Does The Craved Stone Ball's Purpose And Meaning?

Through further research, I have learned that this vase “depicts the heroes Achilles and Ajax playing a board game” (Two-Handled Jar with Achilles and Ajax).

The spherical form is decorated with engraved with stylistic depictions of animals in the legends originating from the tribes who where from the area she spent her formative years. Although “Eran” is made of metal, Dr. Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher has created many similar spheres out of ceramics. One such ceramic sphere is called “Moocheth, the Ibis Arough, the Emu Golpondon, the Ibis’s son”. These pieces make use of the beautiful, symmetrical, spherical form, which is an important symbol in Aboriginal culture, as it represents the Earth, fire, motherhood and unity. The spheres are decorated with engravings of animals. It also appears that she has applied some kind of glaze of oxide to the piece, and then washed it back, leaving darker lines in the engravings. Her artworks are powerful as they convey the narratives of her ancestors using stylistic designs and images, often depicting Australian

“wherein they used a wooden ball, about three inches diameter, and the instrument they moved it with was a strong staff about five feet long with a hoop net on the end of it, large enough to contain the ball.”

Sports, especially ones that involve a ball, are modern America’s favorite pastimes. Well, this was also true for the Mesoamerican people of the ninth century. While the event does not have a specific name, it is referred to as the Mesoamerican ballgame. Like basketball, this game was played on a long, rectangular court (Stokstad 405). The ball itself is said to be pretty heavy and rubber. Unlike basketball, the players wore protective gear because the actual sport of the game was to use everything but your hands to hit the ball. The object was to make it into the protruding stone goal, in which the ball would enter horizontally and not longitudinally. Some scholars suggest that perhaps the Mesoamerican ballgame was used in times of warfare,

The sculpture portrays the God of Harvest, Dionysus, with his loyal satyr follower, Pan. A considerable amount of detail when into the carving of Dionysus; the multiple grapevines in his hair, his ceremonial staff Thyrsus, the goatskins and the cup of wine he’s holding are all symbols of Dionysus. The composition is very asymmetrical, and creates a contrapposto arrangement, which is distinctly Grecian (Gardner). It was carved out of beautiful fine marble, which also had another purpose in the way of making this piece of art last for many years. Along with the tree trunk between the two men providing support at the base, and the elongated arms providing more structural stability. The God’s head is even reinforced by his hair to make sure the head doesn’t break off. This sculpture is visually and aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t serve a useful function, like textiles or furniture. Therefore, it is considered a figurative piece of art, which art that is very clearly modeled after real object or person(s), and is therefore representational

The artifact functions as a music box and was a prominent instrument during the Sumerian age and was most commonly used during funerals. In addition, since the piece of work was found in a royal tomb, one can further assume that it played a role in ancient funeral rites or banquets13. The Epic of Gilgamesh, explained earlier, could have also played a role in the development of this piece since it was a large part of literature in the Sumerian age. Even though the poem was written down hundreds of years after this plaque was created, it could be evidence for the first documentation of a long oral tradition13. Although there is no known patron of the work, it was most likely intended to be played and seen by an audience and give respect to the dead. In contrast, the Lapith Fighting a Centaur was apart of the Parthenon and had been widely known for centuries; it wasn’t a recent discovery. The relief, along with the 96 others on the building, depicts a legendary war between two factions. Even though these were mythic tales, they played a large role in Ancient Greek lives. The reliefs were created to most-likely educate the people of Greece about their gods and to recreate their religious

Through this mysterious act, one has to wonder why the boys are doing this, deliberately?  It only shows that the stones will play a role in the imminent future.

The ball was made of sticks and fur wrapped in deer skin. The shaft and head were made of sticks, and the netting was made of deer hide. To prepare for the

The ball game was played “for many reasons, including entertainment and competition. Because the losers were frequently sacrificed, ball games also served as a way to reenact wars with enemy peoples” (Foster, 2002, p.195). To play, the ball is kept in the air by hitting it with the hips, thighs or upper arms and bouncing it of the side walls. The use of the hands or feet was forbidden. The solid rubber ball was extremely hard and causes serious injuries. The ball game “participants wore padding on their forearms and knees as protection against the hard ball and even harder masonry surfaces of the ball courts” (Foster, 2002, p.195). To protect ribs and the torso players would wear a U-shaped belt or yoke. They were made out of leather or wicker. Hachas “were axlike stone implements shaped like animal, bird, or human heads and worn inserted in the belt” (Foster, 2002, p.195). It’s also said that “the motions of the ball were thought to parallel the motions of the sun, moon, and Venus as they rose through the sky and sank in the Underworld” (Foster, 2002, p.195). There’s a spiritual story associated with the ball game about the Hero Twins from the Popol

The symbolism behind the stones is clear; they are not only murder weapons, but the first tools ever made by men were made of stone, which denote the savage and violent customs of ancestors.

The masked ball sets the scene for the rest of the play. The idea of

The British Museum in London holds many ancient pieces of art. There are so many galleries and exhibits inside the museum that several pieces do not get the attention they deserve. One such piece resides in the Assyrian exhibit inside the museum. It is a collection of three alabaster panels that act as registers of a narrative story. The expertly carved reliefs illustrate the great lion hunt performed by an Assyrian king in an arena. So much emotion is portrayed in the brutal imagery of the lion hunt. These great alabaster slabs once resided in an Assyrian palace in present day Nineveh. The reliefs were excavated in the 1840’s by Hormuzd Rassam, employed by Austen Henry Layard of the British Museum. Rassum found the palace by secretly digging at night because the site was originally claimed by French archeologist Victor Place. Since the excavation, the lion hunt reliefs have been displayed in the British Museum. The lion hunt reliefs features so many qualities ranging from historical to artistic. In this report the topic of why the reliefs were made, how they represented the king, the symbolism of the lion, and artistic prowess of the piece will be exposed.

The reality is Mr. Ping-Pong or whoever he is, has enough money and power to get anything he desires, and we all know what he wants, so let’s just give him the stone.”

Balls back then were not like the tennis balls we know today. The balls were made of wood and the players would hit the ball into the wall with their bare hands until eventually it got so painful that they eventually incorporated leather gloves to take some of the pain away.

Ortega begins the article by explaining differences between man and stone. “The stone is given its existence; it need not fight for being what it is – a stone in the field. Man has to be himself in spite of unfavorable circumstances; that means he has to make his own existence at every single moment. He is given the abstract possibility of existing, but not the reality,” (Ortega 267) this is a strong claim to state but it is evident that man’s being and nature are not completely the same, “because man’s being and nature’s being do not fully coincide,” (Ortega 267). Man is not a rock; he is not given existence and cannot depend on the nature around him to define his existence. It is necessary for man to create his own existence at every moment, because without this created existence, although he is physically standing there, there is a real debate on whether or not he truly exists. This initial idea is broad, but with later thought it can be recognized that the stone was created and