Ancient Egyptian Greek and Roman Stele Essay

In the ancient Mesopotamia, the purpose of art is to exhibit political power and to tell a story or a visual narrative. One of the many visual arts that the ancient people used is a stele. In addition, a stele is a massive standing marker stone , its purpose is to commemorate a significant person, event or achievement. Furthermore, the two empires of Mesopotamia: the Akkadian and Babylonian, both erected steles that showed their differences in culture and beliefs.

The Greeks took care of the dead by washing them, putting them in tombs, and bringing offerings to their grave. The women’s role was to wash and wrap the dead bodies in cloth. They also decorated them with flowers and herbs. The men dug the area in which the body was to be buried. On this first piece of pottery, it looks like people are walking as if they were in a funeral procession. Women are surrounding the dead person and men are following the women. The pottery has a top that looks like a funnel which comes down and narrows out into a long neck. At the bottom of the long neck it starts to get wider and forms a shape that looks like a vase. The vase sits on a very small pedestal. On the sides of the narrow neck there are two handles that look like very long and thin wings. On the neck of the pot, there is one women standing there. The design above her head looks like a wreath. She looks like she is crying over a body. She is on top of everything that is on the pottery which leads me to conclude that she is an important part of this piece. The dead person may have been her son or husband. At the bottom of the pottery there is a design that looks like black spikes. The pot is entirely black with the picture in gold paint. This pot was called a Loutrophoros. It was used for holding water to wash the dead body. After the body was buried, the Greeks put offerings on the graves of the people who have passed away. This next

1. "Grave stele of a little girl [Greek]" (27.45) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.

This paper is a formal analysis of the Marble grave stele with a family group relief sculpture. It is a pentelic marble style relief standing at 171.1cm tall carved by a master. It is from the Late Classical period of Greek, Attic which was completed around ca.360 B.C. . I chose to analyze this piece as apposed to the others because I’m mainly attracted to art and sculptures from the Greek era. The overall color used in this relief is ivory with a few cracks and pieces broken off. There is some discoloration which causes the color to come off as slightly light brown for most of the relief. The sculpture appears larger compared to the other sculptures in the art room. It represents a family which includes a man, his wife, and their

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin is a relief sculpture and was created in 2,200 B.C.E it is 6 feet high, so it is huge. The subject only includes men, and they are dressed for battle. This particular artwork was an illustration of Naram-Sin with his army and how his “enemies [would] fall, flee, die, or beg for mercy” (Kleiner 41). Naram-Sin is the largest figure, about twice the size of the other figures. In addition, he has a helmet with horns and weapons. There is a background in this relief, and it includes a mountain with a tree and there are two stars.

Ancient Egypt was a captivating and intricate civilization. Over the years, historians have found it easier to study this civilization, rather than other historical civilizations, because the Egyptians went through great lengths to record their history. Besides being decent record keepers, they were very religious, and “ahead of their time,” due to their technological and economic breakthroughs. Because of the aspects of this culture, it has to be one of the greatest civilizations of the world.

Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece both believed in life after death, though the process in which they follow that belief differ greatly. The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the spirit leaves the body in the form of a little gust of wind or a puff of breath. The Greeks believed in proper burial rights that were performed in three parts, and the relatives mostly women are the ones that conduct these rituals for the deceased. Much like the modern world these rituals consist of the first step; laying out the body to be dressed, the second funeral procession, and the third step was the cremation of the body. Unlike the Greeks the Egyptians developed a process in which they prepared and preserved the dead for the afterlife, known as mummification. This process is believed to have been the purpose of the Egyptians famous pyramids, believed to be the stairs that would lead the Pharaohs to their kingdom in the afterlife. Artifacts are buried in their tombs such as gold, wine, and sculptures to accompany the dead in life after death.

