The cradle of civilization -Mesopotamia,

‘Civilizations’ is an awe-inspiring, gorgeously conceived examination of how humans are intimately connected through time, space and culture by a deep, instinctual drive to create,” said Bill Gardner, Vice President, Programming and Development, PBS. 

The first depiction of individual human beauty? Carved from mammoth ivory, the Venus de Brassempouy is around 25,000 years old.

Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (in modern day Iraq), is often referred to as the cradle of civilization because it is the first place where complex urban centers grew.

The history of Mesopotamia, however, is inseparably tied to the greater region, which is comprised of the modern nations of Egypt, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, the Gulf states and Turkey. We often refer to this region as the Near or Middle East.

1.       Mesopotamia remains a region of plain geographical contrasts: vast deserts rimmed by rugged mountain ranges, punctuated by lush oases. Flowing through this topography are rivers and it was the irrigation systems that drew off the water from these rivers, specifically in southern Mesopotamia, that provided the support for the very early urban centers here.

Sumer (also known as Sumeria) was responsible for the earliest art of Antiquity. The Sumerians were the first civilizing people to settle in the lands of southern Mesopotamia, draining the marshes for agriculture, starting trade, and establishing new forms of ancient pottery along with crafts like weaving, leatherwork and metalwork.

 Sumerian civilization outshone all others within the region at the time - including Egyptian culture - due to their advanced laws, inventions and art. Sumerian culture flourished during the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE, before being overrun by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BCE.

The earliest known civilization of Mesopotamia grew up around Sumer, in the south of modern-day Iraq, from about 5,000 BCE. A series of cultures grew up, distinguished by their painted pottery. T-shaped houses at Tel as-Sawwan, while at Eridu, archeologists excavated a sequence of shrines - from an early mud-brick hut to an elaborate raised building with buttressed walls. These buttresses were both decorative and structural and became a feature of Sumerian architecture. Towards the end of the 4th millennium there was a series of cultural innovations; wheel-made pottery appears, as does monumental architecture characterised, at Uruk, by huge shrines with complex plans and elaborately niched walls, or with engaged or free-standing columns, studded with a mosaic of coloured clay cones in geometric patterns. At Uqair the whole temple was adorned with mural painting. Cylinder seals were carved with designs and these are our main source for the iconography of the different periods. In addition, we know that the first use of copper occurred in Sumer, as far back as 5,000, as did the first evidence of hieroglyphic writing systems (in 3,400), the first ever wheeled transport (in 3,200) and the first cuneiform script. All these cultural developments are clear indications of a literate, organized society. (c.4500-2270 BCE).

Mesopotamia eventually formed itself into two separate nations: in the north, Assyria; and in the south, Babylonia under Hammurabi (1792-1750). About 934 the Assyrians conquered Babylon, and by the time of Tiglath-Pileser III, they were the most powerful nation on earth, controlling Babylonia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Caucasus, North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean basin. After the fall of Babylon in 539, Mesopotamia became a province of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

Collections of Mesopotamian Art

Artworks from the ancient cultures of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Babylon, and the Neo-Assyrian Empire, can be found in the permanent collections of several of the world's best art museums of Antiquity.

