Chap 1-2 Flashcards
Base
Any support (bottom)
Bitumen
An asphalt used as cement or mortar
Capital
Sculptured block that tops (top)
Citadel
Fortress
Column
Used for support and decoration
Cone mosaic
Surface decorated by pressing pieces of mosaic onto clay or plaster
Crenellation
Notched walls
Cuneiform
Ancient writing in the form of symbols, used by the Sumerians
Cylinder seals
Cylinder stone incised with pictures (stamp)
Filigree
Delicate, lacelike, ornamented work
Glazed
Film of colored glass over surface
Gold leaf
Paper thin sheets of hammered gold
Glutting
To fill
Hieratic scale
Size associated with importance
High relief
Sculpture extruding a lot from background
Incised
Being inscribed
Inlays
Set with materials on surface
Lost-wax casting
Hollow mold, wax flows out, etc
Low relief monumental
Low relief on a monument
Palace complex
Group of buildings where rulers governed and lived
Pictographs
Simple pictures
Registers
Horizontal bands on picture space
Shafts
Vertical part of column
Stele
Upright stone slab
Stylized
To design in a style
Stylus
Pointed writing instrument
Terminals
Carvings at the end of something
Torque
Collar, necklace, etc.
Votive figures
Images dedicated to gods
Ziggurat
Huge stepped structures with temple/shrine on top
Abstraction
Reduction of shapes and appearance to basic but recognizable forms; not intended to be exact
Cairn
Artificial hill
Capstone
Table like rock
Corbeling
Layers of stone laid on top in shape of arch
Dolmen
Simplest megalithic tomb, post and lintel
Henge
Circle of stones/posts, often surrounded by ditch
Incising
Scratching figures onto a surface
Low relief
Sculpture that extends slightly from background
Menhir
An upright monument standing alone or with others
Modeling
Shaping damp clay
Neolithic
“new” stone age
Paleolithic
“old” stone age (lower, middle, upper)
Passage grave
Tomb entered by 1 or more passageways
Post and lintel construction
Post (vertical), lintel (horizontal)
Relative dating
Relies on chronological relationships among objects at excavation site
Relief sculpture
Sculpture extending from background
Sculpture in the round
Free standing sculpture surrounded by space, meant to be viewed from all sides
Ware
Group of ceramic types based on texture, surface, decorations, etc.
Sarsen
Grey sandstone
Sarsen circle
Ring of sandstones
Lithography
Stone carving
Apadama
Huge meeting place; audience hall