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179-638: There are different degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the sculpted form from the field, for which the Italian and French terms are still sometimes used in English. The full range includes high relief (Italian alto-rilievo , French haut-relief ), where more than 50% of the depth is shown and there may be undercut areas, mid-relief (Italian mezzo-rilievo ), low relief (Italian basso-rilievo , French: bas-relief ), and shallow-relief (Italian rilievo schiacciato ), where

358-639: A ceramic glaze known as faience , which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a full system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian - Akkadian civilization of Mesopotamia and of ancient Elam . The third-century   BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped

537-469: A corvée system. Artists and craftsmen were of higher status than farmers, but they were also under state control, working in the shops attached to the temples and paid directly from the state treasury. Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, known as the "white kilt class" in reference to the bleached linen garments that served as a mark of their rank. The upper class prominently displayed their social status in art and literature. Below

716-708: A mud-brick wall, using lead dowels and clamps, with the bottoms resting on a bed of bitumen . For some reliefs an "attractive fossiliferous limestone " is used, as in several rooms in the South-West Palace at Nineveh. In contrast to the orthostats, the lamassu were carved, or at least partly so, at the quarry, no doubt to reduce their enormous weight. The alabaster stone is soft but not brittle, and very suitable for detailed carving with early Iron Age tools. There can be considerable differences in style, and quality, between adjacent panels, suggesting that different master carvers were allocated these. Probably

895-417: A nomarch , who was accountable to the vizier for his jurisdiction. The temples formed the backbone of the economy. Not only were they places of worship , but were also responsible for collecting and storing the kingdom's wealth in a system of granaries and treasuries administered by overseers , who redistributed grain and goods. Much of the economy was centrally organized and strictly controlled. Although

1074-463: A "frame" at the original level around the edge of the relief, or place a head in a hemispherical recess in the block (see Roman example in gallery). Though essentially very similar to Egyptian sunk relief, but with a background space at the lower level around the figure, the term would not normally be used of such works. It is also used for carving letters (typically om mani padme hum ) in the mani stones of Tibetan Buddhism . Sunk relief technique

1253-444: A balanced relationship between people and animals was an essential element of the cosmic order; thus humans, animals and plants were believed to be members of a single whole. Animals, both domesticated and wild , were therefore a critical source of spirituality, companionship, and sustenance to the ancient Egyptians. Cattle were the most important livestock; the administration collected taxes on livestock in regular censuses , and

1432-607: A brief but spirited resurgence in the economy and culture, but in 525   BC, the Persian Empire, led by Cambyses II , began its conquest of Egypt, eventually defeating the pharaoh Psamtik III at the Battle of Pelusium . Cambyses II then assumed the formal title of pharaoh, but ruled Egypt from Iran, leaving Egypt under the control of a satrap . A few revolts against the Persians marked the 5th century   BC, but Egypt

1611-434: A charging lion. But these were apparently experiments that remain unusual. The king is often shown in narrative scenes, and also as a large standing figure in a few prominent places, generally attended by winged genies. A composition repeated twice in what is traditionally called the "throne-room" (though perhaps it was not) of Ashurbanipal's palace at Nimrud shows a "Sacred Tree" or " Tree of Life " flanked by two figures of

1790-710: A confident, eloquent style. The relief and portrait sculpture of the period captured subtle, individual details that reached new heights of technical sophistication. The last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III , allowed Semitic -speaking Canaanite settlers from the Near East into the Delta region to provide a sufficient labor force for his especially active mining and building campaigns. These ambitious building and mining activities, however, combined with severe Nile floods later in his reign, strained

1969-542: A cornerstone in the history of human civilization. Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of Northern Africa had become increasingly hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the river region. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times,

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2148-675: A drill rather than chisels , enabling and encouraging compositions extremely crowded with figures, like the Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus (250–260 CE). These are also seen in the enormous strips of reliefs that wound around Roman triumphal columns . The sarcophagi in particular exerted a huge influence on later Western sculpture. The European Middle Ages tended to use high relief for all purposes in stone, though like Ancient Roman sculpture , their reliefs were typically not as high as in Ancient Greece. Very high relief re-emerged in

2327-647: A few larger caskets like the Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264) in Baltimore , Maryland , in the United States. Originally they were very often painted in bright colours. Reliefs can be impressed by stamps onto clay, or the clay pressed into a mould bearing the design, as was usual with the mass-produced terra sigillata of Ancient Roman pottery . Decorative reliefs in plaster or stucco may be much larger; this form of architectural decoration

2506-546: A gem seal, perhaps as sculptors trained in the Greek tradition attempted to use traditional Egyptian conventions. Small-scale reliefs have been carved in various materials, notably ivory , wood, and wax. Reliefs are often found in decorative arts such as ceramics and metalwork ; these are less often described as "reliefs" than as "in relief". Small bronze reliefs are often in the form of "plaques" or plaquettes , which may be set in furniture or framed, or just kept as they are,

2685-640: A large proportion of the survivals of portable secular art from Late Antiquity . In the Gothic period the carving of ivory reliefs became a considerable luxury industry in Paris and other centres. As well as small diptychs and triptychs with densely packed religious scenes, usually from the New Testament , secular objects, usually in a lower relief, were also produced. These were often round mirror-cases, combs, handles, and other small items, but included

2864-536: A large standing portrait of the king of the day, pointing at symbols of the gods, similar in pose to those in palace reliefs, surrounded by a round-topped frame. Similar figures of kings are shown in rock reliefs , mostly around the edges of the empire. Those shown being made on the Balawat Gates are presumably the ones surviving in poor condition near the Tigris Tunnel . The Assyrians probably took

3043-576: A large-scale building campaign to promote the god Amun , whose growing cult was based in Karnak . They also constructed monuments to glorify their own achievements, both real and imagined. The Karnak temple is the largest Egyptian temple ever built. Around 1350   BC, the stability of the New Kingdom was threatened when Amenhotep IV ascended the throne and instituted a series of radical and chaotic reforms. Changing his name to Akhenaten , he touted

3222-531: A lion, the form of the feet being the main difference. Prominent pairs of lamassu were typically placed at entrances in palaces, facing the street and also internal courtyards. They were "double-aspect" figures on corners, in high relief, a type earlier found in Hittite art . From the front they appear to stand, and from the side, walk, and in earlier versions have five legs, as is apparent when viewed obliquely. Lamassu do not generally appear as large figures in

3401-524: A major divinity. All these have standing poses, though seated statues were already known in Mesopotamian art, for example about a dozen statues of Gudea , who ruled Lagash c. 2144 – 2124 BC. Like other Near-Eastern cultures, the Assyrians erected stelae for various purposes, including marking boundaries. Many just carry inscriptions, but there are some with significant relief sculpture, mostly

3580-547: A new palace, no one else could meddle with it, and thus,... I had secured it for England". The new palace took until 1855 to clear, being finished by the Assyrian Exploration Fund , established in 1853 to dig for the benefit of British collections. Although it was not yet realized, by "the close of excavations in 1855, the hectic Heroic Age of Assyrian archaeology ended", with the great majority of surviving Assyrian sculpture found. Work has continued up to

3759-507: A palace storeroom near reliefs, but they came from around the Mediterranean, with relatively few made locally in an Assyrian style. The palace reliefs were fixed to the walls of royal palaces forming continuous strips along the walls of large halls. The style apparently began after about 879 BC, when Ashurnasirpal II moved the capital to Nimrud , near modern Mosul in northern Iraq . Thereafter, new royal palaces, of which there

