Aegean Art of the Cyclades

“From about 6,000 BCE, Cycladic artists used poor-quality local clay to make a variety of ceramic objects, including engaging ceramic figurines of humans and animals, as well as domestic and ceremonial wares. It was only after 3,000 years that they had begun to produce marble sculptures.” (Stockstad, 82)

The Cyclades had many supplies of fine and durable marble. Their sculptors used this stone to create figurines of humans, ranging from a couple of inches to 5 feet in height. It is assumed that these figurines were mainly made by female artists because most of the sculptures were female bodies.  An example of one of these figurines is a figure of a woman that is presented in a pose of strict symmetry. Her arms are folded just below her slightly protruding breasts, as if she is clutching her abdomen. Her neck is very long and the head is slightly tilted back with no facial features visible, except an elongated protruding nose. The body parts on this figurine are pared down to essentials, and some joints and junctures are indicated with incised lines. 

The sculptor of this artwork had carefully designed it by laying out the figurine with a compass and drawing three equally sized circles that are evenly spaced out. The first circle started at the top of the head and went down to the waist. The second circle was from the bottom of the neck and down to the knees. The third circle started at the waist and went all the way down towards the bottom of the feet. This made the figurine equally proportional when divided into three parts.

The sculpture of this Cycladic woman is one that might seem somewhat similar, but is in fact very different from the Woman from Willendorf figurine of the Upper Paleolithic period. The Willendorf figurine dates back from 24,000 BCE. Although it is believed to have been made by a female sculptor, like that of the Cycladic figurine, the Woman of Willendorf is much fatter and is more round that the skinny Cycladic figurine.

First of all, the Woman of Willendorf is carved from limestone. Its sculptor had exaggerated the figures female attributes by giving it enormous breasts, a big abdomen with a deep navel, wide hips and rounded buttocks and knees with solid thighs. The sculptor might have been trying to express the health and fertility of this woman figurine by emphasizing on those well-nourished body attributes.

Secondly, the folded arms on the Cycladic figurine abdomen seem to make her look shy and modest. On the contrary, the Woman of Willendorf’s arms are on top of her breasts, right below the neck, therefore exposing her large breasts and other female body parts, making her look very comfortable and unashamed of her body. The Willendorf figurine also looks a little provoking as if she is selling her body.

These few physical differences of the two figurines also indicate the difference of the two eras that they are from. During the Upper Peliothilic Period, a round woman was considered healthy and very attractive. The figurines of that time were emphasized in their roundness and sexuality, also showing that they are a symbol of fertility, like the Woman of Willendorf figurine. However, the sculptures of the Bronze Age women have been found almost exclusively in graves, like the Cycladic Woman figurine, making it seem as if they are mainly associated with death and burial of their owners.

Pyramids vs. Ziggurats

The ancient Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for their pharaohs and their queens. There were many amazing pyramids built in Gaza, but i will only talk about a couple that are the most famous and how these pyramids are similar and different from the ziggurats of the ancient Near East, both in their physical appearance and the function for which they were made. 

One of the earlier Egyptian pyramids built was the Step Pyramid of king Djoser. The pyramid's construction was in the form of a low mastaba tomb upon which extra levels were gradually added to give it a step-like appearance. Underneath the pyramid was a complex system of corridors with a burial chamber lined with pink granite, that goes about 28 meters underground. 

The second pyramid is more famous and is one of the greatest pyramids ever built. It is known as the Great Pyramid of Giza. The pyramid is located southwest of modern Cairo. It was built for king Khufu and was completed around 2550 BC. 

 

It is estimated that the Great Pyramid contains approximately 2,300,000 blocks of stone with an average weight of 2.5 tons each and some up to 15 tons. Its sides measure 230 meters in length. The structure that was once about 146.6 meters high, had become a little shorter after some of the outer casing had been removed to for building other building in Cairo during the Middle Ages. The design on the inside of the pyramid had also been changed during the pyramid's construction resulting in the burial chamber being relocated to a different location. One of its most spectacular features is the enormous sloping Grand Gallery. At the Gallery's top is a low corridor which leads into the King's Chamber, the walls of which are made of polished granite. A large granite sarcophagus is open and no burial goods have ever been found. To the east of the pyramid, some of the smooth basalt paving of the mortuary temple remains and the causeway which led to the river temple is now buried with the valley temple being under modern buildings. Small pyramids for queens are adjacent to the Great Pyramid, as are boat pits. Some believe that the purpose of the boats may have been to provide a way for the deceased king to travel through the underworld. 

