensive walls of the city.

Reconstructions of ancient sites or finds can help us to understand the distant past. For non-academics,
reconstructions offer a glimpse into that past, a kind of visual accumulation of scientific research
communicated by means of images, models or even virtual reality. We see reconstructions in films, museums
and magazines to illustrate the stories behind the historical or archaeological facts. For archaeologists like me
however, reconstructions are also an important tool to answer unsolved questions and even raise new ones.
One field where this is particularly true is the reconstruction of ancient architecture. Represent a CITY-STATE.
Title: Temple at Ur
Nanna Ziggurat
Source/Museum: Present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq
The first fully developed written
script, cuneiform, was invented to
account for something
unglamorous, but very important—
surplus commodities: bushels of
barley, head of cattle, and jars of
oil!
Sign with a Cylinder Seal
Cuneiform was used for official accounting, governmental and
theological pronouncements and a wide range of correspondence.
Nearly all of these documents required a formal “signature,” the
impression of a cylinder seal. Think bead. (Pictographs and cuniform).

A cylinder seal is a small pierced object, like a long round bead,

carved in reverse (intaglio) and hung on strings of fiber or leather.
These often beautiful objects were ubiquitous in the Ancient Near East
and remain a unique record of individuals from this era. Each seal was
owned by one person and was used and held by them in particularly
intimate ways, such as strung on a necklace or bracelet.

When a signature was required, the seal was taken out and rolled on
the pliable clay document, leaving behind the positive impression of
the reverse images carved into it. However, some seals were valued Art historians are interested in
not for the impression they made, but instead, for the magic they were cylinder seals is because of the
thought to possess or for their beauty. iconography (the study of the
content of a work of art). Each
Each seal is a small time capsule of what sorts of motifs and styles character, gesture and decorative
were popular during the lifetime of the owner. These seals, which element can be “read” and reflected
survive in great numbers, offer important information to understand the back on the owner of the seal,
developing artistic styles of the Ancient Near East. revealing his or her social rank and
even sometimes the name of the
Reading- Epic of Gilgamesh (narrative through pictures) owner.
 Function:
-used as a well for grinding
and mixing makeup, like dark
eyeliner applied under eyes to
protect from the sun's harsh
glare (dessert region)
-found buried under the floor
of a temple in Hierakonpolis
-leaders, upper class people,
or anyone who had the
money would give objects
such as this to temples
Form: to demonstrate their piety and
-Palette of King Narmer. Predynastic Egypt. form a connection with the
c. 3000–2920 B.C.E. Greywacke God
-carved from slate (grayish/green siltstone), -this palette was a ceremonial
object, dedicated to a god,
In bas-relief, 2.1 feet high (very large for a used for rituals, and could
palette) have been used to apply
-typically palettes were smaller, very flat make up to the actual artistic
and didn’t depictions of the god in the
feature intricate designs, but the pallet of temple
Narmer is unique -would have been ritually
buried after new donations
-carved in stone, lasting, were received
demonstrates strength -makeup could have been
of culture mixed in the well formed by
-found in the temple of horas (showed in his the the two intertwining heads
representative falcon) of the mythical seopards
Content:
-uniquely displays human action,
opposed to animals or just mythical
imagery
-contains iconography that is
consistent with other Egyptian art
thousands of years later, consistency
representative of Egypts stability
-contains several scenes, symbols
and creatures of cultural significance
all explained in full in the above
images
-features the power of the king
through use of hierarchical scale,
registers, (uniquely) showingkilts,
royal beard, and bull tail, him in the
crown of both upper and lower
egypt, kilts, the royal beard, and a
bull tail
Context:
-palettes were very widely
distributed, as makeup in Egypt
was accessible for men and
women of all social classes
-the unification of upper and
lower Egypt under a single ruler
was a very significant event in
Egyptian history at this point in
time, the duality of the piece
with the king's two crowns and
the two different faces of
the palette represents their
unity, while depicting their
differences
-on both sides the lowest
register features the dead
bodies of defeated enemies,
again demonstrating Egyptian
strength, this time in a military
sense
-could also be depicting chaos Horizontal lines that divide the images into
and order, an essential belief in sections are called REGISTERS. The Cross-Cultural Comparison: Symbolism
the Egyptian understanding of narrative is the unification of the Upper and Delacriox, Liberty Leading the People
the cosmos Lower Egypt through the metaphor Journey Cotsiogo, Hide Painting of a Sun Dance
-some of the imagery could of the Sun and chaos to order. Ruler's Feathered Headdress
represent the journey of the sun
god
Vertical Lines are REGISTERS, FRIEZES and GROUNDLINES. The narrative is the Journey of the Sun
and Chaos versus Order as a UNIFICATION. Pictograph and hierarchy of scale,
014. Statues of Votive Figures from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (moden Tell
Asmar, Iraq)
Sumerian Ca. 2700 BCE
 Cross-Cultural
What culture created these statues, and what size are they? Connections:
Sumerian, ranging from under a foot to over two and a half feet. Female Deity from
Nukuoro
What kinds of beings do these figures portray? What was their purpose?
Veranda post
They portray mortals, as perpetual worshipers. ]Ikenga
What do the inscriptions on the figures contain?
The name of the donor, the deity to whom the prayers are addressed, and the text of the prayers.