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3938-576: A period of economic and cultural renaissance known as the Middle Kingdom . The kings of the Middle Kingdom restored the country's stability and prosperity, thereby stimulating a resurgence of art, literature, and monumental building projects. Mentuhotep II and his Eleventh Dynasty successors ruled from Thebes, but the vizier Amenemhat I , upon assuming the kingship at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty around 1985   BC, shifted

4117-508: A piece of papyrus or an ostracon . A combination of favorable geographical features contributed to the success of ancient Egyptian culture, the most important of which was the rich fertile soil resulting from annual inundations of the Nile River. The ancient Egyptians were thus able to produce an abundance of food, allowing the population to devote more time and resources to cultural, technological, and artistic pursuits. Land management

4296-492: A popular form for European collectors, especially in the Renaissance. Various modelling techniques are used, such repoussé ("pushed-back") in metalwork, where a thin metal plate is shaped from behind using various metal or wood punches, producing a relief image. Casting has also been widely used in bronze and other metals. Casting and repoussé are often used in concert in to speed up production and add greater detail to

4475-689: A queen who established herself as pharaoh, launched many building projects, including the restoration of temples damaged by the Hyksos, and sent trading expeditions to Punt and the Sinai. When Tuthmosis III died in 1425   BC, Egypt had an empire extending from Niya in north west Syria to the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Nubia , cementing loyalties and opening access to critical imports such as bronze and wood . The New Kingdom pharaohs began

4654-471: A revival in the 20th century, being popular on buildings in Art Deco and related styles, which borrowed from the ancient low reliefs now available in museums. Some sculptors, including Eric Gill , have adopted the "squashed" depth of low relief in works that are actually free-standing. Mid-relief, "half-relief" or mezzo-rilievo is somewhat imprecisely defined, and the term is not often used in English,

4833-608: A rival dynasty in the delta arose in Leontopolis , and Kushites threatened from the south. Around 727   BC the Kushite king Piye invaded northward, seizing control of Thebes and eventually the Delta, which established the 25th Dynasty . During the 25th Dynasty, Pharaoh Taharqa created an empire nearly as large as the New Kingdom 's. Twenty-fifth Dynasty pharaohs built, or restored, temples and monuments throughout

5012-605: A series of vassals who became known as the Saite kings of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty . By 653   BC, the Saite king Psamtik I was able to oust the Assyrians with the help of Greek mercenaries, who were recruited to form Egypt's first navy . Greek influence expanded greatly as the city-state of Naucratis became the home of Greeks in the Nile Delta. The Saite kings based in the new capital of Sais witnessed

5191-451: A single figure; accordingly some writers prefer to avoid all distinctions. The opposite of relief sculpture is counter-relief , intaglio , or cavo-rilievo , where the form is cut into the field or background rather than rising from it; this is very rare in monumental sculpture . Hyphens may or may not be used in all these terms, though they are rarely seen in "sunk relief" and are usual in " bas-relief " and "counter-relief". Works in

5370-511: A string of books, especially Nineveh and its Remains in 1849. The mistaken title arose because Henry Rawlinson had at that point become convinced that the Nimrud site was actually the ancient Nineveh, though he changed his mind soon after. By October 1849 Layard was back in Mosul, accompanied by the artist Frederick Cooper, and continued to dig until April 1851, after which Rassam took charge of

5549-489: Is a unique female nude statue in the British Museum, missing its extremities, which was found in the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh. The pubic hair is carefully represented. It carries an inscription on the back that King Ashur-bel-kala erected it for the "titilation" or enjoyment of the people. It might represent Ishtar, goddess of love among other things, in which case it would be the only known Assyrian statue of

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5728-525: Is found in many styles of interiors in the post-Renaissance West, and in Islamic architecture . Many modern and contemporary artists such as Paul Gauguin , Ernst Barlach , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Pablo Picasso , Eric Gill , Jacob Epstein , Henry Moore , Claudia Cobizev , up to Ewald Matare have created reliefs. In particular low reliefs were often used in the 20th century on the outsides of buildings, where they are relatively easy to incorporate into

5907-475: Is not to be confused with "counter-relief" or intaglio as seen on engraved gem seals – where an image is fully modeled in a "negative" manner. The image goes into the surface, so that when impressed on wax it gives an impression in normal relief. However many engraved gems were carved in cameo or normal relief. A few very late Hellenistic monumental carvings in Egypt use full "negative" modelling as though on

6086-486: Is often used for the background areas of compositions with the main elements in low-relief, but its use over a whole (usually rather small) piece was effectively invented and perfected by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello . In later Western art, until a 20th-century revival, low relief was used mostly for smaller works or combined with higher relief to convey a sense of distance, or to give depth to

6265-688: Is the sculpture of the ancient Assyrian states, especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 911 to 612 BC, which was centered around the city of Assur in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq ) which at its height, ruled over all of Mesopotamia , the Levant and Egypt, as well as portions of Anatolia , Arabia and modern-day Iran and Armenia. It forms a phase of the art of Mesopotamia , differing in particular because of its much greater use of stone and gypsum alabaster for large sculpture. Much

6444-424: Is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required. In the art of Ancient Egypt , Assyrian palace reliefs , and other ancient Near Eastern and Asian cultures, a consistent very low relief was commonly used for the whole composition. These images would usually be painted after carving, which helped define the forms; today the paint has worn off in

6623-520: The Alhambra ), Rome, and Europe from at least the Renaissance, as well as probably elsewhere. However, it needs very good conditions to survive long in unmaintained buildings – Roman decorative plasterwork is mainly known from Pompeii and other sites buried by ash from Mount Vesuvius . Low relief was relatively rare in Western medieval art , but may be found, for example in wooden figures or scenes on

6802-583: The Amarna Period . Around 1279   BC, Ramesses II , also known as Ramesses the Great, ascended the throne, and went on to build more temples, erect more statues and obelisks, and sire more children than any other pharaoh in history. A bold military leader, Ramesses II led his army against the Hittites in the Battle of Kadesh (in modern Syria ) and, after fighting to a stalemate, finally agreed to

6981-512: The Column of Trajan and Column of Marcus Aurelius . Lamassu were protective minor deities or spirits, the Assyrian version of the "human-headed bull" figure that had long figured in Mesopotamian mythology and art. Lamassu have wings, a male human head with the elaborate headgear of a divinity, and the elaborately-braided hair and beards shared with royalty. The body is that of either a bull or

7160-508: The Egyptian climate was much less arid than it is today . Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates . Foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs, and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl . Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated . By about 5500 BC , small tribes living in

7339-501: The Great Kenbet , over which the vizier or pharaoh presided. Plaintiffs and defendants were expected to represent themselves and were required to swear an oath that they had told the truth. In some cases, the state took on both the role of prosecutor and judge, and it could torture the accused with beatings to obtain a confession and the names of any co-conspirators. Whether the charges were trivial or serious, court scribes documented

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7518-480: The Khmer Empire . High relief (or altorilievo , from Italian ) is where in general more than half the mass of the sculpted figure projects from the background. Indeed, the most prominent elements of the composition, especially heads and limbs, are often completely undercut, detaching them from the field. The parts of the subject that are seen are normally depicted at their full depth, unlike low relief where

7697-469: The Library of Ashurbanipal he found there. His excavation practices left a lot to be desired by modern standards; the centres of rooms were not only not excavated, but the material removed from the trench in one room might be deposited in another, compromising later excavations. Typically the slabs were sawn to roughly a third of their original depth, to save weight in carrying them back to Europe, which