- Samarra Plate (5000 BCE) Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin.
- Halaf Dishes (4900, Halaf Period) British Museum.
- Sialk Storage Jar (3500, Sialk III Period) Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
- Priest King, limestone statuette (3300, Uruk Period) Louvre, Paris.
- Warka Vase in alabaster (3200, Uruk Period) Iraq Museum, Bagdad.
- Kneeling Bull, silver figurine (3000, Proto-Elamite Period) Met Museum, NY.
- Lioness, limestone figurine (2900, Proto-Elamite Period) Brooklyn Museum.
- Sumerian Votive Statues, gypsum/limestone (2600) Iraq Museum, Bagdad.
- Imdugud Between Two Stags, copper relief (2500) British Museum.
- Standard of Ur, limestone, lapis lazuli mosaic (2500) British Museum.
- King of Akkad, copper head (2250, Akkadian Empire) Iraq Museum, Bagdad.
- Stele of Naram-Sin, limestone relief (2230, Akkadian Empire) Louvre, Paris.
- Gudea of Lagash, diorite bust (2075, Neo-Sumerian Period) Louvre, Paris.
- Ibex Bowl, bronze, gold, lapis lazuli (1970, Simashki Dynasty) Louvre, Paris.
- Queen of the Night, terracotta sculpture (1775, Babylonian Period) BM.
- Assyrian King & Attendants, polychrome tile (870, Assyrian Empire) BM.
- Lioness Devouring a Boy, ivory relief (800, Phoenician style) British Museum.
- Nimrud Bronze & Silver Bowl (800, Ashurnasirpal II Period) British Museum.
- Dying Lion, alabaster relief (635, Neo-Assyrian Empire) British Museum.
- Lion Relief from The Processional Way, Babylon (585) Louvre, Paris.

Sherdca. 5600–5000 B.C

Halaf pottery was made by hand and decorated with very finely executed designs in one or two colors. The surface of the finest pottery was then highly burnished and a glossy effect was achieved by the use of fluxes, which serve to lower the melting point of the pigments, in some cases accidentally achieving true glazes. This fragment of a thin walled vessel has the exterior painted with light and dark brown decoration consisting of a stylized bird in profile with back arched, a long neck, and a large circular head. A vertical zigzag pattern on the left and a dark brown band partly frame the bird. The rim edge has a horizontal band with vertical stripes.

Seal amulet in the form of a seated female and modern impression ca. 3300–2900 B.C.

This tiny but finely carved seal amulet is in the shape of a squatting female wearing a diadem. The single row of small cavities on the diadem, as well as those on her breasts and in her eye, were probably filled with inlay. Her head is shown in profile with a prominent nose. One visible arm rests on her torso, with her hand on a folded knee, while the other knee is held up. Similar squatting figures are known both on cylinder seals from Iran, Mesopotamia, and Syria and as small sculpture in the round from the Iranian site of Susa. Dating from the end of the late fourth into the early third millennium B.C., such depictions are today known as "pig-tailed women" and, although many appear to be engaged in pottery or textile manufacture, they may also have had some religious meaning, perhaps depicting a gesture of worship. The other side of the amulet may have been used as a seal to make an impression in damp clay. It is flat with eight groups of drill holes that possibly represent schematic dogs.

Proto-Cuneiform tablet with seal impressions: administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars

Of the many legacies left by the ancient civilizations of southern Mesopotamia, the invention of writing is paramount. At the end of the fourth millennium B.C., written language developed in the region, first as pictographs and then evolving into abstract forms called cuneiform. The pictographs, like the ones on this tablet, are called proto-cuneiform and were drawn in the clay with a pointed implement. Circular impressions alongside the pictographs represented numerical symbols. Cuneiform (meaning wedge-shaped) script was written by pressing a reed pen or stylus with a wedge-shaped tip into a clay tablet. Clay, when dried to a somewhat hardened state, made a fine surface for writing, and when fired the records written on it became permanent.

Early writing was used primarily as a means of recording and storing economic information. This tablet most likely documents grain distributed by a large temple, although the absence of verbs in early texts makes them difficult to interpret with certainty. In addition to the writing that appears on this tablet, the imagery of the cylinder seal, which was incompletely impressed on both faces and the edges of the tablet before it was inscribed, also records information. This seal apparently has not survived. The seal impression depicts a male figure guiding two dogs on a leash and hunting or herding boars in a reed marsh. He is the so-called priest-king, a male figure who can be identified by his dress and pose. Here he appears in his role as the good shepherd who protects flocks from wild predators.

Adapted from, Art of the Ancient Near East: A Resource for Educators (2010)

Standing male worshiper

ca. 2900–2600 B.C.

