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Results for anthropomorphic:

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anthropomorph

SYNONYM: anthropomorphic figure; anthropomorphism (n.); anthropomorphous (adj.)
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A representation of the human form in art, such as those found on ancient pottery. A figure, object, or rock art with or using a human shape. The term also refers to the attribution of human features and behaviors to animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena.

anthropomorphic

SYNONYM: anthropomorphous
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Manlike; used to describe artifacts or art work decorated with human features or with a man-like appearance

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Assur

SYNONYM: Ashur
CATEGORY: deity; site
DEFINITION: A solar deity which was the chief god of the city of Assur and the kingdom of Assyria. With the latter's conquests, Assur assumed leadership of the Assyrian pantheon and supremacy over the other gods of Mesopotamia. The deity was conceived in anthropomorphic terms. The image of the deity was fed and clothed and was responsible for fertility and security, and represented as a winged sun-disc. It is also the name of the ancient religious capital of the Assyrian empire in northern Mesopotamia, on the bank of the River Tigris at modern Qalaat-Shergat, which was a great trading center and the burial place of the kings even after the government moved to Nineveh. First recorded in the 3rd millennium BC as a frontier post of the empire of Akkad, it then became an independent city-state and finally the capital of Assyria. After Assyria's collapse in 614 BC it failed to survive but was briefly revived under the Parthians. Areas of the palaces, temples, walls, and town have been cleared, and a sondage pit was cut beneath the Temple of Ishtar (pre-Sargonid) to reveal the 3rd and early 2nd millennium levels (the first use of this technique in Mesopotamian excavation). Sumerian statues were found -- among the earliest evidence of Sumerian contact outside the southern plain. For over 2000 years successive kings built and rebuilt the fortifications, temple, and palace complexes: inscriptions associated with these monuments have helped in the construction of the chronology of the site. Three large ziggurats dominated the city with the largest being 60 m square (completed by Shamsi Adad I c 1800 bc). It was originally dedicated to Enlil, but later to Assur; the dedication of the other temples also changed through time. Representations on cylinder seals suggest that many buildings might have had parapets and towers. Assurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) moved the capital to Calah and by 614 BC the city of Assur had fallen to the Median (Medes) army.

Bahía

CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A phase in Ecuador's culture, dating c 500 BC - 500 AD that was discovered on La Plata Island (Manabi). Large pyramidal platform mounds, helmeted figurines, spouted jars, and incised pottery have been found and evidence of polychrome painting and metallurgy. Houses with saddle roofs (low, downward-curving roof ridges), pottery head/neck rests, figurines with one leg crossed over the other, Pan pipes graduated towards the center and ear plugs shaped like golf tees were unique to the culture -- but they have parallels in southeast Asia. It has been suggested that they were introduced into Ecuador by voyagers from across the Pacific. Particularly elaborate anthropomorphic vessels give information on dress and ornamentation (nose discs and tusk-like pendants). Bahia was a well-developed socio-political and religious unit. The La Plata Island site was probably a ceremonial center as there is little evidence of daily living. Unfortunately, many sites have already been lost to modern development.

Butmir

CATEGORY: culture; site
DEFINITION: A Late Neolithic settlement near Sarajevo in Bosnia which gave its name to a culture, though the type site is not characteristic of the entire Butmir culture. The site represents a classic or late phase, defined by richly decorated ceramics (with incised meander designs) and a wide range of fired clay anthropomorphic figurines of various physical types, costume, and pathological condition. The culture was related to the Vinca culture. The Butmir culture comprises the Middle and Late Neolithic of central Bosnia, in the period c 4350-3700 BC.

corn mummy

CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of anthropomorphic funerary object made of soil mixed with grains of corn, which was usually wrapped up in linen bandages and had a face mask.

Cross River

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A river valley in western Africa, mostly in southeastern Nigeria, where more than 300 huge anthropomorphic monoliths were found, probably dating from 16th century AD.

Divostin

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Neolithic site in Serbia with occupations of the Early Starcevo and Vinca cultures dating from c 5250-4960 (Starcevo) to c 3900-3300 BC (Vinca). Excavation uncovered seven complete house-plans of the Late Vinca village, including one house containing 100 pots. The subsistence economy was based on cattle husbandry and agriculture. Cult objects included a model ritual scene and many fired clay anthropomorphic figurines.