7876-613: The Macedonians under Alexander the Great . The Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom , formed in the aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled until 30   BC, when, under Cleopatra , it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province . Egypt remained under Roman control until 642 AD, when it was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate . The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to

8055-462: The Master of Animals tradition in Mesopotamian art, and may represent Enkidu , a central figure in the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh . In the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad , a group of at least seven lamassu and two such heroes with lions surrounded the entrance to the "throne room", "a concentration of figures which produced an overwhelming impression of power". The arrangement

8234-531: The Mosul offensive . Other surviving types of art include many cylinder seals , a few rock reliefs , reliefs and statues from temples, bronze relief strips used on large doors, and small quantities of metalwork. A group of sixteen bronze weights shaped as lions with bilingual inscriptions in both cuneiform and Phoenician characters, were discovered at Nimrud. The Nimrud ivories , an important group of small plaques which decorated furniture, were found in

8413-971: The Mouseion . The Lighthouse of Alexandria lit the way for the many ships that kept trade flowing through the city—as the Ptolemies made commerce and revenue-generating enterprises, such as papyrus manufacturing, their top priority. Hellenistic culture did not supplant native Egyptian culture, as the Ptolemies supported time-honored traditions in an effort to secure the loyalty of the populace. They built new temples in Egyptian style, supported traditional cults, and portrayed themselves as pharaohs. Some traditions merged, as Greek and Egyptian gods were syncretized into composite deities, such as Serapis , and classical Greek forms of sculpture influenced traditional Egyptian motifs. Despite their efforts to appease

8592-496: The Near East . The New Kingdom pharaohs established a period of unprecedented prosperity by securing their borders and strengthening diplomatic ties with their neighbours, including the Mitanni Empire, Assyria , and Canaan . Military campaigns waged under Tuthmosis I and his grandson Tuthmosis III extended the influence of the pharaohs to the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. Between their reigns, Hatshepsut ,

8771-720: The New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age . Ancient Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power during the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Levant . After this period, it entered an era of slow decline. During the course of its history, ancient Egypt was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the Hyksos , the Nubians , the Assyrians , the Achaemenid Persians , and

8950-584: The Nile . They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East to the east. The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse selection of material goods, reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, as well as societal personal-use items, which included combs, small statuary, painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases , cosmetic palettes , and jewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory. They also developed

9129-415: The Nubians to the south of Egypt, but failed to defeat the Hyksos. That task fell to Kamose's successor, Ahmose I , who successfully waged a series of campaigns that permanently eradicated the Hyksos' presence in Egypt. He established a new dynasty and, in the New Kingdom that followed, the military became a central priority for the kings, who sought to expand Egypt's borders and attempted to gain mastery of

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9308-606: The Persians and was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer. The administration established by Alexander's successors, the Macedonian Ptolemaic Kingdom , was based on an Egyptian model and based in the new capital city of Alexandria . The city showcased the power and prestige of Hellenistic rule, and became a centre of learning and culture, that included the famous Library of Alexandria as part of

9487-619: The Thirtieth , proved to be the last native royal house of ancient Egypt, ending with the kingship of Nectanebo II . A brief restoration of Persian rule, sometimes known as the Thirty-First Dynasty , began in 343   BC, but shortly after, in 332   BC, the Persian ruler Mazaces handed Egypt over to Alexander the Great without a fight. In 332   BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with little resistance from

9666-549: The Wadi Natrun for mummification , which also provided the gypsum needed to make plaster. Ore-bearing rock formations were found in distant, inhospitable wadis in the Eastern Desert and the Sinai, requiring large, state-controlled expeditions to obtain natural resources found there. There were extensive gold mines in Nubia , and one of the first maps known is of a gold mine in this region. The Wadi Hammamat

9845-451: The chaff from the grain, and the grain was then ground into flour, brewed to make beer, or stored for later use. The ancient Egyptians cultivated emmer and barley , and several other cereal grains, all of which were used to make the two main food staples of bread and beer. Flax plants, uprooted before they started flowering, were grown for the fibers of their stems. These fibers were split along their length and spun into thread, which

10024-581: The composite bow and the horse-drawn chariot . After retreating south, the native Theban kings found themselves trapped between the Canaanite Hyksos ruling the north and the Hyksos' Nubian allies, the Kushites , to the south. After years of vassalage, Thebes gathered enough strength to challenge the Hyksos in a conflict that lasted more than 30 years, until 1555   BC. The kings Seqenenre Tao II and Kamose were ultimately able to defeat

10203-458: The earliest known peace treaty , made with the Hittites . Ancient Egypt has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities were carried off to be studied, admired or coveted in the far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for millennia. A newfound respect for antiquities and excavations in

10382-523: The vizier and his court for redress. Although slaves were mostly used as indentured servants, they were able to buy and sell their servitude, work their way to freedom or nobility, and were usually treated by doctors in the workplace. Both men and women had the right to own and sell property, make contracts, marry and divorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal disputes in court. Married couples could own property jointly and protect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriage contracts, which stipulated

10561-421: The "Broken Obelisk" from 1074–1056, predate the earliest known wall-reliefs by 160 years or more, but are respectively in worn and fragmentary condition. The Black Obelisk is of special interest as the lengthy inscriptions, with names of places and rulers that could be related to other sources, were of importance in the decipherment of cuneiform script. The Obelisk contains the earliest writing mentioning both

10740-1044: The 1,460 panels of the 9th-century Borobudur temple in Central Java , Indonesia , narrating the Jataka tales or lives of the Buddha . Other examples are low reliefs narrating the Ramayana Hindu epic in Prambanan temple, also in Java, in Cambodia , the temples of Angkor , with scenes including the Samudra manthan or "Churning the Ocean of Milk" at the 12th-century Angkor Wat , and reliefs of apsaras . At Bayon temple in Angkor Thom there are scenes of daily life in

10919-414: The 16th century it was used for large figures (many also using high relief) at the Chateau of Fontainebleau , which were imitated more crudely elsewhere, for example in the Elizabethan Hardwick Hall . Shallow-relief, in Italian rilievo stiacciato or rilievo schicciato ("squashed relief"), is a very shallow relief, which merges into engraving in places, and can be hard to read in photographs. It

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11098-416: The 1990s, and have probably been systematically destroyed by Daesh in the 2010s. As a result of the history of excavations, much the best single collection is in the British Museum , followed by the site museums and other collections in Iraq, which in the 20th century were the largest holdings when taken together, though after the wars of the 21st century their current holdings are uncertain. The fate of

11277-474: The 9th century BC and the relatively minor city of Imgur-Enlil, modern Balawat . The Balawat Gates were all double gates about 20 foot high, with both the front and back sides decorated with eight bronze repoussé strips, each carrying two registers of narrative reliefs some five inches high. There were presumably equivalents at other Assyrian sites, but at the collapse of the empire the buildings at Balawat caught fire "before they had been efficiently looted" by

11456-440: The Assyrians. The effects of external threats were exacerbated by internal problems such as corruption, tomb robbery, and civil unrest . After regaining their power, the high priests at the temple of Amun in Thebes accumulated vast tracts of land and wealth, and their expanded power splintered the country during the Third Intermediate Period. Following the death of Ramesses XI in 1078   BC, Smendes assumed authority over

11635-421: The British government, through the British Museum, taking over the funding from Canning in late 1846, repaying his expenditure. The volume of finds was such that getting them back to Britain was a major task, and many pieces either were reburied, or reached other countries. Layard had recruited the 20-year old Hormuzd Rassam in Mosul, where his brother was British Vice-consul, to handle the pay and supervision of

