Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Ancient Near East Art at the Met
The Cyrus Cylinder is a fragmented clay cylinder (9 in. x 4 in.) from ancient times (roughly 530 BC), which contains the dictates of the Persian king Cyrus, known as Cyrus the Great. The cylinder is made of baked clay, like a pot or an ancient tablet, and inscribed in the clay are the orders of the king, concerning the people of Babylon, whom he had recently conquered.
The purpose of the cylinder was to give praise to the king Cyrus, to show how his virtues marked him as an exemplary king, how he did much to improve the lives of the Babylonians, and how he allowed non-Babylonians (such as Jews) to return to their native lands.
The Cyrus Cylinder is important first of all as an historical artifact which has captured a time and place and allows us today to witness what life was like in ancient Babylon. It allows for a better understanding of the cuneiform script and tells us something about the values held dear to Cyrus and the way in which those values were communicated to others. It is also important in a historical sense because it corroborates another historical document -- the Bible -- concerning the exodus of the Jews from Babylon, back to their native land, whereat they set about rebuilding the Temple.
The Cyrus Cylinder is positive proof of a historical narrative set down by another people at another time. It is an artifact which acts as a piece of narrative evidence, by confirming the Biblical account of history, and which also confirms the imposition of Persian rule on the Near East in the 6th century BC.
Lagash Gudea Statue
The Statue of Gudea is a...
It is an incredibly ancient work of art, whose date is considered to be around 2090 BC -- which would mean that this statue is over 4000 years old.
The statue is the representation of Gudea, a king who ruled in Lagash following the reign of the Akkadians. Gudea took a strong interest in preserving the Sumerian culture and in rebuilding the religious temples that were so important to the culture's heritage and identity.
The purpose of the statue is evident in the words inscribed on it in the Sumerian language: "Gudea, the man who built the temple; may his life be long." The script is found in the king's robes and would have been easily read by those close to it. The statue is meant to preserve the memory of the king just as the king preserved the memory of Lagash and its heritage.
As a cultural artifact, the statue is important because it shows yet another glimpse of what it is to be human. Here, we see King Gudea, seated in a rather traditional pose representing good will and spiritual prayer. The king is humbling himself before God and before his subjects and before his ancestors: it is a valuable lesson not only for his people but also for us. We see the power that tradition and heritage and culture all have in generation, a time, and a place. This little state carries a lot of weight and a lot of meaning in terms of what humanity truly is.
The Boxer: An Ancient Masterpiece
Discovered in Quirinal Hill, this Hellenistic bronze sculpture dates from around the 3rd century BC. It is plated with copper to depict wounds…
At the same time, the presentation of his work, the lives of the community in which he lived and the way in which he succeeded in forming a family must be relevant for the actual depiction of the historical background, the environment, and the customs of the time. For instance, the fact that he was given to marry the elder daughter of the ruler of the land he had
civilization in the ancient Near East (3500-1000 B.C.E.) and the Mediterranean (1000 B.C.E. - 500 C.E.) shared a great number of similarities as well as numerous differences. These points of comparison covered the political, economic, and social realms, cultural and intellectual ideas, as well as values and institutions. Further, each civilization differed in their specific impact on the creation of Western civilization, and the degree of that impact. Civilization in
The use of physical suffering as a symbol for emotional and spiritual suffering is also well-known in the Western tradition. Centuries later, men and women would disappear into the desert in search of God. They would live apart from all human companionship, and deprive themselves of all physical comfort. Gilgamesh does the same. Gilgamesh is also like the lover who pines away for his beloved and wastes away in
Likewise, the dead were honored with elaborate preparation rituals to send them off into the next, permanent world of death. They were incased in enormous preservative monuments as well as several layers of coffins. Because of this elaborate nature of death ritual, and their focus on religious rituals, Egyptians were often credited by the Greeks for originating their religion, as "the Egyptians, they went on to affirm, first brought
Ancient Religion The first few millennia BCE were transformative times throughout the Near East. Ugaritic (Caanite), Biblical (Israelite), Hittite, Mesopotamian and Egyptian literature reveal common themes, shared motifs, and similar cultural norms and values in spite of the differences that distinguish each region from the other. Core themes that ancient Near Eastern sacred and allegorical literature reveals include the role of monarch as either divine or semi-divine; the strict gender roles
According to Bachhuber, the Myceaen Agean presence on the Uluburun ship pointed out an important connection between the Semetic and Aegean civilizations (Bachhuber). In addition to the Agean-Semetic connection, materials on the ship also came from Africa, including African woods like Ebony, Elephant tusks, and hippopotamus teeth, which were counted among the rarer items in the findings. Finally, tests of the raw copper found on the ship suggested that