Quiz 1: Chapter 1 & Chapter 2

Question 1

What year did Civilization(written history) formally begin? And Who is recognized.?

Answer 1

• 3,500 B.C.

- The Sumerians(major cities: Uruk, Ur, and Lagash)

Question 2

What is a “civilization” and what are the characteristics?

Answer 2

A civilization is a complex organized society. Characteristics include the invention of writing and construction of monumental art.

Question 3

Describe a Ziggurat?

Answer 3

A Ziggurat has a trapezoidal shape with sloped sides, leading to a platform which the temple is placed upon(40 feet above street level).

Question 4

The white temple and the ziggurat was composed of what?

Answer 4

Mud Bricks

Question 5

How was the white temple oriented?

Answer 5

The corners of the white temple are oriented to the cardinal points of a compass.

Question 6

To whom was the white temple dedicated to?

Answer 6

It was dedicated to Anu, the sky god. By design, it did not accommodate a large amount of worshipers except priests and leading community members.

Question 7

What year did agriculture begin?

Answer 7

8,000 B.C.

Question 8

Who invented writing?

Answer 8

In 3,500 B.C. the Sumerians invented writing in the form of pictographs.

Question 9

What were pictographs used for?

Answer 9

inventories of cattle, food, and harvests.

Question 10

What are functions of Cylinder seal impressions?

Answer 10

• Designate ownership
• Keeps inventories and accounts
• Form of I.D.
• Legalize private and state documents.

Question 11

Image 2-1: “peace” side of the Standard of Ur, from tomb 779, Royal cemetery, Ur, Iraq, 2600-2400B.C., wood, lapis lazuli, shell, and red-limestone. British museum, London

Answer 11

• Standard of Ur(Sumerian City):
• The artist divided the pictoral field into three successive bands called register/friezes and placed on a common ground line.
• pioneered the use of hierarchy scale
• Roles of Sumerian ruler: the mighty warrior who defeats enemies of his city-state, and the chief administrator who assures the bountifulness of the land with blessings of the gods.
• worlds oldest depictions of contemporaneous events.

Question 12

Image 2-2: White Temple and Ziggurat, Uruk, iraq, 3200-3000B.C.

Answer 12

• The main temple formed the city’s nucleus
• “city within a city” priests and scribes carried on official administrative and commercial business
• Did not have stone quarries, formed mud bricks
• stands atop ziggurat

Question 13

Image 2-5: Warka Vase, Uruk, Iraq, 3200-3000B.C., Alabaster, National museum of Iraq, Baghdad

Answer 13

• The lowest band on the warka vase shows wheat and other crops above a wavy line representing water.
• Then a register with ewes and rams moving from left to right(animals 20,000 years old
• At the center, men carry baskets and jars overflowing with Earths abundance
• In the upper right portion is a female figure with a tall horned headdress next to two large poles that are the sign of the goddess Inanna
• The greater height of the priest-king and Inanna compared with the offering bearers indicates their greater importance

Question 14

Image 2-11: Banquet scene, tomb of Pu-abi(tomb 800), Royal cemetery, Ur, Iraq, 2600-2400B.C. lapis lazuli, British Museum

Answer 14

• Made of stone seals of ivory, glass
• Flat stamp seals/Cylinder seals
• Signify high positions in society
• used both stamp and cylinder seals to identify their documents and protect storage jars and doors against unauthorized opening

Question 15

image 2-13: Victory stele of Naram-sin, from susa, iran, 2254-2218 B.C. Pink Sandstone, Musée du louvre, Paris

Answer 15

• the stele commemorates the Akkadian rulers defeat of Lullibi
• Two inscriptions in honor of Naram-sin and naming the Elamite king who captured Sippar in 1157B.C. and took the stele back to susa(s.w. Iran), the steles find spot
• sculpture created landscape setting and placed figures on successive tiers
• Artist rejected standard Mesopotamian format of telling a story using horizontal registers

Question 16

Image 2-15 The great Ziggurat of Ur, Ur, Iraq, 2100B.C.

Answer 16

• The most imposing extant Neo-Sumerian monument is the Ziggurat at Ur
• The Neo-Sumerians used baked bricks laid in bitumen, an asphalt like substance, for the facing of the entire monument.
• Dedicated to Nanna( moon god)
• Patron: Ur-Nammu( ruler)

Question 17

Image 2-16: Gudea Seated holding the plan of the temple, from Girau, Iraq, 2100B.C. Diorite, Musée du Louvre,Paris

Answer 17

• The numerous statues Gudea commissioned arenenduring testimony to his piety-and his wealth and pride
• All his portraits are polished diorite

Question 18

Image 2-17: Gudea standing, holding an overflowing water jar, from the temple of Geshtinanna, Girsu, Iraq, 2100B.C., Calcite, Musée du Louvre, Paris

Answer 18

• A central figure of the Neo-Sumerian age was Gudea of Lagash
• overflowing vessels symbolize the prosperity they bring to their people.