Sumerian

In Mesopotamia gods were thought to be physically present in the materials and experiences of daily life. Enlil, considered the most powerful Mesopotamian god during most of the third millennium B.C., was a "raging storm" or "wild bull," while the goddess Inanna reappeared in different guises as the morning and evening star. Deities literally inhabited their cult statues after they had been animated by the proper rituals, and fragments of worn statues were preserved within the walls of the temple.

This standing figure, with clasped hands and a wide-eyed gaze, is a worshiper. It was placed in the "Square Temple" at Tell Asmar, perhaps dedicated to the god Abu, in order to pray perpetually on behalf of the person it represented. For humans equally were considered to be physically present in their statues. Similar statues were sometimes inscribed with the names of rulers and their families.

Statue of Gudeaca. 2090 B.C.

Neo-Sumerian

The Akkadian Empire collapsed after two centuries of rule, and during the succeeding fifty years, local kings ruled independent city-states in southern Mesopotamia. The city-state of Lagash produced a remarkable number of statues of its kings as well as Sumerian literary hymns and prayers under the rule of Gudea (ca. 2150–2125 B.C.) and his son Ur-Ningirsu (ca. 2125–2100 B.C.). Unlike the art of the Akkadian period, which was characterized by dynamic naturalism, the works produced by this Neo-Sumerian culture are pervaded by a sense of pious reserve and serenity.

This sculpture belongs to a series of diorite statues commissioned by Gudea, who devoted his energies to rebuilding the great temples of Lagash and installing statues of himself in them. Many inscribed with his name and divine dedications survive. Here, Gudea is depicted in the seated pose of a ruler before his subjects, his hands folded in a traditional gesture of greeting and prayer.

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The Indus River Valley Civilizations!

The Indus River Valley Civilizations

The Indus River Valley Civilization, located in modern Pakistan, was one of the world’s three earliest widespread societies. The Indus Valley Civilization was one of the three “Ancient East” societies that are considered to be the cradles of civilization of the old world of man, and are among the most widespread; the other two “Ancient East” societies are Mesopotamia and Pharonic Egypt. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were thought to be the two great cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, emerging around 2600 BCE along the Indus River Valley in the Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan

Key Points

• The Indus Valley Civilization (also known as the Harappan Civilization) was a Bronze Age society extending from modern northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India.

·    The lifespan of the Indus Valley Civilization is often separated into three phases: Early Harappan Phase (3300-2600 BCE), Mature Harappan Phase (2600-1900 BCE) and Late Harappan Phase (1900-1300 BCE).

• Inhabitants of the ancient Indus River valley developed new techniques in handicraft, including Carnelian products and seal( seal: An emblem used as a means of authentication. Seal can refer to an impression in paper, wax, clay, or other medium). It can also refer to the device used. carving, and metallurgy (metallurgy: The scientific and mechanical technique of working with bronze. copper, and tin.) with copper, bronze, lead, and tin.
• Sir John Hubert Marshall led an excavation campaign in 1921-1922, during which he discovered the ruins of the city of Harappa. By 1931, the Mohenjo-daro site had been mostly excavated by Marshall and Sir Mortimer Wheeler. By 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements of the Indus Civilization were located.

Indus Valley Civilization Sites: This map shows a cluster of Indus Valley Civilization cities and excavation sites along the course of the Indus River in Pakistan.

Indus Valley Civilization

At its peak, the Indus Valley Civilization may had a population of over five million people. It is considered a Bronze Age society, and inhabitants of the ancient Indus River Valley developed new techniques in metallurgy—the science of working with copper, bronze, lead, and tin. They also performed intricate handicraft, especially using products made of the semi-precious gemstone Carnelian, as well as seal carving— the cutting
of patterns into the bottom face of a seal used for stamping. The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large, non-residential buildings.

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro

The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization. There were earlier and later cultures, often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan, in the same area of the Harappan Civilization.

Until 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still un deciphered. A relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favored by a section of scholars.

Harappa was a fortified city in modern-day Pakistan that is believed to have been home to as many as 23,500 residents living in sculpted houses with flat roofs made of red sand and clay. The city spread over 150 hectares (370 acres) and had fortified administrative and religious centers of the same type used in Mohenjo-daro.

