On the fifth floor of the Denver Art Museum’s North Building, four panels of a sarcophagus lay dismembered, mounted upon the wall. The sarcophagus is native to China, hailing from era of the Han dynasty from 500-534. Though unfortunately dismantled, the panels remain in exceptional condition especially being made of out of a single block of limestone. As might be expected, the sarcophagus is of reasonable size, likely to encase an entire human body and then some additional items. The most captivating features of the sarcophagus, however, are the two animals dominating the two largest panels: a tiger and a dragon. The subjects illustrated unto the pieces share similar enchanted aspects but they undoubtedly demonstrate two discrete…
The inner most coffin of the sarcophagus in the tomb of King Tutakhamun is made of gold and is the body of King Tutankhamu. It shows the facial expression, the nemes headdress, the ceremonial beard, as well as the flail and the scepter. Those were all represented his royal power. As the experts thought, King Tutankhamun died young and his death was unexpected, but this…
Marble stele (grave marker) of a youth and little girl with capital and finial in the form of a sphinx, the most complete grave monument of its type to have survived from the Archaic period. 1 The monument is made with marble; the total height is 13 feet and 10 11/16 inches.…
Toward the western side of the burial ground they found multiple 2-4 meter ring ditches which originally help posts or beams, but none were found. In the same area, they found large amounts of burnt bone deposits. This suggests the previous presence of a pyre used for cremation. They also uncovered a series of nineteen coffin edges containing sand bodies and objects. Many of the objects buried with the bodies were weapons such as swords, spears, and shields suggesting a male, and others contained brooches and bead jewelry, suggesting a female. One grave had “a male with sword spear, shield boss and decorative shield-mounts.” (Archaeology, 1)…
As a child, ancient egyptian history was my escape. I would sit under my covers for hours reading books I had recently checked out from my city library about pharaohs, pyramids, and my favorite subject of all, Cleopatra. When visiting The Rosicrucian Museum of San Jose, I felt like a child agin. While touring the many different exhibits, I became more excited and interested one after another. After carefully reviewing over 4 pairs of artifacts, I chose to compare and contrast a predynastic box coffin and a Middle Kingdom coffin. The predynastic box coffin dates back to 3200 B.C.E and is not adorned with any after life offerings or scriptures, while the coffin of Lady…
Abstract: Egyptian canopic jars function as funerary pottery and a symbol of the protection offered by the four Sons of Horus. Although Egypt gets the most recognition, several other ancient cultures have similar pottery used for the dead’s benefit. Greek kraters functioned both as wine mixing pots and pots for liquid offerings for the dead. Both of these ceramics allow the viewer to observe key pieces of their respective cultures’ values, religion, and technology.…
I chose to do my paper on a piece of art from the late middle ages called a Canopic jar. This is a handmade jar, made with stone, wood, and pottery. It is not a normal jar because the head of the jar is some type of unique animal. Pieces like these were made frequently from 712-600 BC to hold the internal organs of a dead person, whether they were royal or not. Then the canopic jar would be put into canopic boxes that were illuminated to resemble a coffin. This is similar to the 20th century because we cremate people, and put their remains in jars as well- so it’s basically the same thing except the Egyptian people did not burn their dead. These jars caught my interest because it was unique, and it’s similar to a lot of the things I see on television concerning the Egyptian times. Like in the movie, “The prince of Egypt” I saw little statues similar to these in the Pharaoh’s kingdom. During these times Egypt was a rich artistic atmosphere, as it still is today.…
There are many inferences that can be made about the societal views of the dead during this time period based on the study of the cemetery. Firstly, the dead are buried with the headstones, often inscribed with the names of the buried, as well as the year of birth and death. It can be assumed that it is a societal norm in order to document and revisit the graves.…
An understanding of the Etruscans’ domesticity is revealed through their tombs, implying an organised and sophisticated society. The Etruscans had a passion for an orderly and comfortable afterlife (The Mysterious Etruscans, 2006; Hamblin, 1975, 44-45), thus they built sophisticated tombs that mimicked their everyday households. In early cremations, Etruscans used urns made to look like huts (Figure 1) (Cristofani, 1979; Etruscan Civilisation, 2009; Hamblin, 1975, 67-68). They believed that the shape of a tomb had to resemble the deceased’s surroundings [house]. This verifies that housing existed at an early stage of their civilisation confirming that they were not primitive. The tomb of Bas Reliefs (Figure 2) (The Mysterious Etruscans, 2006; Hamblin, 1975; Estensen, 1995), displays a well thought out set up of a typical house in Etruria. This tomb exhibits cooking utensils, tools, crockery and weaponry all carved into the tufa rock walls (Estensen, 1995). Even though tombs often contained these items for the afterlife, it provides valuable information about them as a society and demonstrates that they were able to construct tools and weaponry valuable to everyday life. Later tombs imitated the civil architecture that developed, using paintings to emphasise architectural features of their homes (The Mysterious Etruscans, 2006). As explained…
The Battle began after Captain Benjamin Church leads his men into an ambush. While merely a handful of men died Church began to use this as a tale to preach in hopes of creating a nationalist community sparking from a common enemy. The story of how the natives would dismember and decapitate the dead left on the battlefield without a proper Catholic burial. Appalled by the stories of Church the Puritans began demanding that bodies be given a proper burial. This proved very difficult as the retrieval of the dead was the perfect set up for an ambush. If one was lucky enough and no ambush was made bodies would be hastily buried on the battlefield. This was a rarity as most bodies had been scavenged and as the customs of a proper burial took too…
In this weeks reading, the artwork that resonated with me most were the Etruscan tombs. As an anthropology student, I am drawn to artwork that is unclear in its meaning, and I am especially drawn to burials. I find it extremely fascinating that we as humans have always placed importance on an afterlife, whether one believes in reincarnation, heaven, or any other type of eternal place of rest.…
Funerals and final expenses are a major issue for unprepared families. With the average funeral cost estimated in the range of $8,000 - $10,000 dollars, unexpected costs and fees can create significant stress for grieving family members. That's why the burial vault is such a common point of frustration for folks in this situation. They add somewhere between $900 - $7,000 dollars to the total funeral bill.…
I chose to write about the "Sarcophagus Depicting a Battle Between Soldiers and Amazons (Warrior Women)". A sarcophagus is a stone coffin usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions. Supposedly, This Roman cultured sarcophagus was dedicated for an important Roman soldier. It was built some time in between 140 A.D. to 170 A.D. and made out of marble. Sarcophagus were officially made by the Greeks, hence the pediment. Although this sarcophagus was built by the Romans they still added the triangular roof at the top of the coffin, which was also invented by the Greeks. The scene on this coffin is of a battle between men soldiers and female warrior amazons. The battle scene that takes place on this casket is very interesting; it depicts different kinds of symbolism, emotion, and is more expressive.…
v This burial doesn’t demonstrate the usual characteristics of an execution. The head is placed by the stomach, which means it was strategically placed in the grave, as well as the urn which was on the shoulders where the head should be. Whatever pagan tradition was being followed, it is quite clear that the set-up of the body was designed in a way for some sort of representation, possibly religious sacrifice. The position of the head is the main hint as to what the purpose of the decapitation might have…
The first aware the woman's rights is called Second-Wave Feminism. It occurred in 1968. Some women organized The Burial of Traditional Womanhood. The event was remembered as sign for the mainly political nature for woman. Political activism characterize all features of this movement having art criticism. Having this item, I refer to a group of critical perspectives on art.…
