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| A prehistoric period in the Old World, dating roughly from 3000-1000 BCE, defined by the widespread use of bronze |
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| Ancient Near East civilization, among the earliest known |
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| Aegean civilization, first of the officially Western cultures |
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| Minoan Palace, largest and the most complicated |
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| could be a deity or an attendant, fashioned after real women |
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| ancient city on the island of Crete |
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| Script of Minoan Crete and Mycenae, deciphered in 1953. |
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| crown (diadem of ravenclaw = teh horcrux) |
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| a class of Mycenaean terracotta figurines depicting women carrying children |
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| the guy with the minotaur, Knossos |
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| Middle Minoan period, creamy white and reddish-brown on black, natural/abstract forms, suggestive of life in the sea, integrated with shape of vessel |
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| Pompeii of the Aegean, at Thera (Cyclades), volcano buried a bunch of frescos |
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| half-bull, half-man trapped inside the Labyrinth |
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| stone in masonry after it's been squared with a hammer and chisel |
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| excavated at Knossos and found evidence of sophisticated Bronze age |
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| German amateur archaeologist who found Troy, Mycenae, and Tiryns |
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| bronze casting method with the wax model |
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| putting something decorative into something solid |
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| method of metalwork that pushes the features out from behind |
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| coat of gold or something that looks like gold |
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| gold beaten into super-thin shites for decorating books |
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| soft, easily worked stone. Soapstone, form of talc |
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| rattle/tamborine like instrument, sacred symbol of Kybele, Dionysos, Ishtar, Isis, Hathor |
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| Late Minoan pottery, emphasizes shape of jar, dark silhouettes on ligt ground |
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| bay/town on west coast of Peloponnese |
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| tholoi, Mycenaean chamber tomb from Bonze Age |
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| Greek, “high city.” In ancient Greece, usually the site of the city’s most important temple(s). |
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| A curved structural member that spans an opening and is generally composed of wedge-shaped blocks (voussoirs) that transmit the downward pressure laterally.See also thrust. |
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| The uppermost story of a building. |
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| Assignment of a work to a maker or makers. |
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| The uppermost member of a column, serving as a transition from the shaft to the lintel. In classical architecture, the form of the capital varies with the order. |
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| A projecting wall member used as a support for some element in the superstructure. Also, courses of stone or brick in which each course projects beyond the one beneath it. Two such walls, meeting at the topmost course, create a corbeled arch or corbeled vault. |
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| A vault formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses, cantilevered inward until the two walls meet in an arch. |
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| In masonry construction, a horizontal row of stone blocks. |
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| The pre-Greek art of the Cycladic Islands. |
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| A method of stone construction, named after the mythical one-eyed giant Cyclops, using massive, irregular blocks without mortar, characteristic of the Bronze Age fortifications of Tiryns and other Mycenaean sites. |
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| A hemispheric vault; theoretically, an arch rotated on its vertical axis. |
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| The passage leading to a tholos tomb. |
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| Painting on lime plaster, either dry (dry fresco or fresco secco) or wet (true or buon fresco). In the latter method, the pigments are mixed with water and become chemically bound to the freshly laid lime plaster. Also, a painting executed in either method. |
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| The pre-Greek art of the Greek mainland (Hellas). |
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| Greek, the “writing of images.” The term refers both to the content, or subject, of an artwork and to the study of content in art. It also includes the study of the symbolic, often religious, meaning of objects, persons, or events depicted in works of art. |
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| An ancient Greek wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water. |
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| The large reception hall in a Mycenaean palace, fronted by an open, two-columned porch. |
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| The pre-Greek art of Crete, named after the legendary King Minos of Knossos. |
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| The late phase of Helladic art, named after the site of Mycenae. |
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| A roofed colonnade; also an entrance porch. |
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| In Mycenaean architecture, the triangular opening above the lintel that serves to lighten the weight to be carried by the lintel itself. |
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| Formed in relief by beating a metal plate from the back, leaving the impression on the face. The metal is hammered into a hollow mold of wood or some other pliable material and finished with a graver. See also relief. |
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| Freestanding figures, carved or modeled in three dimensions. |
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| Hard-baked clay, used for sculpture and as a building material. It may be glazed or painted. |
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| A temple with a circular plan. |