11814-419: The Christian emperor Theodosius introduced legislation that banned pagan rites and closed temples. Alexandria became the scene of great anti-pagan riots with public and private religious imagery destroyed. As a consequence, Egypt's native religious culture was continually in decline. While the native population continued to speak their language , the ability to read hieroglyphic writing slowly disappeared as

11993-435: The Delta, seized control of Egypt and established their capital at Avaris , forcing the former central government to retreat to Thebes . The king was treated as a vassal and expected to pay tribute. The Hyksos ('foreign rulers') retained Egyptian models of government and identified as kings, thereby integrating Egyptian elements into their culture. They and other invaders introduced new tools of warfare into Egypt, most notably

12172-401: The Egyptians, the Ptolemies were challenged by native rebellion, bitter family rivalries, and the powerful mob of Alexandria that formed after the death of Ptolemy IV . In addition, as Rome relied more heavily on imports of grain from Egypt, the Romans took great interest in the political situation in the country. Continued Egyptian revolts, ambitious politicians, and powerful opponents from

12351-405: The French government, who sent him funds and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres sent him Eugène Flandin (1809–1889), an artist who had already made careful archaeological drawings of Persian antiquities in a long trip beginning in 1839. Botta decided there was no more to find at the site in October 1844, and concentrated on the difficult task of getting his finds back to Paris, where

12530-416: The French, whose new consul, Victor Place, had resumed digging at Khorsabad. The British funds were running out by December 1853, when Rassam hit upon the palace of Ashurbanipal , which was "in some respects the finest sculptured palace of all", in the new French area of Kuyunjik. Fortunately, Place had not started digging there, and according to Rassam "it was an established rule that whenever one discovered

12709-451: The Greeks towards the Egyptians, some traditions such as mummification and worship of the traditional gods continued. The art of mummy portraiture flourished, and some Roman emperors had themselves depicted as pharaohs, though not to the extent that the Ptolemies had. The former lived outside Egypt and did not perform the ceremonial functions of Egyptian kingship. Local administration became Roman in style and closed to native Egyptians. From

12888-545: The Late Period, the worship of the gods in their animal form was extremely popular, such as the cat goddess Bastet and the ibis god Thoth , and these animals were kept in large numbers for the purpose of ritual sacrifice. Egypt is rich in building and decorative stone, copper and lead ores, gold, and semiprecious stones. These natural resources allowed the ancient Egyptians to build monuments, sculpt statues, make tools, and fashion jewelry . Embalmers used salts from

13067-452: The Late Period. There is also evidence to suggest that elephants were briefly used in the Late Period but largely abandoned due to lack of grazing land. Cats , dogs, and monkeys were common family pets, while more exotic pets imported from the heart of Africa, such as Sub-Saharan African lions , were reserved for royalty. Herodotus observed that the Egyptians were the only people to keep their animals with them in their houses. During

13246-525: The Near East made this situation unstable, leading Rome to send forces to secure the country as a province of its empire. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30   BC, following the defeat of Mark Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) in the Battle of Actium . The Romans relied heavily on grain shipments from Egypt, and the Roman army , under

13425-569: The Nile valley had developed into a series of cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry , and identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early cultures in upper (Southern) Egypt was the Badarian culture , which probably originated in the Western Desert ; it was known for its high-quality ceramics, stone tools , and its use of copper. The Badari

13604-553: The Nile valley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, and Jebel Barkal. During this period, the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom. Egypt's far-reaching prestige declined considerably toward the end of the Third Intermediate Period. Its foreign allies had fallen under the Assyrian sphere of influence, and by 700   BC war between

13783-582: The Old Kingdom, and provided both honey and wax. The ancient Egyptians used donkeys and oxen as beasts of burden , and they were responsible for plowing the fields and trampling seed into the soil. The slaughter of a fattened ox was also a central part of an offering ritual. Horses were introduced by the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period . Camels, although known from the New Kingdom, were not used as beasts of burden until

13962-405: The Old Kingdom. Under the direction of the vizier , state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield , drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain peace and order. With the rising importance of central administration in Egypt, a new class of educated scribes and officials arose who were granted estates by

14141-505: The Persian and Jewish peoples, and confirmed some of the events described in the Bible , which in the 19th century was regarded as timely support for texts whose historical accuracy was under increasing attack. Other, much smaller pieces with helpful inscriptions were a set of sixteen weight measures in the form of lions . There are very few large free-standing Assyrian statues and, with one possible exception (below), none have been found of

14320-525: The Renaissance, and was especially used in wall-mounted funerary art and later on Neoclassical pediments and public monuments. In the Buddhist and Hindu art of India and Southeast Asia, high relief can also be found, although it is not as common as low to mid-reliefs. Famous examples of Indian high reliefs can be found at the Khajuraho temples, with voluptuous, twisting figures that often illustrate

14499-512: The Ruler ", to defend against foreign attack. With the kings having secured the country militarily and politically and with vast agricultural and mineral wealth at their disposal, the nation's population, arts, and religion flourished. In contrast to elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards the gods, the Middle Kingdom displayed an increase in expressions of personal piety. Middle Kingdom literature featured sophisticated themes and characters written in

14678-502: The action or giving the name and extravagant titles of the king. Heads and legs are shown in profile, but torsos in a front or three-quarters view, as in earlier Mesopotamian art. Eyes are also largely shown frontally. Some panels show only a few figures at close to life-size, such scenes usually including the king and other courtiers, but depictions of military campaigns include dozens of small figures, as well as many animals and attempts at showing landscape settings. Campaigns focus on

14857-499: The administration, aside from the royal high priestesses, apparently served only secondary roles in the temples (not much data for many dynasties), and were not so probably to be as educated as men. The head of the legal system was officially the pharaoh, who was responsible for enacting laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at . Although no legal codes from ancient Egypt survive, court documents show that Egyptian law

15036-557: The ancient Egyptians did not use coinage until the Late period , they did use a type of money-barter system, with standard sacks of grain and the deben , a weight of roughly 91 grams (3 oz) of copper or silver, forming a common denominator. Workers were paid in grain; a simple laborer might earn 5 + 1 ⁄ 2  sacks (200 kg or 400 lb) of grain per month, while a foreman might earn 7 + 1 ⁄ 2  sacks (250 kg or 550 lb). Prices were fixed across

15215-407: The ancient Egyptians include the quarrying , surveying , and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids , temples , and obelisks ; a system of mathematics , a practical and effective system of medicine , irrigation systems, and agricultural production techniques, the first known planked boats, Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature , and

15394-554: The architecture as decorative highlights. Notable examples of monumental reliefs include: Smaller-scale reliefs: Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeast Africa . It was concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River , situated within the contemporary territory of modern-day Egypt . Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100   BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology ) with

15573-579: The background. From the Parthenon Frieze onwards, many single figures in large monumental sculpture have heads in high relief, but their lower legs are in low relief. The slightly projecting figures created in this way work well in reliefs that are seen from below, and reflect that the heads of figures are usually of more interest to both artist and viewer than the legs or feet. As unfinished examples from various periods show, raised reliefs, whether high or low, were normally "blocked out" by marking

15752-471: The best-known works are the huge lamassu guarding entrance ways, and Assyrian palace reliefs on thin slabs of alabaster, which were originally painted, at least in part, and fixed on the wall all round the main rooms of palaces. Most of these are in museums in Europe or America, following a hectic period of excavations from 1842 to 1855, which took Assyrian art from being almost completely unknown to being

