1340 BCE

• Caricaturized, cartoonish, androgynous spindly features, rounded stomach and hips, elongated face. 
• Pictured as a pharaoh (beard, tools, kilt, headdress)
• Non traditional new ways of representing body
• New look to relate himself to the sun disk god, Aten – religious revolution
• Has important political and social ramifications.  Revolutionary imagery embodies that

1330 BCE

• maintains stylistic affects of Akhenaten. Spindly proportions, stomach swollen, narrow hip and waist
  
  
• despite his brief rule, the finery in his tomb was incredibly detailed and wellmade, just reminds us how amazing more important tombs must have been 

-area between the two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates)
-very fertile area--first permanent settlements
-very open to attacks from enemy civilizations

-Sumer civilization 

• system of writing consisting of pictograms pressed into clay with a stylus. 2900 BCE
• latin for "wedgeshaped writing"

• squat stepped pyramids
•  may have been links to heavens

• 40-50 ft high...functioned as holy mountains

  
  

  
  

   

   

   

ruler of Babylon

creator of first law code

see later card for more info :)

Narmer Palate – 3150 BCE Ancient Egypt, Old Kingdom

• Pragmatic Scale
• Registers tell a narrative
• story told from bottom up
• mix of perspectives (frontal and aerial views)
• functional object
• Pharaoh’s power is represented by animals (bull, falcon)
• Representation of unification of upper and lower Egypt – Headdresses, falcon standing on papyrus flowers

Djoser Complex 2680 BCE Ancient Egypt, Saqqara. Old Kingdom 3^rd dynasty

• Staircase to the heavens designed by Imohtep
• Mastaba – low bench shaped tombs with sloping sides
• Has 5 step pyramid inside
• No inside – tomb chamber is underground under mastaba
• Outside buildings (sham palaces) were there for Pharaoh to please his Ka. Also used for festivities to praise him and to please him in order to bring agricultural success and wealth

Wall at Djoser Complex

• Flower at top of columns
• Held together by own weight
• carved into stone....not attached to wall but rather part of it

3 pyramids at Giza, 4^th dynasty, 2600 BCE

• Khufu (2600), Khafra (2570), Menkaure (2530)
• Old Kingdom
• Pyramids are aligned to cardinal points
• Point skyward to show connection to the heavens
• Airshafts align to visual links on certain days of year to important celestial bodies
• Imposes over landscape – control = power

Great Sphinx – Khafra 26^th century BCE, 4^th dynasty

• Pharaoh – lion element and magnitude are a tribute to him

Portrait of Khafra, 2570 BCE

• Ka statue
• Stiff and rigid pose
• Integrity of block is intact – solidity – visual metaphor of pharaonic rule
• Traditional clothing – kilt, headdress,  beard
• Ideal image – smooth, ageless, eternal
• • Horus (“brother”) perched on shoulders
  • Lion throne and decoration on sides – upper lower Egypt plants

Rahotep and Nofret 2580 BCE

• similar rigidity of Khafra statue – shows elite status (imitation of Pharaoh)
• not as well constructed
• social issues reflected in the construction (man is darker than woman)