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| In Mycenean architecture, a beehive-shaped tomb with a circular plan. |
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| In ancient Greece, a small building set up for the safe storage of votive offerings. |
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| In early Greek pottery, the silhouetting of dark figures against a light background of natural, reddish clay, with linear details incised through the silhouettes. |
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| A pointed tool used for engraving or incising. |
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| The way in which an artist organizes forms in an artwork, either by placing shapes on a flat surface or arranging forms in space. |
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| A circle of monoliths. Also called henge. |
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| Images, materials, or objects as found in the everyday environment that are incorporated into works of art. |
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| See sculpture in the round. |
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| In paintings and reliefs, a painted or carved baseline on which figures appear to stand. |
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| To cut into a surface with a sharp instrument; also, a method of decoration, especially on metal and pottery. |
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| A picture showing natural scenery, without narrative content. |
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| A beam used to span an opening. |
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| The material (for example, marble, bronze, clay, fresco) in which an artist works; also, in painting, the vehicle (usually liquid) that carries the pigment. |
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| megalith (adj., megalithic) |
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| Greek, “great stone.” A large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction of monumental prehistoric structures. See also cromlech. |
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| The “middle” Stone Age, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages. |
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| A column shaft that is all in one piece (not composed of drums); a large, single block or piece of stone used in megalithic structures. |
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| The “old” Stone Age, during which humankind produced the first sculptures and paintings. |
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| Method of measuring the decay rate of carbon isotopes in organic matter to provide dates for organic materials such as wood and fiber. |
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| In later Greek pottery, the silhouetting of red figures against a black background, with painted linear details; the reverse of black-figure painting. |
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| In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part. The degree of relief is designated high, low (bas), or sunken. In the last, the artist cuts the design into the surface so that the highest projecting parts of the image are no higher than the surface itself. See alsorepoussé. |
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| Hard-baked clay, used for sculpture and as a building material. It may be glazed or painted. |
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| A pair of monoliths topped with a lintel; found in megalithic structures. |
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| A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally; a composite view. |
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| Greek, “high city.” In ancient Greece, usually the site of the city’s most important temple(s). |
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| The great audience hall in ancient Persian palaces. |
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| A curved structural member that spans an opening and is generally composed of wedge-shaped blocks (voussoirs) that transmit the downward pressure laterally.See also thrust. |
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| In a Roman amphitheater, the central area where bloody gladiatorial combats and other boisterous events took place. |
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| A collection of illustrations of real and imaginary animals. |
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| An arcade having no actual openings, applied as decoration to a wall surface. |
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| The chamber at the center of an ancient temple; in a classical temple, the room (Greek, naos) in which the cult statue usually stood. |
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| An independent, self-governing city. |
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| Latin, “wedgeshaped.” A system of writing used in ancient Mesopotamia, in which wedge-shaped characters were produced by pressing a stylus into a soft clay tablet, which was then baked or otherwise allowed to harden. |
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| A cylindrical piece of stone usually about an inch or so in height, decorated with an incised design, so that a raised pattern was left when the seal was rolled over soft clay. In the ancient Near East, documents, storage jars, and other important possessions were signed, sealed, and identified in this way. |
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| Usually, the front of a building; also, the other sides when they are emphasized architecturally. |
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| The use of perspective to represent in art the apparent visual contraction of an object that extends back in space at an angle to the perpendicular plane of sight. |
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| The part of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice; also, any sculptured or painted band in a building. See register. |
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| A vitreous coating applied to pottery to seal and decorate the surface; it may be colored, transparent, or opaque, and glossy or matte. In oil painting, a thin, transparent, or semitransparent layer put over a color to alter it slightly. |
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| Bricks painted and then kiln fired to fuse the color with the baked clay. |
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| In paintings and reliefs, a painted or carved baseline on which figures appear to stand. |
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| A composition that is symmetrical on either side of a central figure. |
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| An artistic convention in which greater size indicates greater importance. |
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| In Islamic architecture, a vaulted rectangular recess opening onto a courtyard. |
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| Assyrian guardian in the form of a man-headed winged bull. |
