Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Sumerian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Statue of Gudea

Period: Neo-Sumerian
Date: ca. 2090 B.C.
Geography: Mesopotamia, probably from Girsu (modern Tello)
Culture: Neo-Sumerian
Medium: Diorite
Dimensions: 17 3/8 x 8 1/2 x 11 5/8 in. (44 x 21.5 x 29.5 cm)
Classification: Stone-Sculpture-Inscribed
Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1959
Accession Number: 59.2

The Akkadian Empire collapsed after two centuries of rule, and during the succeeding fifty years, local kings ruled independent city-states in southern Mesopotamia. The city-state of Lagash produced a remarkable number of statues of its kings as well as Sumerian literary hymns and prayers under the rule of Gudea (ca. 2150–2125 B.C.) and his son Ur-Ningirsu (ca. 2125–2100 B.C.). Unlike the art of the Akkadian period, which was characterized by dynamic naturalism, the works produced by this Neo-Sumerian culture are pervaded by a sense of pious reserve and serenity.

This sculpture belongs to a series of diorite statues commissioned by Gudea, who devoted his energies to rebuilding the great temples of Lagash and installing statues of himself in them. Many inscribed with his name and divine dedications survive. Here, Gudea is depicted in the seated pose of a ruler before his subjects, his hands folded in a traditional gesture of greeting and prayer.

The Sumerian inscription on his robe reads as follows:

When Ningirsu, the mighty warrior of Enlil, had established a courtyard in the city for Ningišzida, son of Ninazu, the beloved one among the gods; when he had established for him irrigated plots(?) on the agricultural land; (and) when Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, the straightforward one, beloved by his (personal) god, had built the Eninnu, the White Thunderbird, and the..., his 'heptagon,' for Ningirsu, his lord, (then) for Nanše, the powerful lady, his lady, did he build the Sirara House, her mountain rising out of the waters. He (also) built the individual houses of (other) great gods of Lagaš. For Ningišzida, his (personal) god, he built his House of Girsu. Someone (in the future) whom Ningirsu, his god - as my god (addressed me) has (directly) addressed within the crowd, let him not, thereafter, be envious(?) with regard to the house of my (personal) god. Let him invoke its (the house's) name; let such a person be my friend, and let him (also) invoke my (own) name. (Gudea) fashioned a statue of himself. "Let the life of Gudea, who built the house, be long." - (this is how) he named (the statue) for his sake, and he brought it to him into (his) house.

This translation is derived from Edzard, Dietz-Otto. 1997. Gudea and his Dynasty. The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods Volume 3/1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 57-58.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Standing female worshiper

Period:: Early Dynastic IIIa

Date:: ca. 2600–2500 B.C.

Geography:: Mesopotamia, Nippur

Culture:: Sumerian

Medium:: Limestone, inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli

Dimensions:: H. 9 13/16 x W. 3 3/8 x D. 2 1/8 in. (24.9 x 8.5 x 5.4 cm)

Classification:: Stone-Sculpture

Credit Line:: Rogers Fund, 1962

Accession Number:: 62.70.2; On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 403

This statue of a standing woman with her hands clasped in front of her chest was found in the plasterings of a mud-brick bench located in one of the cellars of the Nippur temple of Inanna (Level VIIB), the Sumerian goddess of abundance. Her garment is draped over her left shoulder and falls in folds indicated by two incised lines along the border of the otherwise smooth fabric. The feet are carved in high relief against the back support and the toes and ankles are clearly indicated. The wavy hair is held in place by two plain bands, and curly locks hang down on either side of the face. Inlay of shell and lapis lazuli survives in her left eye. The best-preserved statues at Nippur are those that were buried within the temple furniture, like this example. Such deliberate burials suggest that temple offerings and equipment remained sacred even when no longer in use.

Provenance

1960–61, excavated on behalf of the Joint Expedition to Nippur (Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental Research and The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago); acquired by the Museum in 1962, as a result of its financial contribution to the excavations.

Timelines
Mesopotamia, 8000-2000 B.C.

Stamp and cylinder seals

Stamp and cylinder seals are a crucial source for the art, history, and religion of the ancient Near East. The rulers, gods, demons, and monsters that move in stately and seemingly dumb procession around the seals give us important insights into the real and magical worlds of the ancients. Cylinder and stamp seals were among the first objects to enter the Museum's collection from the Near East.

In 1874 a large and interesting group was included in the Cesnola collection of ancient Cypriot art, and in 1886 cylinder and stamp seals from Mesopotamia—as well as more than three hundred cuneiform tablets—were acquired from William H. Ward. Through its participation in excavations and through gifts and purchases, the Museum has received since that time over a thousand stamp and cylinder seals from all periods and regions in the pre-Islamic Near East.

This catalogue and the exhibition in the Museum's Recent Acquisitions gallery acknowledge the generous gift of more than two hundred and fifty seals from the Martin and Sarah Cherkasky collection of stamp and cylinder seals. It is an important gift—one that substantially strengthens and supplements the Museum's holdings. Additionally, the exhibition includes a number of objects from the permanent collection for comparative and illustrative purposes.