15931-520: The boundary of his empire many centuries earlier; many later rulers added to the collection. The Assyrian examples were perhaps significant in suggesting the style of the much more ambitious Persian tradition , beginning with the Behistun relief and inscription , made around 500 BC for Darius the Great , on a far grander scale, reflecting and proclaiming the power of the Achaemenid empire . Iraq

16110-403: The carpets. After the palaces were abandoned and lost their wooden roofs, the unbaked mud-brick walls gradually collapsed, covering the space in front of the reliefs, and largely protecting them from further damage from the weather. Relatively few traces of paint remain, and these are often on heads and faces – hair and beards were black, and at least the whites of eyes white. Possibly metal leaf

16289-532: The central square in the citadel of Nimrud, presumably a very public space, and the White in Nineveh. All record much the same types of scenes as the narrative sections of wall-relief, and the gates. The Black Obelisk concentrates on scenes of the bringing of tribute from conquered kingdoms, including Israel, while the White also has scenes of war, hunting, and religious figures. The White Obelisk, from 1049–1031, and

16468-458: The closest to the king probably often being the appointed heir, who was not necessarily the oldest son. The enormous scales of the palace schemes allowed narratives to be shown at an unprecedentedly expansive pace, making the sequence of events clear and allowing richly detailed depictions of the activities of large numbers of figures, not to be paralleled until the Roman narrative column reliefs of

16647-410: The complaint, testimony, and verdict of the case for future reference. Punishment for minor crimes involved either imposition of fines, beatings, facial mutilation, or exile, depending on the severity of the offense. Serious crimes such as murder and tomb robbery were punished by execution, carried out by decapitation, drowning, or impaling the criminal on a stake. Punishment could also be extended to

16826-447: The composition, especially for scenes with many figures and a landscape or architectural background, in the same way that lighter colours are used for the same purpose in painting. Thus figures in the foreground are sculpted in high-relief, those in the background in low-relief. Low relief may use any medium or technique of sculpture, stone carving and metal casting being most common. Large architectural compositions all in low relief saw

17005-419: The conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture . The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system ,

17184-659: The considerable number of pieces that have been found and then reburied is also uncertain. At the peak of excavations, the volume found was too large for the British and French to manage, and many pieces either were diverted at some point on their journey to Europe, or were given away by the museums. Other pieces were excavated by diggers working for dealers. As a result, there are significant groups of large lamassu corner figures and palace relief panels in Paris, Berlin, New York, and Chicago. Many other museums have panels, especially

17363-505: The control of a prefect appointed by the emperor, quelled rebellions, strictly enforced the collection of heavy taxes, and prevented attacks by bandits, which had become a notorious problem during the period. Alexandria became an increasingly important center on the trade route with the orient, as exotic luxuries were in high demand in Rome. Although the Romans had a more hostile attitude than

17542-401: The country and recorded in lists to facilitate trading; for example a shirt cost five copper deben, while a cow cost 140   deben. Grain could be traded for other goods, according to the fixed price list. During the fifth century   BC coined money was introduced into Egypt from abroad. At first the coins were used as standardized pieces of precious metal rather than true money, but in

17721-403: The country's economy. Regional governors could not rely on the king for help in times of crisis, and the ensuing food shortages and political disputes escalated into famines and small-scale civil wars. Yet despite difficult problems, local leaders, owing no tribute to the king, used their new-found independence to establish a thriving culture in the provinces. Once in control of their own resources,

17900-421: The criminal's family. Beginning in the New Kingdom, oracles played a major role in the legal system, dispensing justice in both civil and criminal cases. The procedure was to ask the god a "yes" or "no" question concerning the right or wrong of an issue. The god, carried by a number of priests, rendered judgement by choosing one or the other, moving forward or backward, or pointing to one of the answers written on

18079-498: The depiction of royal and religious aspects of the subjects was as it should be. The reliefs only covered the lower parts of the walls of rooms in the palaces, and higher areas were often painted, at least in patterns, and at least sometimes with other figures. Brightly coloured carpets on the floor completed what was probably a striking decor, largely in primary colours . None of these have survived, but we have some door-sills carved with repeated geometric motifs, presumed to imitate

18258-559: The diggers, and encouraged the development of his career as a diplomat and archaeologist. Layard returned to England in June 1847, also taking Rassam, who he had arranged to study at Cambridge. He left a few workers, mainly to keep other diggers off the sites, as the French were digging again. His finds were arriving in London, to great public interest, which he greatly increased by publishing

18437-411: The early 11th-century White Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal I and the 9th century Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III , both in the British Museum, which also has the fragmentary "Broken Obelisk" and " Rassam Obelisk ". Both have reliefs on all four sides in eight and five registers respectively, and long inscriptions describing the events. The Black and Rassam Obelisks were both set up in what seems to have been

18616-411: The early modern period by Europeans and Egyptians has led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became

18795-572: The economy and precipitated the slow decline into the Second Intermediate Period during the later Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties. During this decline, the Canaanite settlers began to assume greater control of the Delta region, eventually coming to power in Egypt as the Hyksos . Around 1785   BC, as the power of the Middle Kingdom kings weakened, a Western Asian people called the Hyksos , who had already settled in

18974-411: The elements seen are "squashed" flatter. High relief thus uses essentially the same style and techniques as free-standing sculpture, and in the case of a single figure gives largely the same view as a person standing directly in front of a free-standing statue would have. All cultures and periods in which large sculptures were created used this technique in monumental sculpture and architecture. Most of

19153-446: The enemy, and remained hidden in the ashes and rubble; gypsum slabs were not worth the trouble of looting, unlike bronze. The subjects were similar to the wall reliefs, but on a smaller scale; a typical band is 27 centimetres high, 1.8 metres wide, and only a millimetre thick. In stone there are reliefs of a similar size on some stelae , most notably two in rectangular obelisk form, both with stepped tops like ziggurats . These are

19332-520: The erotic Kamasutra positions. In the 9th-century Prambanan temple, Central Java , high reliefs of Lokapala devatas , the guardians of deities of the directions, are found. The largest high relief sculpture in the world is the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in the U.S. state of Georgia , which was cut 42 feet deep into the mountain, and measures 90 feet in height, 190 feet in width, and lies 400 feet above

19511-463: The excavations. By this stage, thanks to Rawlinson and other linguists working on the tablets and inscriptions brought back and other material, the Assyrian cuneiform was at the least becoming partly understood, a task that progressed well over the next decade. Initially Rassam's finds dwindled, in terms of large objects, and the British even agreed to cede the rights to half the Kuyunjik mound to

19690-424: The fertile delta region, as well as the lucrative and critical trade routes to the Levant . The increasing power and wealth of the kings during the early dynastic period was reflected in their elaborate mastaba tombs and mortuary cult structures at Abydos, which were used to celebrate the deified king after his death. The strong institution of kingship developed by the kings served to legitimize state control over

19869-524: The final relief. In stone, as well as engraved gems, larger hardstone carvings in semi-precious stones have been highly prestigious since ancient times in many Eurasian cultures. Reliefs in wax were produced at least from the Renaissance . Carved ivory reliefs have been used since ancient times, and because the material, though expensive, cannot usually be reused, they have a relatively high survival rate, and for example consular diptychs represent

20048-524: The financial obligations of the husband to his wife and children should the marriage end. Compared with their counterparts in ancient Greece, Rome, and even more modern places around the world, ancient Egyptian women had a greater range of personal choices, legal rights, and opportunities for achievement. Women such as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII even became pharaohs, while others wielded power as Divine Wives of Amun . Despite these freedoms, ancient Egyptian women did not often take part in official roles in