The Stele of Prince Ankh-nef-nebu was found at the site of Deir El-Bahari, the same compound that housed the 11th Dynasty Mortuary Complex and 18th Dynasty temple. The Stele of Prince Ankh-nef-nebu was found before 1925 and belongs to the Egyptian (New Kingdom) period. It is made of limestone and has traces of polychrome paint. The Stele’s dimensions are 12 x 8 x 3 in. It is currently located at the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The death-head designs did change over time, but this was to more “soften” and lessen the, so-to-say, fear associated with the death-head. When Deetz discussed gravestone epitaphs, he noted that original phrases, such as “here lies the body of,” is due to earlier markers being a marker. The later phrases, such as “sacred to the memory of…,” was because gravestones were being used more as in memoriam sites with a person being underground, in an urn by the stone, or used as a cenotaph for someone who is elsewhere. One of the last things Deetz mentions to us is that some of these “specialized craftsmen” really were not full-time specialists, but men that held jobs working with stones for the general public. However, even with these “specialists” not always being specialists, each carver had their own unique style to them. They, also, used specific types of stones. These specific stones are very helpful in determining the carver if they did not provide a signature because the stone would be unique to a certain geographic area. As you went out from the town, the stone type would gradually fade away, numerically, and other types of stones would come into play. Eventually, the sphere of influence of the maker would dissipate, and another

A stele is a monument that is composed of a single column typically erected to present an important event or person. Here is the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin (2254–2218 B.C.E), who was the last great king of the Akkadian Empire and grandson of Sargon the Great, the founder of the empire. Naram-Sin's title was "King of the Four Quarters" meaning "Ruler of the World." The stele was intended to commemorate the king’s defeat of the Lullubi people in the mountains of present-day Iran. The intention of this work, however, is not only to commemorate an important battle but to show Naram-Sin’s power. Due to the hierarchy of scale it can be seen that Neram-Sin is the most important figure in the piece. He is standing victorious on the top of the mountain

In ancient Egypt, food offerings were made to the dead. In ancient Greece, pictures of feasts and their favorite things along with food were offered. The overall funeral between the two cultures was very similar in the way things were conducted, however grievers were different. In ancient Greece, people wore black robes and women cut their cheeks and hair to show their grief. In ancient Egypt, people showed their grief through the floral collars they wore . While the beliefs of the afterlife and funerals don’t differ tremendously between the two places, the way they handled the actual body did. In ancient Greece, they buried the dead so the dead who had good hearts would be ensured to make it to the good parts of the afterlife. In ancient Egypt, they used their advanced technologies to preserve bodies through mummification, so the dead could come out of the dead to accept offerings and essentially live forever. Sometimes, afterlife religious practices involved sacrifices which were found in different parts of life leading to the next idea.

Among the many artworks I have seen, I decided to discuss about the “Sarcophagus Depicting a Battle between Soldiers and Amazons (Warrior Women)” from the Roman civilization. It was built sometime in between 140 A.D. to 170 A.D and is approximately forty and a half inches in length, ninety-one and a half inches in width, and fifty and a half inches tall in height (“Roman Sarcophagus”). This masterpiece appealed to me because of the unique approach that has been designed to honor the deceased. Many people are familiar with the formatting and inscriptions of a gravestone because it is usually engraved with an individual’s full name, birth date, and death date. During the Roman Empire, a sarcophagus, which is a coffin, was widely used to show decorative themes that includes: battle scenes, hunting scenes, weddings, or other memorable episodes from the life of the deceased individual. The most luxurious ones were made from marble surrounded by symbolic sculptures, figures and inscriptions on all four sides (“Sarcophagus”). Another feature that captured my attention was the large quantity of details used to bring out a lifelike aspect of the deceased individual’s favorable moments in their life. In this artwork, this sarcophagus was dedicated to a Roman commander. The exterior of the sarcophagus has been well-decorated and carved with exquisite details depicting a battle scene

The Hagia Triada sarcophagus was from Crete, Greece ca. 1450-1400 B.C.E. It was fond on a coffin decorating it sides. The panting displays the funerary rituals from the Minoan period. There are two events happening in the painting, on the left there is a woman pouring a liquid into

Stelaes are writing tablets. They are often made out of stone. The Kings would erase or destroy them so

The Sarcophagus with reclining couple from the Banditaccia necropolis, Cerveteri, Italy, ca. 520 BCE portrays the subjects in their ideal state of life. It functions as a prime example of the extravagant Etruscan depiction of death and the deceased. The man and