DEFINITIONS Flashcards
Radiocarbon Dating
Scientific method of determining age of element based on presence of carbon-14.
Petroglyph
Image created on rock surface through incision, carving or abrading
Hand Imprint
Stamp, similar to stencil embossing shape of hand on skin onto a surface
Hand Stencil
Image created by placing hand on a rock surface and blowing paint over it to create sillouhette of hand
Agro-Pastoralism
Food farming with animal herding
Granary
Earliest form of storage architecture (grain storage)
Fertile Crescent
Arc shaped area that stretches from Zegros mountains across Tigris river to Euphrates river.
(present day northern Iraq and north-eastern Turkey)
Obsidian
Hard material that was used to make hunting tools.
Obsidian trade became the center of agro-pastoral society
Extreme Landscape
- Landscape that requires round-the-clock maintenance, workers and management
- Drain water to use it and direct it to particular places.
Hierarchal Scale
use of size to denote relative importance of subjects in an artwork
Mosaic
- Tapered peg like form made from terra cotta or carved from limestone.
- Used to decorate mudbrick walls
- Cones embedded into plaster to create surface covering for walls.
- Protection from rain, wind etc.
Temple Economy
- Temples were economic venters in their respective community.
- required maintenance by full time staff
- Required regular and reliable sources of income.
- Bigger temples controlled lands that produced crops
- Detailed book-keeping
Theocracy
Govt. in which the deity is recognized as the civil ruler while humans who were considered ‘divinely guided’ governed and implemented policies
Eridu
- The 1st Mesapotamian city
- Achieved organization through common deity.
- Temple more important than palace
- Preist had highest authority
Cuneiform
Latin–> wedge shaped
Reed stylus with triangular tip used to inscribe or impress symbols into moist clay tablets
Clay Tablets (Uruk period)
- Most durable documents ever written.
- After writing tablets were dried in sun or fired in kiln.
First Temple
- Box with altar and oven on side
- As population grew, the altar was moved to regulate access.
Votive Figures
1.Offerings made in temple
2. Made of gypsum
3. Allows donors to be in presence of deity.
Demeter
Greek goddess of harvest and agriculture, presiding over food, grains, crops and fertility of Earth.
Chauvet Caves
- Near Pon’t d’Arc on riverside
- communal cave made of limestone
- 950 images including paintings , engravings, partial human figures and animals (overlapping bulls)
- Animals were multiple legged to form movement
- Paintings had sense of hierarchy, dynamism and movement.
Purpose of Caves
- Sites of ritual gatherings
- Gathering of clan groups from nearby villages to witness
- Different cave sites competed each other in magic produced (medicine)
- Ceremonies
a. ancestor
communication
b. preparing men and their equiment for hunt
c. promoting fertility
d. summoning animals for hunt.
Weir Dam
Helps direct flow of water.
Needs someone with authority to decide its direction.
Woman with Dead Child
Soft ground etching
Printed in black, overworked in green with golden wash
42x48cm
British Museum, London
Who were Gravettians?
First people on earth who where cold weather hunters
Where were Gravettians located?
Central Europe - Russia
How did Gravettians live?
Tundra: seasonal winter camps
How did the Gravettians disappear?
Died in Northern part of Earth
Ancestor Cult
Symbolic significance of residences
Special relationship to animals
eg. Lion Human Figurine
Cold Weather Hunting Tradition
- Used transportable architecture elements
- Hunting was ritualistic
- Migrations from Siberia to North America
Ochre
naturally occuring clay pigment (yellow to red, brown or white)
Where was ochre used
- Cave drawings
- Burial sites
What did Venus figurines exhibit?
idealized female anatomy
colored in red with ochre pigment
what was the purpose of venus figurines?
totem/memory devices
How were venus figurines made?
soft clay, baked, carved limestone or ivory
Lavvu
- Sami, Finland
- tent-like structure that used compression rings using twine for stability
- Hole in center at top for fire to escape (but rain would get inside)
- Made of wooden poles, animal skin, twine
Tipi
- Plain Indians, North America
- a. Tilted structure for better temp. control,
b. Smoke exits on side,
c. Bison jack as skin (no compression rings)
d. Poles tied with tight rope
e. leather inside for insulation in winter - Surface of tipi - drawing of historical events
- More mobile, reusable, dragged by dogs, owned and built by women
Magdalenian Culture
- drawings became more realistic
- discovered and enhanced use of caves (ritualistic practices)
- Northern Europe and Southern UK—-> tundra to emerging forest
Wall Painting - Catal Huyuk
- Depiction of powerful animals (bull, stags, wild board)
- geometric repeating patterns
- Lively human figures wearing leopard skin around main creature
4.house - animal parts such as skull, teeth, claws used as decor or consturction materials