20227-487: The first large consignments did not arrive until December 1846. Botta left the two huge lamassu now in the British Museum as too large to transport; Henry Rawlinson , by now British Resident in Bagdhad, sawed them into several pieces for transport in 1849. In 1849 Monument de Ninive was published, a sumptuously illustrated and exemplary monograph in 4 volumes by Botta and Flandin. Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894)

20406-613: The first recorded peace treaty , around 1258   BC. Egypt's wealth, however, made it a tempting target for invasion, particularly by the Libyan Berbers to the west, and the Sea Peoples , a conjectured confederation of seafarers from the Aegean Sea . Initially, the military was able to repel these invasions, but Egypt eventually lost control of its remaining territories in southern Canaan , much of it falling to

20585-427: The floodwaters had receded, the growing season lasted from October to February. Farmers plowed and planted seeds in the fields, which were irrigated with ditches and canals. Egypt received little rainfall, so farmers relied on the Nile to water their crops. From March to May, farmers used sickles to harvest their crops, which were then threshed with a flail to separate the straw from the grain. Winnowing removed

20764-417: The following centuries international traders came to rely on coinage. Egyptian society was highly stratified, and social status was expressly displayed. Farmers made up the bulk of the population, but agricultural produce was owned directly by the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. Farmers were also subject to a labor tax and were required to work on irrigation or construction projects in

20943-409: The form from the Hittites; the sites chosen for their 49 recorded reliefs often also make little sense if "signalling" to the general population was the intent, being high and remote, but often near water. The Neo-Assyrians recorded in other places, including metal reliefs on the Balawat Gates showing them being made, the carving of rock reliefs, and it has been suggested that the main intended audience

21122-486: The front the small variations in depth register as a three-dimensional image. Other versions distort depth much less. The term comes from the Italian basso rilievo via the French bas-relief ( French pronunciation: [baʁəljɛf] ), both meaning "low relief". The former is now a very old-fashioned term in English, and the latter term is becoming so. Low relief is a technique which requires less work, and

21301-412: The government, who relied on a bureaucracy of officials to manage his affairs. In charge of the administration was his second in command, the vizier , who acted as the king's representative and coordinated land surveys, the treasury, building projects, the legal system, and the archives . At a regional level, the country was divided into as many as 42 administrative regions called nomes each governed by

21480-482: The great majority of surviving examples, but minute, invisible remains of paint can usually be discovered through chemical means. The Ishtar Gate of Babylon , now in Berlin, has low reliefs of large animals formed from moulded bricks, glazed in colour. Plaster, which made the technique far easier, was widely used in Egypt and the Near East from antiquity into Islamic times (latterly for architectural decoration, as at

21659-466: The ground. Sunk or sunken relief is largely restricted to the art of Ancient Egypt where it is very common, becoming after the Amarna period of Ahkenaten the dominant type used, as opposed to low relief. It had been used earlier, but mainly for large reliefs on external walls, and for hieroglyphs and cartouches . The image is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a flat surface to enhance

21838-471: The impression of three-dimensionality. In a simpler form, the images are usually mostly linear in nature, like hieroglyphs, but in most cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises beyond the original flat surface. In some cases the figures and other elements are in a very low relief that does not rise to the original surface, but others are modeled more fully, with some areas rising to

22017-605: The insides of the folding wings of multi-panel altarpieces . The revival of low relief, which was seen as a classical style, begins early in the Renaissance; the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini , a pioneering classicist building, designed by Leon Battista Alberti around 1450, uses low reliefs by Agostino di Duccio inside and on the external walls. Since the Renaissance plaster has been very widely used for indoor ornamental work such as cornices and ceilings, but in

22196-411: The king in payment for their services. Kings also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples , to ensure that these institutions had the resources to worship the king after his death. Scholars believe that five centuries of these practices slowly eroded the economic vitality of Egypt, and that the economy could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration. As the power of

22375-404: The king, with winged genies using the bucket and cone behind him. Above the tree one of the major gods, perhaps Ashur the chief god, leans out of a winged disc, relatively small in scale. Such scenes are shown elsewhere on the robe of the king, no doubt reflecting embroidery on the real costumes, and the major gods are normally shown in discs or purely as symbols hovering in the air. Elsewhere

22554-593: The kingdom's capital to the city of Itjtawy , located in Faiyum . From Itjtawy, the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty undertook a far-sighted land reclamation and irrigation scheme to increase agricultural output in the region. Moreover, the military reconquered territory in Nubia that was rich in quarries and gold mines, while laborers built a defensive structure in the Eastern Delta, called the " Walls of

22733-528: The kings diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the office of king. This, coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150   BC, is believed to have caused the country to enter the 140-year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period. After Egypt's central government collapsed at the end of the Old Kingdom, the administration could no longer support or stabilize

22912-566: The land, labor, and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization. Major advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the Old Kingdom , fueled by the increased agricultural productivity and resulting population growth, made possible by a well-developed central administration. Some of ancient Egypt's crowning achievements, the Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx , were constructed during

23091-403: The like, are very meticulously carved. More important figures are often shown larger than others, and in landscapes more distant elements are shown higher up, but not smaller than, those in the foreground, though some scenes have been interpreted as using scale to indicate distance. Other scenes seem to repeat a figure in a succession of different moments, performing the same action, most famously

23270-497: The long line of kings from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today. He began his official history with the king named "Meni" (or Menes in Greek), who was believed to have united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt . The transition to a unified state happened more gradually than ancient Egyptian writers represented, and there is no contemporary record of Menes. Some scholars now believe, however, that

23449-441: The low-relief schemes running round palace rooms, where winged genie figures are common, but they sometimes appear within narrative reliefs, apparently protecting the Assyrians. The colossal entrance way figures were often followed by a hero grasping a wriggling lion, also colossal and in high relief; these and some genies beside lamassu are generally the only other types of high relief in Assyrian sculpture. The heroes continue

23628-466: The major divinities in their temples. Possibly others existed; any in precious metals would have been looted as the empire fell. Two statues of kings are similar to the portraits in palace reliefs, though seen frontally. They came from temples, where they showed the king's devotion to the deity. The Statue of Ashurnasirpal II is in the British Museum, and that of Shalmaneser III in Istanbul . There

23807-536: The many casualties ever come from the Assyrian side. Another famous sequence there shows the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal , in fact the staged and ritualized killing by King Ashurbanipal of lions already captured and released into an arena, from the North Palace at Nineveh. The realism of the lions has always been praised, and the scenes are often regarded as "the supreme masterpieces of Assyrian art", although

23986-881: The many grand figure reliefs in Ancient Greek sculpture used a very "high" version of high relief, with elements often fully free of the background, and parts of figures crossing over each other to indicate depth. The metopes of the Parthenon have largely lost their fully rounded elements, except for heads, showing the advantages of relief in terms of durability. High relief has remained the dominant form for reliefs with figures in Western sculpture, also being common in Indian temple sculpture. Smaller Greek sculptures such as private tombs, and smaller decorative areas such as friezes on large buildings, more often used low relief. Hellenistic and Roman sarcophagus reliefs were cut with

24165-424: The master drew or incised the design on the slab before a team of carvers laboriously cut away the background areas and finished carving the figures. Scribes then set out any inscriptions for cutters to follow, after which the slab was polished smooth, and any paint added. Scribes are shown directing carvers in another relief (on the Balawat Gates ) showing the creation of a rock relief; presumably they ensured that