Statues of Votive Figures

Context: 2900 B.C.E.
Aspect of Mesopotamian religion is the votive figure of mortal men and women. Worshipers would set up images of themselves
in a shrine before a larger image of god as part of devotional practice
Content:
Alabaster (soft stone). Pedestals (standing up during worship) . 1 to 3 ft tall
Figures of donor males and females. Hierarchical scale of individual parts of the body -- eyes are larger than the hands
Form: Individualized vs. stylized or symbolic. Realistic anatomy. Detailed eyes → significant, intricate.
Made of Lapis Lazuli. Materials → gypsum inlaid with shell and brick limestone.
¡ Faces and bodies in a V-shape with the skirt kicking out
¡ It is not a true portrait where you could recognize the individual
¡ Function
¡ Portable; temple away from place of worship
¡ Stand-in for owner (stylized for a specific person but not an individual)
¡ Inscription
§ Reminds anthropomorphic god to look favorably upon the donor
§ Wish to be granted
§ Increase the representation and status of the donor by showing the wealth of the votive offering

Painted Limestone with rock crystal,
magnesite, copper/arsenic inlay for
eyes and wooden nipples.
Cross-Cultural Comparison: Human Figure
Shiva as Nataraja
Great Buddha From Todai-ji
Abakanowicz, Androgyn III
Form
Unique that the figure is seated as opposed to upright and statuary.
Unique in its individualistic features
Irises are inlaid with rock crystal
Figure is limestone painted with red ocher.
Nipples made of wood
Would have been placed on top of a description piece about the scribe
Function
Commemorate and revere the scribe himself and his importance in preserving Egyptian
history.
Serves a funerary purpose to help the scribe transcend into the afterlife.
The position in which the scribe was posed was originially for royal sons
Content
Holds a papyrus scroll
Midriff fat shows his wealth and importance
His tranquil face symbolizes wisdom.
His calm gaze symbolizes his knowledge and intent desire to reach the afterlife
He would have been seated on a larger piece that would have had descriptions of his
titles and names
The scribe is depicted at work which is unusual for a Egyptian statue
The position of the scribe in this statue is a position of royalty in the sitting down
Context
Depicts a scribe from the Necropolis at Saqqara, Egypt.
Scribes were revered for their literacy and writing abilities, which were not ubiquitous at
the time.
Egyptian sites for years have been pillaged and it is very fortunate that an artwork like this
was recovered and sent to the Louvre
Title: Head of a man (known as Akkadian ruler)
Medium: Copper Alloy Absolute Monarchy. Details in hair and beard are
Size: height 14⅜" (36.5 cm) triangular. Considered formal (symmetrical)
Date: c. 2300–2200 BCE patterns. Overlapping of hair shows depth. Life
Source/Museum: Nineveh (present-day Kuyunjik, Iraq) / size. Foundry were present, hollow cast, oldest
Iraq Museum, Baghdad know life scaled sculpture.

Title: Stele of Naram-Sin

Medium: Limestone
Size: height 6'6" (1.98 m)
Date: c. 2220–2184 BCE

Stele
Hierarchical scale
(Hieratic scale)
Ladder to Heaven/ devotion platform
Frieze format (3 levels)
 CULTURAL COMPARISONS:
Column of Trajan
Bayeux Tapestry
Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer
(Book of the Dead)
Night Attack on the Sanjo
Palace

Wood inlaid with shell, lapis, lazuli, and red limestone.

