Streaming video from Films On Demand: The Sumerian civilization formed on the banks of Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The culture created irrigation systems, exported crops to trade for livestock, built the Ziggurat, and wrote in Cuneiform. The Persians conquered the Sumerians in 539 BC.
Streaming video from Films On Demand: Literally "the land between the rivers," Mesopotamia was host to some of the world’s earliest and most powerful civilizations. Shot on location, this program seeks to understand how the Sumerian city-states, cradled by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, built a vibrant agricultural economy—and why, after centuries, the wheat crop suddenly failed. Commentary by Asli Ozdogan, of Istanbul University, and Kazuya Maekawa, of Kyoto University; discussion of cuneiform, the Code of Hammurabi, and the Epic of Gilgamesh; and a remarkable 3-D computer re-creation of a peopled street scene offer a glimpse of life in Lower Mesopotamia. (59 minutes)
Streaming video from Films On Demand: The Ancient Persian Empire formed in a northwest corner of Iran. Cyrus the Great conquered many indigenous people but allowed them to retain their language and culture; he ruled with mercy instead of might. Darius the First divided the empire into 20 provinces and appointed a Satrap to govern
This volume of collected essays brings together for the first time the range of Winter s pioneering studies related to Neo-Assyrian relief sculpture and seals, Phoenician and Syrian ivory and bronze production, and inter-polity connections across the various cultures of first millennium B.C.E. from the Aegean to Iran. Consistent threads are an emphasis on the potential for art historical analysis to yield history in the broadest sense; the importance of making the theoretical frame of interpretation explicit; and the necessity of textual evidence being brought to bear upon elements of formal analysis and archaeological context.
Streaming video from Films On Demand: The host introduces viewers to other ancient treasures in the British Museum, including Sumerian art of exquisite beauty.
This book introduces the reader to the art of sculpture across five millennia up to the present, and from the Near East to the west. In each of the eleven chapters, a number of selected works are discussed to exemplify the circumstances and conditions for making pieces of sculpture - objects peculiar to place, time and context.