24344-464: The mid-first century AD, Christianity took root in Egypt and it was originally seen as another cult that could be accepted. However, it was an uncompromising religion that sought to win converts from the pagan Egyptian and Greco-Roman religions and threatened popular religious traditions. This led to the persecution of converts to Christianity, culminating in the great purges of Diocletian starting in 303, but eventually Christianity won out. In 391,

24523-528: The mythical Menes may have been the king Narmer , who is depicted wearing royal regalia on the ceremonial Narmer Palette, in a symbolic act of unification. In the Early Dynastic Period, which began about 3000   BC, the first of the Dynastic kings solidified control over lower Egypt by establishing a capital at Memphis , from which he could control the labor force and agriculture of

24702-405: The nobility were the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialized training in their field. It is unclear whether slavery as understood today existed in ancient Egypt; there is difference of opinions among authors. The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all social classes, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition

24881-682: The north, while a rival clan based in Thebes , the Intef family , took control of Upper Egypt in the south. As the Intefs grew in power and expanded their control northward, a clash between the two rival dynasties became inevitable. Around 2055   BC the northern Theban forces under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers, reuniting the Two Lands. They inaugurated

25060-676: The northern part of Egypt, ruling from the city of Tanis . The south was effectively controlled by the High Priests of Amun at Thebes , who recognized Smendes in name only. During this time, Libyans had been settling in the western delta, and chieftains of these settlers began increasing their autonomy. Libyan princes took control of the delta under Shoshenq I in 945   BC, founding the so-called Libyan or Bubastite dynasty that would rule for some 200 years. Shoshenq also gained control of southern Egypt by placing his family members in important priestly positions. Libyan control began to erode as

25239-559: The open air (if inside caves, whether natural or human-made, they are more likely to be called "rock-cut"). This type is found in many cultures, in particular those of the Ancient Near East and Buddhist countries. A stele is a single standing stone; many of these carry reliefs. The distinction between high and low relief is somewhat subjective, and the two are very often combined in a single work. In particular, most later "high reliefs" contain sections in low relief, usually in

25418-462: The organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended to assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes , religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh , who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs . The many achievements of

25597-453: The original surface. This method minimizes the work removing the background, while allowing normal relief modelling. The technique is most successful with strong sunlight to emphasise the outlines and forms by shadow, as no attempt was made to soften the edge of the sunk area, leaving a face at a right-angle to the surface all around it. Some reliefs, especially funerary monuments with heads or busts from ancient Rome and later Western art, leave

25776-428: The outline of the figure and reducing the background areas to the new background level, work no doubt performed by apprentices (see gallery). A low relief is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. In the lowest reliefs the relative depth of the elements shown is completely distorted, and if seen from the side the image makes no sense, but from

25955-515: The pathos modern viewers tend to feel was perhaps not part of the Assyrian response. There are many reliefs of minor supernatural beings, called by such terms as " winged genie ", but the major Assyrian deities are only represented by symbols. The "genies" often perform a gesture of purification, fertilization or blessing with a bucket and cone ; the meaning of this remains unclear., Especially on larger figures, details and patterns on areas such as costumes, hair and beards, tree trunks and leaves, and

26134-463: The plane is only very slightly lower than the sculpted elements. There is also sunk relief , which was mainly restricted to Ancient Egypt ( see below ). However, the distinction between high relief and low relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are generally the only terms used to discuss most work. The definition of these terms is somewhat variable, and many works combine areas in more than one of them, rarely sliding between them in

26313-557: The political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under pharaoh or king Menes (often identified with Narmer ). The history of ancient Egypt unfolded as a series of stable kingdoms interspersed by periods of relative instability known as "Intermediate Periods". The various kingdoms fall into one of three categories: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age , the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age , or

26492-497: The present day, but no new palaces have been found at the capitals, and finds have mostly been isolated pieces, such as Rassam's discovery in 1878 of two of the Balawat Gates . Many of the pieces reburied have been re-excavated, some very quickly by art dealers, and others by the Iraqi government in the 1960s, leaving them on display in situ for visitors, after the sites were configured as museums. These were already damaged in wars in

26671-528: The previously obscure sun deity Aten as the supreme deity , suppressed the worship of most other deities, and moved the capital to the new city of Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna ). He was devoted to his new religion and artistic style . After his death, the cult of the Aten was quickly abandoned and the traditional religious order restored. The subsequent pharaohs, Tutankhamun , Ay , and Horemheb , worked to erase all mention of Akhenaten's heresy, now known as

26850-435: The progress of the army, including the fording of rivers, and usually culminates in the siege of a city, followed by the surrender and paying of tribute, and the return of the army home. A full and characteristic set shows the campaign leading up to the siege of Lachish in 701; it is the "finest" from the reign of Sennacherib , from his palace at Nineveh and now in the British Museum. Ernst Gombrich observed that none of

27029-621: The provinces became economically richer—which was demonstrated by larger and better burials among all social classes. In bursts of creativity, provincial artisans adopted and adapted cultural motifs formerly restricted to the royalty of the Old Kingdom, and scribes developed literary styles that expressed the optimism and originality of the period. Free from their loyalties to the king, local rulers began competing with each other for territorial control and political power . By 2160   BC, rulers in Herakleopolis controlled Lower Egypt in

27208-576: The right site was chosen. Assyrian palaces were built on high mud-brick platforms. Test trenches were started in various directions, and once one of them had hit sculpture, the trenches had only to follow the lines of the wall, often through a whole suite of rooms. Most trenches could be open to the sky, but at Nimrud, where one palace overlay another, tunnels were necessary in places. Layard estimated "that he had exposed nearly two miles of sculptured walls in Sennacherib's palace alone", not to mention

27387-718: The role of the Egyptian temple priests and priestesses diminished. The temples themselves were sometimes converted to churches or abandoned to the desert. In the fourth century, as the Roman Empire divided, Egypt found itself in the Eastern Empire with its capital at Constantinople . In the waning years of the Empire, Egypt fell to the Sasanian Persian army in the Sasanian conquest of Egypt (618–628). It

27566-417: The round". Most ancient architectural reliefs were originally painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. The subject of reliefs is for convenient reference assumed in this article to be usually figures, but sculpture in relief often depicts decorative geometrical or foliage patterns, as in the arabesques of Islamic art , and may be of any subject. Rock reliefs are those carved into solid rock in

27745-402: The size of a herd reflected the prestige and importance of the estate or temple that owned them. In addition to cattle, the ancient Egyptians kept sheep, goats, and pigs. Poultry , such as ducks, geese, and pigeons, were captured in nets and bred on farms, where they were force-fed with dough to fatten them. The Nile provided a plentiful source of fish . Bees were also domesticated from at least

27924-461: The source of the river Tigris , are "almost inaccessible and invisible for humans". Probably built by Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon , Shikaft-e Gulgul is a late example in modern Iran, apparently related to a military campaign. The Assyrians added to the Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb in modern Lebanon , where Ramses II , Pharaoh of Egypt, had rather optimistically commemorated

28103-432: The start of the large canals built by the Assyrian kings. In the case of temples, pairs of colossal lions guarding the entrances have been found. There are outcrops of the "Mosul marble" gypsum rock normally used at several places in the Assyrian realm, though not especially close to the capitals. The rock is very soft and slightly soluble in water, and exposed faces degraded, and needed to be cut into before usable stone

28282-436: The subject of several best-selling books, and imitated in political cartoons. The palace reliefs contain scenes in low relief which glorify the king, showing him at war, hunting, and fulfilling other kingly roles. Many works left in situ , or in museums local to their findspots, have been deliberately destroyed in the recent occupation of the area by ISIS , the pace of destruction reportedly increasing in late 2016, with