Harappa was a fortified city in modern-day Pakistan that is believed to have been home to as many as 23,500 residents living in sculpted houses with flat roofs made of red sand and clay. The city spread over 150 hectares—370 acres—and had fortified administrative and religious centers of the same type used in Mohenjo-daro.

Mohenjo-daro is thought to have been built in the twenty-sixth century BCE; it became not only the largest city of the Indus Valley Civilization but one of the world’s earliest major urban centers. Located west of the Indus River in the Larkana District, Mohenjo-daro was one of the most sophisticated cities of the period, with advanced engineering and urban planning.

Cock-fighting was thought to have religious and ritual significance, with domesticated chickens bred for religion rather than food (although the city may have been a point of origin for the worldwide domestication of chickens

Excavated Ruins of Mohenjo-daro: The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, a city in the Indus River Valley Civilization.

The population of the Indus Valley Civilization may have once been as large as five million. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro: Two of the major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization during the Bronze Age

The remains of the Indus Valley Civilization cities indicate remarkable organization; there were well-ordered wastewater drainage and trash collection systems, and possibly even public granaries and baths. Most city-dwellers were artisans and merchants grouped together in distinct neighborhoods. The quality of urban planning suggests efficient municipal governments that placed a high priority on hygiene or religious ritual.

Infrastructure

Individual homes drew water from wells, while waste water was directed to covered drains on the main streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes, and even the smallest homes on the city outskirts were believed to have been connected to the system, further supporting the conclusion that cleanliness was a matter of great importance.

Authority and Governance

The extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artifacts is evident in pottery, seals, weights, and bricks with standardized sizes and weights, suggesting some form of authority and governance.

Harappan Culture

The Indus River Valley Civilization, also known as Harappan, included its own advanced technology, economy, and culture.

riting, and religion.

Technology

The people of the Indus Valley, also known as Harappan (Harappa was the first city in the region found by archaeologists), achieved many notable advances in technology, including great accuracy in their systems and tools for measuring length and mass.

Art

Indus Valley excavation sites have revealed a number of distinct examples of the culture’s art, including sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite—more commonly known as Soapstone.

Among the various gold, terracotta, and stone figurines found, a figure of a “Priest-King” displayed a beard and patterned robe. Another figurine in bronze, known as the “Dancing Girl,” is only 11 cm. high and shows a female figure in a pose that suggests the presence of some choreographed dance form enjoyed by members of the civilization. Terracotta works also included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. In addition to figurines, the Indus River Valley people are believed to have created necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments.

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Trade and Transportation

The civilization’s economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology. The Harappan Civilization may have been the first to use wheeled transport, . It also appears they built boats and watercraft—a claim supported by archaeological discoveries of a massive, dredged canal, and what is regarded as a docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal.

Writing

Harappans are believed to have used Indus Script, a language consisting of symbols. A collection of written texts on clay and stone tablets unearthed at Harappa, which have been carbon dated 3300-3200 BCE, contain trident-shaped, plant-like markings. This Indus Script suggests that writing developed independently in the Indus River Valley Civilization from the script employed in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.

The “Shiva Pashupati” seal: This seal was excavated in Mohenjo-daro and depicts a seated and possibly ithyphallic figure, surrounded by animals.

Religion

It has been widely suggested that the Harappans worshipped a mother goddess who symbolized fertility. In contrast to Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, the Indus Valley Civilization seems to have lacked any temples or palaces that would give clear evidence of religious rites or specific deities. Some Indus Valley seals show a swastika symbol, which was included in later Indian religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

Disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization declined around 1800 BCE due to climate
change and migration.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Discuss the causes for the disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization

The Aryan Invasion Theory (c. 1800-1500 BC)

The Indus Valley Civilization may have met its demise due to invasion. According to one theory by British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, a nomadic, Indo-European tribe, called the Aryans, suddenly overwhelmed and conquered the Indus River Valley.