Question 19

Image 2-18: Stele with the laws of Hammurabi, from susa, Iran, 1780B.C., Basalt, Musée du Louvre, Paris

Answer 19

• Hammurabi formulated 300 laws for its people
• the god extends the rod and ring of authority
• Render judgments and enforce laws spelled out in the stele
• Judicial pronouncements inscribed in 3,500 lines of cuneiform characters.

Question 20

image 2-20: Lamassu, from citadel of sargon 2, Dur Sharrukin, Iraq, 720-705B.C., Limestone, Musée du Louvre, Paris

Answer 20

• man-headed winged bull served to ward off the kings enemies.
• Lamassu sculptures were partly in the round, but conceived them as high reliefs on adjacent sides of a corner
• Ancient sculptors insisted on complete views of animals
• Has five legs, two when seen from the front and four in profile view

Question 21

Image 2-23: Ashurbanipal hunting lions, relief from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, Nineveh, Iraq, 645-640B.C., Gypsum, British Museum, London

Answer 21

• Assyrians regarded prowess in hunting as a manly virtue on a par with success in warfare
• Portraying Ashurbanipals beastly foes as possessing his courage and nobility as well as the power to kill made the kings accomplishments that much grander

Question 22

-Image 2-25: Peropolis, Iran, 521-465B.C.

Answer 22

• Ceremonial and administrative
• A.T.G razed site to symbolize the destruction of Persian imperial power
• Persian royal buildings on a high plateu at persopolis included an audience hall with 36 columns topped by animal protomes

Question 23

Image 2-26: Columns with animal protomes, apadana in palace, persopolis, Iran, 521-465B.C.

Answer 23

• 36 columns made entirely of stone
• bases with palm leaves
• fluted shafts
• capitals and double vertical volutes
• Animal protomes

Question 24

Image 2-27: Persians and Medes, detail of the processional frieze on the eastside of the terrace of the apadana of the palace, persopolis, Iran, 521-465B.C., Limestone

Answer 24

• Royak guards
• Persian nobles and dignitaries
• Persian sculptures are more rounded and they project more from the background
• representatives of 20 nations bringing tribute to the persian king

Question 25

image 3-1: Back of the Palette of king Narmer, Hierakonpolis, Egypt, 3000-2920 B.C., Slate

Answer 25

• Portraying Narmer, a pharaoh of the the first of Egypts 31 dynasties, and commemorating the unification of the two previously independent kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt.
• The objective was to characterize the pharaoh as supreme and protected by the gods, isolated from and larger than an ordinary man, and solely responsible for the triumph over the enemy.

Question 26

Egypt and Egyptology:

Answer 26

• The backbone of Egypt was and still is the Nile river, supports all life in that ancient land.
• The Nile defined the cultures that developed along its banks
• The ability to read hieroglyphic inscriptions revolutionized the study of Egyptian civilization and art.

Question 27

Rosetta Stone:

Answer 27

• The stone bears an inscription in three sections:
  
  1. in greek, which napoleons team easily read.
  2. in demotic(late egyptian)
  3. formal hieroglyphic

Question 28

Egypt was divided geographically and politically:

Answer 28

Upper Egypt(South part of Nile Valley): A narrow tract of grassland that encouraged hunting.

Lower Egypt(North part of Nile Valley): rich soil of the Nile Delta islands promoted agriculture and animal husbandry.

The major finds of pre dynastic art come from Upper Egypt

Question 29

Image 3-2: Front of the Palette of King Narmer; Hierakonpolis, Egypt, 3000-2920, Slate.

Answer 29

• Narmers palette is an elaborate, formalized version of a utilitarian object the community used in the pre dynastic period to prepare eye make-up
• The intertwined necks of the animals may be a pictorial reference to Egypt’s unification.

Question 30

Significance of Egypt’s tombs:

Answer 30

Egyptian tombs provide the principle evidence for the historical reconstruction of Egyptian civilization.

Question 31

Image 3-3: Mastabas

Answer 31

A rectangular brick or stone structure with sloping sides erected over the underground burial chamber.

Question 32

Image 3-4: Imhotep, Djoser, Saqqarn, Egypt, 2630-2611 B.C.

Answer 32

-Djoser’s pyramid is a tomb, not a temple platform. and it’s dual function was to protect the mummified King and his possessions and to symbolize his absolute power.

Question 33

Image 3-5: Restored plan of the monetary precinct of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt, 2630-2611 B.C.

Answer 33

-Djoser’s pyramid stands near the center of an immense rectangular enclosure surrounded by a wall of white limestone 34 feet high and 5400 ft long.

Question 34

Image 3-6: Great pyramids, Gizeh, Egypt, Menkaure(2490-2472); Khafre(2520-2494); and Khufu(2551-2528 B.C.):

Answer 34

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