28461-463: The technique are described as "in relief", and, especially in monumental sculpture , the work itself is "a relief". Reliefs are common throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of smaller settings, and a sequence of several panels or sections of relief may represent an extended narrative. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with many figures and very active poses, such as battles, than free-standing "sculpture in

28640-442: The tree is often attended to by genies. Women are relatively rarely shown, and then usually as prisoners or refugees; an exception is a "picnic" scene showing Ashurbanipal with his queen. The many beardless royal attendants can probably be assumed to be eunuchs , who ran much of the administration of the empire, unless they also have the shaved heads and very tall hats of priests. Kings are often accompanied by several courtiers,

28819-494: The two states became inevitable. Between 671 and 667   BC the Assyrians began the Assyrian conquest of Egypt . The reigns of both Taharqa and his successor, Tanutamun , were filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians, against whom Egypt enjoyed several victories. Ultimately, the Assyrians pushed the Kushites back into Nubia, occupied Memphis, and sacked the temples of Thebes . The Assyrians left control of Egypt to

28998-725: The works usually being described as low relief instead. The typical traditional definition is that only up to half of the subject projects, and no elements are undercut or fully disengaged from the background field. The depth of the elements shown is normally somewhat distorted. Mid-relief is probably the most common type of relief found in the Hindu and Buddhist art of India and Southeast Asia . The low to mid-reliefs of 2nd-century BCE to 6th-century CE Ajanta Caves and 5th- to 10th-century Ellora Caves in India are rock reliefs. Most of these reliefs are used to narrate sacred scriptures, such as

29177-519: Was a notable source of granite, greywacke , and gold. Flint was the first mineral collected and used to make tools, and flint handaxes are the earliest pieces of evidence of habitation in the Nile valley. Nodules of the mineral were carefully flaked to make blades and arrowheads of moderate hardness and durability even after copper was adopted for this purpose. Ancient Egyptians were among the first to use minerals such as sulfur as cosmetic substances. Assyrian palace relief Assyrian sculpture

29356-490: Was also the beginning of trade with Mesopotamia , which continued into the early dynastic period and beyond. Over a period of about 1,000 years, the Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the people and resources of the Nile valley. Establishing a power center at Nekhen (in Greek, Hierakonpolis), and later at Abydos , Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along

29535-423: Was based on a common-sense view of right and wrong that emphasized reaching agreements and resolving conflicts rather than strictly adhering to a complicated set of statutes. Local councils of elders, known as Kenbet in the New Kingdom, were responsible for ruling in court cases involving small claims and minor disputes. More serious cases involving murder, major land transactions, and tomb robbery were referred to

29714-421: Was crucial in ancient Egypt because taxes were assessed based on the amount of land a person owned. Farming in Egypt was dependent on the cycle of the Nile River. The Egyptians recognized three seasons: Akhet (flooding), Peret (planting), and Shemu (harvesting). The flooding season lasted from June to September, depositing on the river's banks a layer of mineral-rich silt ideal for growing crops. After

29893-541: Was followed by the Naqada culture : the Naqada I ( Amratian ), the Naqada II ( Gerzeh ), and Naqada III ( Semainean ). These brought a number of technological improvements. As early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia , used to shape blades and other objects from flakes . Mutual trade with the Levant was established during Naqada II ( c.  3600–3350 BC ); this period

30072-571: Was in the early 1840s "a roving agent attached to the embassy at Constantinople ", who had already visited Nimrud in 1840. In 1845 he persuaded Sir Stratford Canning , the ambassador in Constantinople, to personally fund an expedition to excavate there. On his first day digging at Nimrud, with only six workers in November 1845, slabs were found, initially only with inscriptions, but soon with reliefs. He continued to dig until June 1847, with

30251-577: Was never able to overthrow the Persians until the end of the century. Following its annexation by Persia, Egypt was joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire . This first period of Persian rule over Egypt, also known as the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty , ended in 402   BC, when Egypt regained independence under a series of native dynasties. The last of these dynasties,

30430-494: Was part of the Ottoman Empire throughout the 19th century, and the government was content to allow foreign excavations and the removal of finds with little hindrance. Even in the 1870s excavators were often only regulated by a regime intended for mining operations, and had to pay a tax based on a proportion of the value of material removed. The character of the palace reliefs made excavation relatively straightforward, if

30609-545: Was published in 1836; he also brought back two small fragments. In 1842 the French consul in Mosul, Paul-Émile Botta , hired men to dig at Kuyunjik , the largest mound at Nineveh. Little was found until a local farmer suggested they try Khorsabad (ancient Dur-Sharrukin) nearby, where "a short trial was dramatically successful", as a palace of Sargon II was found a few feet below the surface, with plentiful reliefs, although they had been burned and disintegrated easily. Press reports of Botta's finds, from May 1843, interested

30788-403: Was reached. There are reliefs showing quarrying for Sennacherib 's new palace at Nineveh , though concentrating on the production of large lamassu . Blocks were extracted, using prisoners of war, and sawed into slabs with long iron saws. This may have happened at the palace site, which is certainly where the carving of orthostats was done, after the slabs had been fixed into place as a facing to

30967-441: Was repeated in Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh, with a total of ten lamassu. Other accompanying figures for colossal lamassu are winged genies with the bucket and cone , thought to be the equipment for a protective or purifying ritual. Lamassu also appear on cylinder seals . Several examples left in situ in northern Iraq have been destroyed in the 2010s by ISIL when they occupied the area. Colossal lamassu also guarded

31146-514: Was the gods, the reliefs and the inscriptions that often accompany them being almost of the nature of a "business report" submitted by the ruler. A canal system built by the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib (reigned 704–681 BC) to supply water to Nineveh was marked by a number of reliefs showing the king with gods. Other reliefs at the Tigris tunnel , a cave in modern Turkey believed to be

31325-476: Was then recaptured by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (629–639), and was finally captured by Muslim Rashidun army in 639–641, marking the end of both Byzantine rule and of the period typically considered Ancient Egypt. The pharaoh was the absolute monarch of the country and, at least in theory, wielded complete control of the land and its resources. The king was the supreme military commander and head of

31504-459: Was typically more complicated and difficult than digging them up. The first hint of future discoveries came in 1820 when Claudius Rich , British Resident (a sort of local ambassador or consul ) in Bagdhad , and an early scholar of the ancient Near East , went to Mosul and the site of ancient Nineveh, where he was told of a large relief panel that had been found and soon broken up. His account

31683-588: Was typically one per reign, were extensively decorated in this way for the roughly 250 years until the end of the Assyrian Empire. There was subtle stylistic development, but a very large degree of continuity in subjects and treatment. Compositions are arranged on slabs, or orthostats , typically about 7 feet high, using between one and three horizontal registers of images, with scenes generally reading from left to right. The sculptures are often accompanied with inscriptions in cuneiform script, explaining

31862-417: Was used on some elements, such as small scenes shown decorating textiles. Julian Reade concludes that "It is nonetheless puzzling that more traces of painting [on sculpture] have not been recorded". Apart from the alabaster wall reliefs, all found in palaces, other objects carrying relatively large reliefs are bronze strips used to reinforce and decorate large gates. Parts of three sets have survived, all from

32041-420: Was used to weave sheets of linen and to make clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of the Nile River was used to make paper. Vegetables and fruits were grown in garden plots, close to habitations and on higher ground, and had to be watered by hand. Vegetables included leeks, garlic, melons, squashes, pulses, lettuce, and other crops, in addition to grapes that were made into wine. The Egyptians believed that

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