The builders of pyramids were not slaves, like many people think, but rather they were Egyptian villagers and some were even permanent employees of the pharaoh. The graffiti on the walls of the pyramids indicates that at least some of these workers took pride in what they did and even came up with names for their teams. Like I had mentioned in the beginning, pyramids were built as tombs for pharaohs and their queens. The great pyramids were a sign of the deceased pharaohs' power and were meant to protect them in the afterlife. 

Ziggurats on the other hand were built by kings, not pharaohs. By building ziggurats, the king showed that he could perform more impressive religious deeds than the priesthood. Ziggurats are the Mesopotamian equivalent of the Egyptian pyramids, they are large artificial square mountains of stone and they are as ancient as the pyramids of Egypt. But there are two big differences between a pyramid and a ziggurat . A ziggurat was not a tomb but a temple, and ziggurats were built well into the Seleucid age, whereas the building of pyramids came to an end after c.1640 BC. Ziggurats are, briefly, temple towers.

The most famous ziggurat is the Tower of Babel (above) which is mentioned in the Biblical book of Genesis. It was built by many people of Babylon and dedicated to king Marduk. The height of the tower is believed to have been 2,484 meters. This aspect of Babylonian cosmology is echoed in the Biblical story, where the builders say "let us build a tower whose top may reach unto heaven". The king wanted to prove to the world that he can build a tower so high that it will reach the heavens and he will be like God.

Another famous ziggurat is Ziggurat of Ur. Built in 2100 BC by king Ur-Nammu in honor of the sun god. It is a rectangular shape with 3 staircases in the front which come together at the top at a gate. The front staircase is believed to have only been used by the higher priest to climb to the higher stages of the ziggurat. Archeologists believe that there was a temple on the highest terrace of the ziggurat. On either side of the main staircase was a buttress, a support built against the wall to make it stronger.

These are other physical differences between a zaggurat and a pyramid. Pyramids did not have an entrance on the top, but instead they had entrances on the bottom of pyramid and those lead down the stairs and corridors even deeper, Unlike the ziggurats which were meant to lead you up towards the heavens, not down. Also, pyramids had no temples, but they had tombs and their purpose was not for worshiping gods, but for protecting the dead and giving them access to the underworld.

Formal Analysis of Nanna Ziggurat

Sponsored by King Urnamu of Ur, 2112 BCE, Nanna Ziggurat is a magnificent, mud-brick building that was dedicated to the moon god Nanna.

The viewpoint suggeseted by this structure is from a frontal distance. The 3 sets of diagonal stairs, one in the front and one on either side of the building, lead the viewer's gaze and attention to the top, where they are coming together at an imposing entrance gate atop the first of three platforms. This structure doesn't seem like it wants the viewer to look at it from different angles and sides, instead it makes one want to go straight to the top and of it and see the surroundings from above.

The building is made of mud brick, which gives it an earthly color and makes the structure seem very ancient and dull in appearance. But the composition of the bricks, which are stacked on one another to form a block-like, rectangular looking shape with a base of 205 by 141 feet, gives the structure a very stable and powerful look.

This structure gives a great emphasis of volume when looked at directly from the front, especially with the grand staircase diagonally leading to the top and covering a great distance from front to back, also adding motion to the building. But as you look towards the sides of the building, they appear more flat and more two dimensional in appearance with no sense of motion at all, but rather a very stable look.

The surface structure of Nanna Ziggurat is very rough. Like i mentioned above, the texture and the color add to its roughness and war-like look that makes the structure look very powerful and undefeated. If there was more color added to the building, i think it would soften it and highlight some of the interesting parts, but at the same time, it will weaken the appearance of the structure. It is very interesting how This construction is so boring, and yet so powerful in appearance with some sense of movement at the staircase.