One of the common types of artwork we viewed this Unit was the stele, or a carved upright stone used often for commemoration or proclamations. Examples studied in this unit like the Stele of Hammurabi outlining his law code or the Stele of Naram-Sin proclaiming the king’s victory both relate to broader aspects of the civilization that created them, and by serving as public proclamations they also serve a propagandistic function.
For this Unit’s blog assignment, conduct research on the web and find an example of a stele from one of the civilizations and time periods examined this Unit (eg. Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian) and in 2-3 pages, write a post considering the following:
- What civilization and region does the stele originate from?
- What is shown on the stele? Is it all imagery? Text? A combination of the two?
- Did the stele function as a form of public proclamation and, if so, what was it proclaiming?
- How does the stele and what it states elaborate on what you learned about the civilization that created it, and does it offer some new insight for you about the culture from which it originated?
You must provide a link to the image so we can see the stele you are presenting (or upload the image file to your post directly). No student may use a stele discussed in the assigned readings or unit lesson file. This is a research topic, intended to have you build off of what you studied in this unit with a similar but unknown object.
This blog assignment will be worth up to one hundred (100) points and will be graded based on the validity of the stele found, the thoroughness of the information provided, how well it is related to what was discussed and learned in this Unit, the completion of all of the parts of this assignment, and the use of proper spelling and grammar in accordance with college-level writing.