Wheeler, who was Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1944 to 1948, posited that many unburied corpses found in the top levels of the Mohenjo-daro archaeological site were victims of war. The theory suggested that by using horses and more advanced weapons against the peaceful Harappan people, the Aryans may have easily defeated them.

Other scholarship suggests the collapse of Harappan society resulted from climate change. Some experts believe the drying of the Saraswati River, which began around 1900 BCE, was the main cause for climate change, while others conclude that a great flood struck the area.

The Harappans may have migrated toward the Ganges basin in the east, where they established villages and isolated farms.

These small communities could not produce the same agricultural surpluses to support large cities. With the reduced production of goods, there was a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia. By around 1700 BCE, most of the Indus Valley Civilization cities had been abandoned.

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Definition of Aesthetics!

Definition of Aesthetics

The word aesthetics is Greek in original and means perception.

There are several definitions for the aesthetics. 

1. Plato believed in the beauty of nature and the beauty of geometry, line and circle some like beauty something spiritual with the source of the soul.
2. Aristotle gave objective sense to beauty. that is  personal creativity is important and architect becomes means of the expression of beauties of mathematics on the basis of harmony, symmetry and order.
3. Peter Smith believes on three levels for aesthetic values; Fashion, design styles in different cultural periods, and aesthetic-cognitive core values that these three levels are changed over time according to the circumstances..

1. The Aim Of Aesthetics?

• Sigmund Freud consider the goal of beauty as enjoyment of art and the emotional relief.

• According to Theodor Adorno, aesthetic behavior is the ability to understand the object .
• According to information theory, that tries to explain the beauty with mathematical language, aesthetic sense is achieved when the mind is able to detect a relative order, in a series of apparently non-regular and confused provocations

George Santayana classifies the aesthetics into three

Ø  1) sensory, 2)form and 3)symbolic aesthetics

Sensory aesthetics analysis are strongly internal and subjective. The issue of form aesthetics is the role and effect of shapes, proportion, rhythm, scale, complexity, color and other elements of the built environment. Symbolic aesthetic is deal with the pleasure from people's mental history and mentality of the configuration and characteristics of the built environment. 

Form

Form is the perceptible characteristic and identity of an object. Form is the manifestation of its constituent factors.It has in creating space, it has many main aspects. 

• The first is the aesthetic of form that the appearance and characteristics of form  
• The second is the relation of form and function and its effect on formation process of form and
• the third is the mean and content of form. 

Form is a mean that is mostly used for the expression of a symbolic concept and can express different meanings. Ability and capability to convert a subjective matter to form or in other words, to convert the idea to shape and form is one of the important parts in design process. 

According to Frank Lloyd Wright, beauty is a manifestation of the principled proportionality as line, form and color. According to the definitions Rudolf Arnheim expresses in his book The Dynamics of Architectural Form can have principles such as order, harmony, symmetry, proportionality, balance, unity, etc. Wright  mentions the legality of order, balance and unity in nature as the aesthetic factors.

Visual Characteristics of Form

The visual characteristics of form include visual shape, size, color, texture, place, direction and balance.. For example, the application of line in the external form of a building can create special visual effects. 

"Shape is called as the distance line of a visible surface or environment of a volume and the main means of detecting and identifying form of object.

" Length, width and height of form that are called dimensions, define the size and proportions of form.

The other characteristic of form is color. Strength of colors is hidden in their own characteristics. These characteristics are in the colors’ darkness and clarity, coldness and warmth, saturation and level of surfaces area. Texture is presented in architecture by choosing different materials.

Francis Ching introduces texture as the characteristic of the faces of form and knows it effective on the kind of the viewer’s feeling and light reflection.

Visual balance is a characteristic of form that expresses its stability or suspension. In fact, the balance is an equivalent perceived manner. This balance include stability and is applied in creating the sense of security and calmness. 

