Ancient Civilizations' Representations of Humans

While subsequent civilizations included other topics, including politics and economics, in their depictions of human forms, the pre-historic period's depictions of human forms were only concerned with religious issues. The represented human forms were primarily intended to provide spiritual support (Bryce 328). The representation of these shapes for the adornment of luxury received little attention. Human sculptures were awkwardly shaped because man was still in the process of evolving. When compared to human depictions that were a part of civilization in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome, and the Aegean region, which had depictions of human forms with significantly more sophisticated features, this is considerably different (Siapkas et al 223). Human forms represented in Aegean civilization had little features except a plain body and sharp mouths and noses. Just like other periods of civilization, relief sculpture was one of the methods of depicting human forms. However, two-dimensional relief sculpture was more common because man during this stage had not developed skills for three-dimensional sculpture. Generally, prehistoric civilization was too much focused on religion, had little political emphasis, and was mainly cent red on two-dimensional relief (Siapkas et al 213).

One of the main purposes of depicting human forms in the Egyptian revolution was to represent ideas. A good example of such a purpose is the Sphinx, a sculpture portraying Pharaoh Khafre’s head mounted on the body of a lion. This was used to imply that the Pharaoh was super intelligent (human face) and was exceedingly strong (lion). So far, Egyptian revolution is the only one in which human depictions were used to represent ideas (Bryce 312).

Depiction of human forms for religious purposes was common to all types of civilization. In Egyptian revolution, Egyptian Gods were represented using carvings of human faces. These included images of gods placed next to where the Pharaoh’s were laid to rest in their tomb. Also, Egyptian ancestors were represented using images as three-dimensional marble carvings. The religious belief attached to these images was that the spirit of the dead persons often visited and possessed the images. In the Aegean civilization, human forms were religiously represented as three-dimensional figurines with lack of detailed features. The famous Venus Figurines were wedge-shaped three-dimensional images devoid of a majority of facial features whose role was to provide fertility for the ancient aegeans. Emphasizing the role of fertility was the representation of these forms as female nudes with folded arms (Bober 145).

A similar practice was observed in the Near East in which carvings of female human beings were used to represent the goddesses of fertility. Other than representing goddesses as human females, carvings of human beings were also used as votive offerings in the temples of the present day inhabitants. A notable example of depictions representing votive offerings is the Tell Asmar Hoard which consists of 12 marble carvings illustrating people worshipping, priests delivering divine messages to people, and goddesses issuing warnings to priests. Also, the Burney Relief is a relief sculpture depicted in the form of a winged female being representing a goddess (Bober 148). In the Roman Civilization, there is little information regarding religious carvings in the ancient Roman Empire. However, paintings and sculptures of saints and other important figures in the Christian Religion (e.g. Jesus Christ) were later introduced by Christian converts who were Romans in the early centuries of the Christian church.

Depiction of human forms was mainly used to fulfill political motives in the subsequent civilizations following the pre-historic civilization. Therefore, Egyptian, Roman, Aegean, and Near East civilizations all used human form depictions for political purposes. In Egypt, the portrayal of Pharaoh in form of the Great Sphinx at Giza illustrates political exaltation of the Pharaoh. Other political depictions used in Egyptian civilization include the portraits of the Middle Kingdom rulers and colossal figures such as that of Ramses II (a large relief portrait at the entrance to the ruler’s tomb).

In the Near East civilization, representation of human forms as prominent political figures was also a common practice. For instance, the civilization created the ‘Head of the Akkadan ruler’, a marble representation of a human head, most probably Sargos (Siapkas et al 223). It could also be worn as a mask. The Victory of Stele Nacaram is another key political representation in the Near East civilization which illustrates a king in the midst of the Stele, which was a symbol of political and divine might bestowed upon the king. In the Roma civilization, stones, woods, and metals were minted to form images that represented ancient rulers of the Roman Empire such as Augustus and Constantine (Bober 149). The representation of Constantine’s hand, a break off from the larger statute of Constantine I, is a clear indication of how depiction of human forms was used to convey political messages. The hand originally pointed towards a huge crowd so as to depict the political might of Constantine I (Bryce 322).



Conclusion

Early civilizations made attempts to development depictions of human forms using various approaches such as paintings, carvings, and sculpture. There are key differences and similarities portrayed regarding depiction of human forms in each of the civilizations. While the Egyptian, Aegean, Roman, and Near East civilizations share a majority of similarities in terms of social, political, and economic aspects, the pre-historic civilization had too much focus on religious matters (Siapkas et al 223). Furthermore, the Egyptian civilization stands out unique from the rest in the sense that depictions of human form were combined with other inanimate objects to convey ideas and symbols, a practice which was not common in the other civilizations. Lastly, human depictions in all the five civilizations are similar in the sense that they all involved religious aspects (Siapkas et al 223).



















Works Cited

Bober, Phyllis Pray. Art, culture, and cuisine: ancient and medieval gastronomy. University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Bryce, Trevor, and Jessie Birkett-Rees. Atlas of the Ancient Near East: From Prehistoric Times to the Roman Imperial Period. Routledge, 2016.

Siapkas, Johannes, and Lena Sjögren. "Ancient Sculptures and National Museums: Universal and Local Claims of Antiquity." NaMu; Making National Museums Program; Setting the Frames; 26-28 February; Norrköping; Sweden. No. 022. Linköping University Electronic Press, 2007.