Ancient Art

Ancient art refers to the many types of art produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with some form of writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Israel, Egypt, Greece and Rome.

Prehistoric art

Prehistoric culture                                                        

The longest phase of Stone Age culture - known as the Paleolithic period - is a hunter-gatherer culture which is usually divided into three parts: Lower;middle; Upper Paleolithic.

Ancients near the east

SUMER

Sumerians inhabited mostly southern Mesopotamia from about 4000 BCE to about 2000 BCE. This area was prone to violent weather conditions, such as unexpected flooding. These chaotic conditions resulted in the Sumerians becoming a highly religious society. Religion provided a sense of order and reason behind the disorder. Much of the art created by the Sumerians is religious themed. Materials used included shell, lapis lazuli, limestone and gold.

AKKAD

When the Akkadians, from northern Iraq, conquered southern Iraq about 2400 BC, they unified all of Iraq - Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers - into one empire for the first time. In some ways, Akkadian art was the same as the Sumerian art that went before it. Carvings still usually had rounded shapes, recalling early clay sculptures.

BABYLON

The conquest of Sumer and Akkad by Babylon marks a turning point in the artistic as well as political history of the region.

The Babylonians took advantage of the abundance of clay in Mesopotamia to create bricks. The use of brick led to the early development of the pilaster and column, as well as of frescoes and enameled tiles. The walls were brilliantly coloured, and sometimes plated with bronze or gold as well as with tiles. Painted terra-cotta cones were also embedded in the plaster.

ASSYRIA

Like all other kingdoms, the Babylonian kingdom did not last forever. When Babylon fell into decline it was eventually conquered by Assyria, one of its former colonies, Assyria inherited its arts as well as its empire.

PERSIA

Iran succeeded to the Hittite Empire and initially took much of its artistic styles from them. Huge palaces in rural settings, often worked on by craftsmen drawn from other nations, subject or not, were distinctive features. After the Empire was decisively overthrown by Alexander the Great a new Sassanian culture emerged, notable for palaces and metalwork. The capitals Susa, Persepolis, Ecbatana and Estakhr have revealed much rich Persian art.

Egyptian Art

Ancient Egyptian consists of paintings, sculptures, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization of Ancient Egypt in the lower Nile Valley from about 3000 BC to 100 AD. Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic. Much of the surviving art comes from tombs and monuments and thus there is an emphasis on life after death and the preservation of knowledge of the past.

Aegean Art

Aegean art refers to art that was created in the Grecian lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea. Included in the category Aegean art is Mycenaean art, famous for its gold masks, war faring imagery and sturdy architecture consisting of citadels on hills with walls up to 20 feet thick and tunnels into the bedrock, the art of the Cyclades, famous for its simple "Venus" figurines carved in white marble, and Minoan art which is famous for its animal imagery, images of harvest, and light, breezy, non-warlike architecture which is almost the antithesis of the Mycenaean art. Taking all this into account, the term "Aegean Art" is thought of as contrived among many art historians because it includes the widely varying art of very different cultures that happened to be in the same area around the same period.

Cyclades

Cycladic art encompasses the visual art of the ancient Cycladic civilization, which flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from3300 - 2000 BCE. Along with the Minoans and Mycenaeans, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art therefore comprises one of the three main branches of Aegean art.

Crete

The civilization that developed on the island of Crete was one of the most remarkable in the ancient world, rich in painting, sculpture, and elaborate architecture. It also brought us names like King Minos (Crete’s culture is known as Minoan, after the king) and creatures like the Minotaur.

Minoan Art

The greatest collection of Minoan art is in the museum at Heraklion, near Knossos on the north shore of Crete. Minoan art, with other remains of material culture, especially the sequence of ceramic styles, has been used by archaeologists to define the three phases of Minoan culture (EM, MM, LM) discussed above.

Mycenae

Mycenae was a prehistoric city in the Peloponnese region of Ancient Greece. The term "Mycenaean" or "Mycenean" culture is used to describe one of the strands of Aegean Art that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean area. It is also used sometimes to describe early mainland Greek art as a whole, during the late Bronze Age (c.1650-1200 BCE). The actual start of the Mycenean era is marked by the shaft graves of Grave Circles A and B (1650-1500 BCE), containing luxurious relics of Mycenean nobles, which were discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876.

Jerusalem

During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE, making Jerusalem one of the oldest cities in the world.