The Effect of Form in Aesthetics

The expression of contents using the visual forms is simpler than the spoken and written language. Since understanding the visual forms is easy one. For example, sometime, just seeing is enough to understand its function and gives us the necessary information to evaluate and understand it. As example, the proportionate of the windows, position of the entrance, ornamental elements, style, material and skyline of the building in an urban environment are among the characteristics that are constituent of unity or lack of unity and integration of a street, neighborhood or region. 

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What Is Perspective in Art?

Perspective is an art technique for creating an illusion of three-dimensions (depth and space) on a two-dimensional (flat) surface. Perspective is what makes a painting seem to have form, distance, and look "real." The same rules of perspective apply to all subjects, whether it's a landscape, seascape, still life, interior scene, portrait, or figure painting.

Perspective in Western art is often called linear perspective and was developed in the early 15th century. 

Viewpoint is the spot (point) from which you, the artist, is looking at  the scene. Linear perspective is worked out according to this viewpoint.

Vanishing lines are imaginary lines used to create accurate perspective in a painting. They are drawn on the top and bottom horizontal edges of an object, along the object and then extended to the horizon line. For instance, on a building, there would be a vanishing line along the top of the roof and the bottom of the wall(s). For a window, the top and bottom of the frame.

What’s an aesthetic perspective?

Aesthetic Perspectives themes will enable students to: Aerial or Atmospheric Perspective

What  Is  a  Vanishing  Point In Art?

The horizon is set at an infinite distance where two parallel lines converge. The converging point is called the vanishing point.

The number of vanishing points determines the characteristics of different types of perspective drawing techniques, one point, two point, and three point perspective technique

The Perspective Technique

Perspective technique is devised to draw three space onto the two dimensional flat plane. It is a technique to systematically draw the appearance of objects which diminish and converge as the distance increases from the viewer.

Three basic types of perspective –

one-point, two-point, and three-point -- refer to the number of vanishing points used to create the perspective illusion

One-point perspective consists of a single vanishing point and recreates the view when one side of the subject, such as a building, sits parallel to the picture plane

• The simplest way to see this is in a one-point perspective drawing. In it, all of the horizontal and vertical lines of the primary plane run straight with the paper. The lines that move away from us, the sides of boxes, the road we are on, or the railway lines in front of us, converge towards the center of the picture. These are called orthogonal lines, a term derived from mathematics. The center point is the vanishing point.

Two-point perspective

Two-point perspective uses one vanishing point on either side of the subject, such as a painting in which the corner of a building faces the viewer. Two-point perspective is the most commonly used.

• 

• In two-point perspective, our subject is angled so that each of the two sides, left and right, have their vanishing point..

1. Three-point perspective works for a subject viewed from above or below. Three vanishing points depict the effects of perspective occurring in three directions.
2. 
   

In a three-point perspective, each of the vanishing points can be even more extreme. This leads to a problem about where to place your vanishing points for reference.Artists have a few tricks to help them solve this issue. Many who have a great deal of experience simply imagine where their vanishing points are. This, however, comes with years of practice and a great understanding of correct perspective.

• 1.  Identify and describe the emotional, intellectual, psychological, and/or kinesthetic effects of their interactions with various forms of creative expression
• 2.      Analyze the structural components of various forms of creative expression
• 3.      Interpret forms of creative expression within various theoretical frameworks
• 4.      Analyze how products of creative expression reflect, respond to, and shape their social, religious, political, and/or intellectual contexts
• 5.      Analyze how cultural and personal aesthetic criteria affect the processes of creation and interpretation

 http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/html/10.11648.j.ijsts.s.2015030201.33.html

NON LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

The techniques provide visual effects which break the laws of the traditional linear perspective technique. The curvilinear projection technique is shown to be a visual simulation of lens distortions. The inverse perspective projection technique is introduced which reverses the effects of perspective technique

A wide variety of visual expression possible through the nonlinear perspective projection techniques, which enrich the visual work of computer graphics artists and designers

https://www.liveabout.com/definition-of-perspective-2577690

 

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