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| A rich ultramarine semiprecious stone used for carving and as a source for pigment. |
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| A picture, usually stylized, that represents an idea; also, writing using such means; also painting on rock. See also hieroglyphic. |
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| One of a series of superimposed bands or friezes in a pictorial narrative, or the particular levels on which motifs are placed. |
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| Formed in relief by beating a metal plate from the back, leaving the impression on the face. The metal is hammered into a hollow mold of wood or some other pliable material and finished with a graver. See also relief. |
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| A carved stone slab used to mark graves or to commemorate historical events. |
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| A needlelike tool used in engraving and incising; also, an ancient writing instrument used to inscribe clay or wax tablets. |
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| A whorl of hair, represented as a dot, between the brows; one of the lakshanas of the Buddha. |
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| A gift of gratitude to a deity. |
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| In ancient Mesopotamian architecture, a monumental platform for a temple. |
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| The clay used to make a kind of sun-dried mud brick of the same name; a building made of such brick. |
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| An object worn to ward off evil or to aid the wearer. |
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| A male figure that functions as a supporting column. See also caryatid. |
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| A pyramidal stone; a fetish of the Egyptian god Re. |
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| In ancient Egyptian sculpture, a cubic stone image with simplified body parts. |
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| A rule, for example, of proportion. The ancient Greeks considered beauty to be a matter of “correct” proportion and sought a canon of proportion, for the human figure and for buildings. |
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| In ancient Egypt, the container in which the organs of the deceased were placed for later burial with the mummy. |
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| The uppermost member of a column, serving as a transition from the shaft to the lintel. In classical architecture, the form of the capital varies with the order. |
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| A female figure that functions as a supporting column. See also atlantid. |
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| The surface formed by cutting off a corner of a board or post; a bevel. |
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| The fenestrated part of a building that rises above the roofs of the other parts. In Roman basilicas and medieval churches, the windows that form the nave’s uppermost level below the timber ceiling or the vaults. |
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| A series or row of columns, usually spanned by lintels. |
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| A half-round column attached to a wall. See also pilaster. |
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| Vertical channeling, roughly semicircular in cross-section and used principally on columns and pilasters. |
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| Painting on lime plaster, either dry (dry fresco or fresco secco) or wet (true or buon fresco). In the latter method, the pigments are mixed with water and become chemically bound to the freshly laid lime plaster. Also, a painting executed in either method. |
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| A system of writing using symbols or pictures. |
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| A hall with a roof supported by columns. |
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| A stone with the shape of a truncated, inverted pyramid, placed between a capital and the arch that springs from it. |
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| In ancient Egypt, the immortal human life force. |
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| Arabic, “bench.” An ancient Egyptian rectangular brick or stone structure with sloping sides erected over a subterranean tomb chamber connected with the outside by a shaft. |
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| A technique used by ancient Egyptians to preserve human bodies so that they may serve as the eternal home of the immortal ka. |
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| Greek, “city of the dead”; a large burial area or cemetery. |
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| In ancient Egypt, the linen headdress worn by the pharaoh, with the uraeus cobra of kingship on the front. |
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| In ancient Egypt, a slate slab used for preparing makeup. A thin board with a thumb hole at one end on which an artist lays and mixes colors; any surface so used. Also, the colors or kinds of colors characteristically used by an artist. |
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| A plant native to Egypt and adjacent lands used to make paperlike writing material; also, the material or any writing on it. |
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| An abstract idea represented in bodily form. |
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| A picture, usually stylized, that represents an idea; also, writing using such means; also painting on rock. See also hieroglyphic. |
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| A vertical, freestanding masonry support. |
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| A roofed colonnade; also an entrance porch. |
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| The simple and massive gateway, with sloping walls, of an Egyptian temple. |
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| A movement that emerged in mid- 19th-century France. Realist artists represented the subject matter of everyday life (especially that which up until then had been considered inappropriate for depiction) in a relatively naturalistic mode. |
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| sarcophagus (pl. sarcophagi) |
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| Latin, “consumer of flesh.” A coffin, usually of stone. |
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| A small concealed chamber in an Egyptian mastaba for the statue of the deceased. |
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| A mythical Egyptian beast with the body of a lion and the head of a human. |
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| In ancient Egypt, a figurine placed in a tomb to act as a servant to the deceased in the afterlife. |
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