Gangetic hoards

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Hoards of copper objects found in the Ganges basin in India. The main types of objects are flat and shouldered axes, bar chisels, barbed harpoons, antenna-hilted swords, hooked spears, and anthropomorphic objects. Associations with ochre-colored pottery suggest a date of the 2nd millennium BC.

Herpaly

CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A regional variant of the three Late Neolithic cultures (Tisza, Herpaly, Czöszhalom) of the Great Hungarian Plain, c 4000-3400 BC. The Herpaly culture, distributed in the northern Alföld zone, is characterized by tell settlement. Throned figures and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines indicate ritual activities.

Hohlenstein-Stadel

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cave in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with occupation during the Mousterian, Aurignacian (with an ivory anthropomorphic statuette of 31,750 bp), Magdalenian (14th millennium bp), and Mesolithic.

Jenne-jeno

SYNONYM: Djenne; Jeno
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A now-abandoned section of the trading center of Jenne in Mali, established by about the 3rd century BC. By late in the 1st millennium AD, Jenne-jeno had grown into a major urban center and it was important in trade for another 1000 years. Metal was one of the main commodities involved. The city itself appears was the center of a fertile and prosperous region that cultivated indigenous African rice. A series of elaborate anthropomorphic clay statuettes date from the early centuries of the 2nd millennium AD.

menhir

CATEGORY: structure; artifact
DEFINITION: A single, vertical standing stone; any prehistoric structure consisting of a tall, upright megalith (huge stone). The name is from the Old Breton men, meaning stone" and hir meaning "long". Menhirs occur in all parts of the world where megalithic monuments are known but they are particularly profuse in prehistoric Europe. Menhirs are difficult to date but in Ireland and southwest England a few examples mark burials dating from the Neolithic to the Middle or Late Bronze Age. A similar or slightly earlier date is attested for some of the Breton menhirs. In all these areas a few of the stones bear cup marks. Such a megalith is often isolated erected by a family or tribe as a memorial stone for some deceased hero or some great event. It may have been a religious object for worship like the American Indian totem pole. Other are associated with dolmens tumuli and circles of stones. Menhirs may occur singly in rows (alignments) or in enclosures (stone circles). Anthropomorphic examples are known as statue-menhirs."

Pasemah Plateau

SYNONYM: Pasemah
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A plateau in southern Sumatra with a series of impressive prehistoric megalithic monuments -- massive slab graves and a rich collection of life-sized anthropomorphic carvings. The large stones are roughly carved into the shape of animals, such as the buffalo and elephant, and human figures -- some with swords, helmets, and ornaments and some apparently carrying drums. They are stylistically similar to those of Iron Age burials of the last centuries BC, and remote connections with the Dong Son culture of northern Vietnam and the megalithic cultures of south India are likely.

Puamau Valley

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A valley on eastern Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, containing a group of anthropomorphic stone statues up to 2.5 meters high. This is the biggest group of large statues in Polynesia outside Easter Island.

Strelice

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Small settlement site of the Late Neolithic Lengyel culture in central Moravia, Czechoslovakia and dated to the mid-4th millennium BC. The rich middle Lengyel ritual assemblage included a fired-clay house model showing timber posts and a pitched roof, and the largest group of anthropomorphic figurines in Moravia.

Tisza

CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Late Neolithic culture of eastern Hungary, centered on the middle Danube region east of the River Tisza of the early 4th millennium BC, with tell and horizontal settlements. Characteristic are anthropomorphic vessels and pottery with incised basketry designs or with paint applied after firing. The wide variety of forms included footed and pedestaled bowls. Cereal production was important, as demonstrated by the large quantity of cereal storage jars, fired clay bins, and granaries in the villages. There was domestication of aurochs and intensive cattle husbandry. The culture is contemporaneous with the Lengyel culture of east-central Europe.

Vladimirovka

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the largest sites of the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture in the Ukraine's Bug Valley, dated to the late 4th millennium BC. The settlement consists of over 200 complete huts of the Polshchadki type organized in five concentric rings on a broad promontory. Amongst the rich domestic assemblages of Cucuteni B pottery were numerous house and shrine models and many fired clay anthropomorphic figurines.

Wandjina figure

CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A type of anthropomorphic bichrome or polychrome painting made in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, succeeding the Bradshaw style (c 3000 BC) and persisting to the present. Wandjina takes its name from the ancestor spirits depicted in the paintings. The large white spirit figures are outlined in black and have mouthless, circular faces that are framed in red, rayed halos. The Bradshaw style was a series of bichrome and monochrome figures.