Found in one of the largest graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, lying in the corner of a chamber
above a soldier who is believed to have carried it on a long pole as a standard, the royal emblem
of a king.
Standard of Ur-
True King and Queen or Aristocrat and Priest? What details might held decide?
Lapis Lazuli is present but comes from Afghanistan. Why is this important?
Wooden box, flag or offering box to collect currency. Inlaid with shells and lapis with limestone details.
Most likely mounted on a pole as a flag or sound box or both.

2 sides- Part of a HISTORICAL Narrative. Read BOTTOM TO TOP.

3 horizontal bands (registers)

WAR side-
Composite view (vs twisted). Find the story. Note the action going on.

PEACE side-
Harp with player and singer (eunuch). Bull harp (Queen/ Lady Pu-abi- Embodied moon god Nanna)

THEMES: sacrifice, warfare , masculinity, community, power and authority, class divide, wealth and status

CONTEXT:
Found just south of modern day Iraq
Prosperous and fertile area for agriculture- profit and surplus of food built in more time for art
More levels of wealth and different roles in society (wealth led to more priests and organized religion)
Different classes of people reflected on the standard- poor on the bottom and rich on the top.
found in the Graves of Ur- used from 2600-2000 BCE
one grave could hold as many as 74 sacrificial victims
very rich resources/minerals found here
standard of Ur found in one of these graves
The main panels are known as "War" and "Peace." "War" shows one of the earliest representations
of a Sumerian army. Chariots, each pulled by four donkeys, trample enemies; infantry with cloaks
carry spears; enemy soldiers are killed with axes, others are paraded naked and presented to the
king who holds a spear.

The "Peace" panel depicts animals, fish and other goods brought in procession to a banquet.
Seated figures, wearing woolen fleeces or fringed skirts, drink to the accompaniment of a musician
playing a lyre. Banquet scenes such as this are common on cylinder seals of the period, such as on
the seal of the "Queen" Pu-abi, also in the British Museum (see image above).

The royal graves of Ur

Close to temple buildings at the center of the city of Ur, sat a rubbish dump built up over centuries.
Unable to use the area for building, the people of Ur started to bury their dead there. The cemetery
was used between about 2600-2000 B.C.E. and hundreds of burials were made in pits. Many of
these contained very rich materials.

In one area of the cemetery a group of sixteen graves was dated to the mid-third millennium. These
large, shaft graves were distinct from the surrounding burials and consisted of a tomb, made of
stone, rubble and bricks, built at the bottom of a pit. The layout of the tombs varied, some occupied
the entire floor of the pit and had multiple chambers. The most complete tomb discovered belonged
to a lady identified as Pu-abi from the name carved on a cylinder seal found with the burial.
Cut limestone. The Great Sphinx is believed to be the most immense stone sculpture ever made by
man. (stone, tombs, statues, animal symbolism)

Form: bedrock, local core stones, Tura limestone casing, red granite, mortar. Nearly perfect pyramids.
Edges aligned with cardinal pts.

Function: burial sites for kings. Royal Mortuary complex. perhaps intended as a solidified version of the
rays of the sun.

Content: three major pyramids for three rulers over three generations and many other smaller cemeteries
and temples. Representations of the passages of the dead.

Context: tallest things for over 4000 years. Ancient Egypt. People had to have everything for the afterlife,
so they are buried with all the things they need in life. We still don't know how these were built. Pharaohs
were kings, but also divine
Greywacke. Representational, proportional, frontal viewpoint, hierarchical structure. They were perfectly preserved and
nearly life-size. This was the modern world's first glimpse of one of humankind's artistic masterworks, the statue of king
Menkaura and queen Khamerernebty.

The two figures stand side-by-side on a simple, squared base and are
supported by a shared back pillar. They both face to the front, although
Menkaure’s head is noticeably turned to his right—this image was likely
originally positioned within an architectural niche, making it appear as
though they were emerging from the structure. The broad-shouldered,
youthful body of the king is covered only with a traditional short pleated
kilt, known as a shendjet, and his head sports the primary pharaonic
insignia of the iconic striped nemes headdress (so well known from the
mask of Tutankhamun) and an artificial royal beard. In his clenched fists,
held straight down at his sides, Menkaure grasps ritual cloth rolls. His
body is straight, strong, and eternally youthful with no signs of age. His
facial features are remarkably individualized with prominent eyes, a fleshy
nose, rounded cheeks, and full mouth with protruding lower lip.

Menkaure and his queen stride forward with their left feet—this is entirely
expected for the king, as males in Egyptian sculpture almost always do
so, but it is unusual for the female since they are generally depicted with
feet together. They both look beyond the present and into timeless
eternity, their otherworldly visage displaying no human emotion
whatsoever. The cobra that usually adorns the King is missing but may
have been out of a material that did not survive.

