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Part 3: Protoliterate Period to The Assyrian Empire

The Protoliterate period occupies a brief 500-year span on the calendar of what might be called urbanization of civilization. From 3500 BC to 3000 BC, largely due to the altering climate and the increased knowledge of growing and herding animals along with improved agricultural methods, there was a major shift from wandering/gathering to more permanent community/village development. This resulted in more expanded art opportunities, more elevated methods of art creation, and a heightened awareness of the meanings of these items.

By this time, more sophisticated refinement of materials allowed the artist to create items with natural colors. Minerals and natural pigments were used with brushes. Many of these were applied to backgrounds that were applied for this specific purpose, such as white plaster. As if to prove the short-term importance of the event pictured, often the art was covered over with more plaster, and another scene painted over the first. Prior to this period, art was not "ornamental"--it was a ritual of survival.

It was during this period that writing was developed, the earliest examples of which were used to keep accounts and make descriptions of simple transactions, stores, and supplies. But a written language began a reliable record of history.

By the 22nd and 21st Centuries BC, a period called Neo-Sumerian was known for its architecture and building methods. Structures were explored that pushed to new heights, with massive stairways, bases of fifty feet and higher, pedestals and multiple levels. In Egypt the pyramids at Giza were constructed.

At this same time, sculpture work took a distinctive turn as well. Human forms began to be more lifelike with proportions, features and costumes detailed in a more realistic way. Gone were the more crude and featureless forms. Human figures were depicted with individual digits clearly distinguishable and with eyes and hair that were well defined. Around 1700 BC and slightly beyond, most sculptures had enlarged eyes (considered the "window of the soul"). Vision was felt to be part of the intellectual and spiritual traits of humans. Cylindrical forms also began to emerge.

Formalism, the creation of sculptural forms that were captured in greater than natural perfection, also began to surface about this time. Although centuries later the Greeks would use this type of idealization regularly, this appears to be the beginning of stylized form. A union of formal and natural, where natural surroundings and rigid human forms are combined in looks that mimic play-acting, began to appear.

Near 1000 BC, architecture again leaped forward with the advent of not only multi-level dwellings, but groupings of structures within compounds where large groups of individuals lived and performed daily tasks. These collections of structures were often grand and included art placed with purpose, e.g., archways, glazed tiles, and beginning evidence of relief sculpture. Friezes became popular, allowing artists to depict sectional scenes and visual narratives. Although considered somewhat rigid, due in large part to the lack of rounded form, these scenes accurately report a variety of events and activities.

The last segment of this period, classified as the Assyrian Empire, was revolutionary, considering its short 300 years of existence. There were refinements in the execution and application of relief sculpture. This was a period in which the kings of Assyria often had their power depicted in nonhuman forms. They wished their greatness, that of hunting and war, to be shown in exact terms. Historians have learned most of the history of the Assyrians through these relief carvings and the writing that accompanies them. Indeed, most of the history of the entire Assyrian Empire exists because of the relief work, as little sculpture in the round exists. The artists of this time used continuous flat surfaces of stone, onto which they carved a continuous narrative, scenes broken only by the edges of the fitted blocks. And, although there is a formality to the forms, the depictions are true to the activities and events of the period.

In summary, starting in 3500 BC, we see art beginning to emerge as less a record of ritual and spiritual need and begin to take on the realistic elements of form and design. Greater sophistication of artists' materials and techniques makes art that for the first time is considered short-term and art that is often covered over for new art to take its place.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 11 No. 3 -- January 2001