Indigenous Peoples and Ancient Art: Venezuela, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece

Posted on Jan 27, 2025 in Geology

Indigenous Peoples of Venezuela

Caribs of the Coast

The Caribs of the coast, from the Paria Peninsula (Sucre) to Borburata (Carabobo), were divided into three groups:

  1. Caracas
  2. Cumanagotos
  3. Palenques or Guarinos

Housing: A mixture of clay and straw, adobe (stilts).

Diet: Corn, fish.

Clothing:

  • Men wore a “cap barro”.
  • Married women: an apron of straw and cotton.
  • Unmarried women: naked.

Religion: Polytheistic, with various gods.

Timote-Cuicas

The Timote-Cuicas were descendants of the Chibchas in the Venezuelan Andes. They occupied Mérida, Trujillo, and Táchira.

Dwelling: Stone houses with high walls to keep the internal heat.

Foods:

  1. Wild fruits
  2. Potatoes, corn, peppers
  3. Trade (barter)

Dress: Leather “guayuco” from animals.

Religion: Worshipers of the sun and natural forces (polytheists).

Indigenous Architecture

First homes: Mountain caves.

Palafitos: Buildings made of wood with thatched roofs.

Churuata: Semi-circular housing 10 to 12 meters, thatched roofs, and rattan.

Huts: Rectangular constructions, wood, straw or palm roofs, wattle and daub walls.

Indigenous Painting

Petroglyphs: Drawings or engravings by indigenous people. Colors: red (blood), brown (ground), black (carbon).

Materials: Cut stone, shells, and minerals.

Sculpture: Figurines.

Prehistoric Art

Prehistoric art is an artistic phenomenon of global geographical links and a temporal scale.

Periods of Prehistory

Stone Age: Paleolithic, Neolithic.

Metal Age: Bronze, Iron, Copper.

Architecture: Huts, palafitos, houses in trees.

Megalithic Monuments

Menhir: Elongated stone.

Dolmen: Round table type.

Cromlech: Alignment in a straight line.

Egyptian Art

Located on the African continent.

General Characteristics

  1. Limited collective liability
  2. Art that is in the service of religion
  3. Great, majestic
  4. Geometric rules

Characteristics of Architecture

  1. Belief in an afterlife led to the construction of tombs
  2. Solid works for stability
  3. Constructions were civilian (houses) and religious (temples)

Temples:

  • Solar: outdoors, obelisk.
  • Divine: consist of a place to pray.

Tombs: A small chamber to deposit the dead.

Pyramids: Used to bury the pharaohs. Parts:

  1. Pyramid entrance
  2. Ventilation
  3. Corridors
  4. Sarcophagus chamber
  5. The chamber where the Queen meets the King
  6. Secret passageway

Hypogea: Tombs excavated in the banks made by certain rocks.

Mastabas: Tombs that have a truncated pyramid shape.

Sculpture

Materials: Precious stones, silver, wood. Most important work: Queen Nefertiti.

Characteristics of Relief Sculpture

  1. Frontal, face and legs in profile
  2. Eye and thorax facing forward
  3. Two feet on the same side

Relief Features in Painting

  1. Animals on a dark red-brown varnish
  2. Mural decoration of their graves in black, red, blue, yellow, green, and white
  3. Adorned walls and columns

Characteristics of Painting (Egyptian Art)

Decorative function. Support: marble, stone, bone, tombs, papyrus.

Laws: Frontal, rigid, symmetry, repetition, torsion.

Papyrus: Sheet taken from the stem of the papyrus plant.

Mesopotamian Art

Location: Between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers on the Asian continent. Walled cities to avoid floods. Baghdad was the capital, formerly Babylonia.

Characteristics of Architecture

  1. Solid appearance (strong, massive)
  2. Building materials: adobe, brick, clay tiles fired in a kiln
  3. Civil character (the village)

Sculpture

  1. Realism in their figures
  2. Emphasize low relief in their decorations
  3. Statues of great size

Materials: Alabaster, black marble.

Greek Art

Doric

  1. First in its creation, more simple
  2. Capital is geometric
  3. Has a base
  4. The shaft is fluted

Ionic

  1. Second in its creation (more elegant)
  2. Capital formed by two volutes
  3. It has a base

Corinthian

  1. Combination of Doric and Ionic
  2. Capital in the form of a basket
  3. Has a base
  4. The shaft is smooth, like that of acanthus

Periods of Greek Art

Archaic: Used wood, arms close to the body, figures have rigidity.

Classical: Perfection, bronze and marble were used. Representations of human anatomy.

Works: Phidias, Pallas Athena, The Discus Thrower of Myron, Polykleitos.

Hellenistic: Exaggerated dynamism, represents stages of life, emotion, feelings, used white marble and bronze.

Greek Sculpture

Realism, dramatic portraits. They created attitudes of children and the elderly, included anatomy, expressed pain, and passion.

Works: Fedelino. The center of art is man, not dedicated to the gods.