• Key Dates /Locations
  • Neolithic
    (c. 9000- 4500/4000 BCE)
  • Jericho c 7000- 6000 BCE
  • Çatal Hüyük c 6000 - 5000 BCE
  • Mesopotamia (Modern Iraq)
  • Uruk
  • Uruk period c 3500- 3100 BCE (Uruk)
  • Sumer
  • Early Dynastic (Sites: Tell Asmar, Ur) c. 2800- 2300 BCE
  • Akkad
  • Akkad c. 2300-2100 BCE
  • Neo-Sumerian Site: Lagash) c. 2100 - 1900/1800 BCE
  • Babylon
  • Old Babylonian Period (Babylon) c. 1800-1600 BCE
  • Neo-Babylonian Period (Babylon) c. 612-539 BCE
  • Assyria
  • Assyrian Empire (Assur) c. 1300-612 BCE
  • Anatolia (Modern Turkey)
  • Hittite Empire
  • Hittite Empire (Site: Hattussas (modern Boghazkoy) c 1450-1200 BCE
  • Ancient Iran c. 5000-331 BCE
  • Achaemenid Persia
    559-331 BCE
    (Perseoplis (near modern Shiraz
  • Scythians (Modern Russia and Ukraine) 8th - 4th centuries BCE
  • c 539 - 331 BC BCE
  • Achaemenid Persians c 539 - 331 BC
  • Persians c 538 - 330 BC
  • Darius c 550- 486 BC
  • Xerxes 519- 465 BC
  • Overthrown by Alexander the Great (356-323) in 331 BC

  • General Terms
  • arch
  • armature
  • attribute
  • bas-relief
  • base
  • capital
  • citadel
  • column
  • cone mosaic
  • convention
  • crenellated
  • cuneiform
  • cyclopean construction
  • cylinder seal
  • facing
  • glaze
  • glyptic art
  • hierarchical proportions
  • impost block
  • inlaid
  • lamassu
  • lapis lazuli
  • load-bearing construction
  • pillar
  • plinth
  • provenience or provenance
  • register
  • shaft
  • stele
  • votive
  • Core Course Thematic Links
  • Artist Index
  • Movement Index
  •  

AAT-Chp. 2- Ancient Near East
c. 9000–300 B.C.

Reading

  • Art Through the Ages:Chapter 2:The Ancient Near East

 

Clay tablet with the pictograph text that preceded cuneiform, Jemdet Nasr, Iraq, c. 3000 B.C.


Stele inscribed with the Law Code of Hammurabi, Susa, (Iran), c. 1792 – 1750 B.C.
Detail of Stele with the Law Code of Hammurabi.5th century B.C.

Glossary

  • arch
  • armature
  • attribute
  • bas-relief
  • base
  • capital
  • citadel
  • column
  • cone mosaic
  • convention
  • crenellated
  • cuneiform
  • cyclopean construction
  • cylinder seal
  • facing
  • glaze
  • glyptic art
  • hierarchical proportions
  • impost block
  • inlaid
  • lamassu
  • lapis lazuli
  • load-bearing construction
  • pillar
  • plinth
  • provenience or provenance
  • register
  • shaft
  • stele
  • votive

Video Resources (where available)

These are good extra resources but are not required viewing and not on reserve at any of your local libraries.

  • Ancient Mesopotamia (10 min, 1976, Coronet/MTI)
  • Art in Ancient Lands, Part 1 (36 min, Clearvue)
  • Art of the Near East and Ancient Egypt (66 min, Clearvue)
  • Elements of Sculpture: Monuments, Temples and Tombs, filmstrip (15 min, Clearvue)
  • Iraq: Cradle of Civilization (60 min, 1992, VM)
  • Treasures of the British Museum: Sumer, Babylon, Assyria: The Wolves (26 min, FFTH)