Left in an incomplete state, the image was erected in the temple and was
brightly painted—there are traces of red around the king’s ears and mouth
and yellow on the queen’s face.
For Eyes of the Royal Only

Based on comparison with other images, there is no doubt that this sculpture shows Menkaure, but the
identity of the queen is a different matter. She is clearly a royal female. She stands at nearly equal height
with the king and, of the two of them, she is the one who is entirely frontal. In fact, it may be that this dyad
is focused on the queen as its central figure rather than Menkaure. The prominence of the royal female—
at equal height and frontal—in addition to the protective gesture she extends has suggested that, rather
than one of Mekaure’s wives, this is actually his queen-mother. The function of the sculpture in any case
was to ensure rebirth for the king in the Afterlife.

Remember pyramids are not stand-alone structures. Those at Giza formed only a part of a much larger
complex that included a temple at the base of the pyramid itself, long causeways and corridors, small
subsidiary pyramids, and a second temple (known as a valley temple) some distance from the pyramid.
These Valley Temples were used to perpetuate the cult of the deceased king and were active places of
worship for hundreds of years (sometimes much longer) after the king’s death. Images of the king were
placed in these temples to serve as a focus for worship—several such images have been found in these
contexts, including the magnificent seated statue of Khafre, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The three primary pyramids at Giza were constructed during the height of a period known as the Old
Kingdom and served as burial places, memorials, and places of worship for a series of deceased rulers--
the largest belonging to King Khufu, the middle to his son Khafre, and the smallest of the three to Khufu's
grandson, Menkaure.
Title: Stele of Hammurabi
Medium: Diorite, Basalt
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)

Hammurabi

Shamash
This is the Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi.

It is one of the most popular objects to look at here (it was made in the Babylonian Kingdom which is now in Iraq) and I think
it's because of our modern interest and reliance on law as the founding principles of a civilization. And this is such an ancient
object, this is nearly 4,000 years old.

A stele is a tall carved object. This one is carved in relief at the top, and then below that, and on all sides, we have inscribed
cuneiform (script that is used on the stele) It's written in the language of Akkadian (which is the court language of the
Babylonians). Which was used for official government decrees. That's the language. The script is cuneiform.

It's divided into three parts. There's a prologue, which talks about the scene that's being represented at the top, the
Investiture of Hammurabi. What we see is the king on the left, he's smaller, and he's facing the god, Shamash. This is the sun
god, the god of justice. And we can tell he's a god because of the special horned crown that he wears and the flames or light
that emanate from his shoulders. We can think of this as a kind of divine light, the way that in so much Christian imagery, we
see a halo. And we have that composite view that we often see in Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Near-Eastern art, where the
shoulders are frontal but the face is represented in profile. Shamash sits on a throne, and if you look closely you can see
under his feet the representation of mountains that he rises from each day. He's giving to the king a scepter and a ring, these
are signs of power. - Hammurabi is demonstrating here that these are divine laws. That his authority comes from Shamash.

We have more than 300 laws here. And they're very particular. Scholars believe that they weren't so much written by the king
as listed from judgments that have already been meted out. They're legal precedents, and they take the form of announcing
an action and its consequences. If you do X, Y is the consequence. For example, if a man builds a house and the house falls
on the owner, the builder is put to death. There's a kind of equivalence, and this might remind us of the Biblical law of, "An
eye for an eye "or a tooth for a tooth." - Which is also found on the stele, and it's important and interesting to note that the
stele predates that Biblical text. The last part of the text, what is often referred to as the epilogue, speaks to the posterity of
the king, of the importance of his rule and the idea that he will be remembered for all time.

This is certainly not a unique stele in terms of recording laws, but it does survive largely intact. When it was discovered, it
was broken only into three parts, which you can still see today. These laws, almost 4,000 years old, tell us a tremendous
amount about Babylonian culture, about what was important to them. Many of these laws deal with agricultural issues, issues
of irrigation, and are clearly expressing points of tension in society. A lot of them have to do with family life, too, and the king
is, after all, responsible for the peace and prosperity and feeding of his people. And the stele is such a wonderful reminder
that Mesopotamia was such an advanced culture. Here, almost 4,000 years ago, we have cities that are dependent on good
crop yields, that require laws to maintain civil society. And a reminder of the debt that the world owes to the ancient
civilizations of Mesopotamia and the area that is seeing so much conflict now.