Cylinder seal

Period: Old Babylonian
Date: ca. 18th–17th century B.C.
Geography: Mesopotamia
Culture: Babylonian
Medium: Hematite
Dimensions: 0.94 in. (2.39 cm)
Classification: Stone-Cylinder Seals-Inscribed
Credit Line: Gift of Martin and Sarah Cherkasky, 1987
Accession Number: 1987.96.5

Although engraved stones had been used as early as the seventh millennium B.C. to stamp impressions in clay, the invention in the fourth millennium B.C. of carved cylinders that could be rolled over clay allowed the development of more complex seal designs. These cylinder seals, first used in Mesopotamia, served as a mark of ownership or identification. Seals were either impressed on lumps of clay that were used to close jars, doors, and baskets, or they were rolled onto clay tablets that recorded information about commercial or legal transactions.

The seals were often made of precious stones. Protective properties may have been ascribed to both the material itself and the carved designs. Seals are important to the study of ancient Near Eastern art because many examples survive from every period and can, therefore, help to define chronological phases. Often preserving imagery no longer extant in any other medium, they serve as a visual chronicle of style and iconography.

The modern impression of the seal is shown so that the entire design can be seen. This seal features a three line inscription and a scene with the goddess Ishtar, who is shown wearing an open robe and holding a mace in her raised right hand and a scimitar in her left. Weapons emerge from her shoulders and she stands on a lion-headed eagle. Facing her is a man with a mace standing on a platform and behind him stands a suppliant goddess. Presentation scenes – featuring a worshipper before a deity or ruler – were common motifs on seals of the Old Babylonian period. The use of hematite, a dark colored hard stone, is another characteristic of seal production in this period.

Links

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/02/wam.html

Jails New York City- February 2018

February - all TV channels in New York were discussing the decision to built 3 new Jails in New York in different areas without consultation of people that live in the areas.

In USA the jail system is in the hands of private corporations that have contract with the government to be filled with prisoners. So people with minor infractions will go to jail.

Here is what I found about the subject.

Few profited more immediately from Donald Trump’s election than the private-prison industry. On Nov. 9, the day after Mr. Trump won, the Corrections Corporation of America (now CoreCivic), the nation’s biggest operator of private prisons, saw its stock price jump 43 percent; its leading competitor, the GEO Group, rose 21 percent. Stocks in those companies are up more than 100 percent since Election Day.

So the companies that jail people and use slave labor are traded to the stock exchange. Good business model. That is a return to slavery system.

By 2014, the top two companies had revenues of $3.3 billion, nearly double what they made in 2006.

A private prison or for-profit prison is a place in which individuals are physically confined or incarcerated by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate, either for each prisoner in the facility, or for each place available, whether occupied or not. Such contracts may be for the operation only of a facility, or for design, construction and operation.
Private prisons are controversial. The main argument for the contracting prisons to private operators is that it can save money.

In the modern era, the United Kingdom was the first European country to use for-profit prisons. Wolds Prison opened as the first privately managed prison in the UK in 1992. In the UK, all private prisons are legally required to turn a profit.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that in 2016, private prisons held nearly three-quarters of federal immigration detainees.

Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/opinion/under-mr-trump-private-prisons-thrive-again.html

Friday, February 23, 2018

Megalithic Buildings - Federal Hall - New York City

Federal Hall has been the site of government activity for almost 300 years. Three successive buildings have stood at the corner of Wall and Nassau streets, each playing a role in momentous national historic events. The earliest, started in 1699 and completed in 1702, was New York's third City Hall. This is where John Peter Zenger was tried and acquitted of seditious libel in 1735, marking the country's first great 'freedom of the press' trial. In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress met to protest English taxation, and resistance to "taxation without representation" spread across America.

Architect: Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis (interior by John Frazee and Samuel Thompson)
style
Style: Greek Revival
Built to replace the old City Hall on the same site, it was here that George Washington was inaugurated as President.
The question is why was the old building torn down? Then why was rebuilt in 1836?
Another question: Who really built the first building on the site that was demolished. In New York and Toronto there was a large movement in demolishing old buildings of the city and replacing them with other structures.

That is how the old building lock like. Who really built the old Federal Hall?
Who built it in 1699? Where were native Americans? Why the history is not including them anywhere? This land was populated when Europeans arrived on this land and most likely there were buildings nice buildings here?

Here is what I found on the subject:

New York History Timeline

1000 AD: Woodland Period - homes were established along rivers and trade exchange systems and burial systems were established

1500s - 1600's: New York explored by Europeans from Great Britain, Sweden, Holland and France

1763: 1763-1675 -- Pontiac's Rebellion, Chief Pontiac's tries to force British out of the West, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania.

1688: 1688 - 1763 The French and Indian Wars between France and Great Britain for lands in North America consisting of King William's War (1688-1699), Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), King George's War (1744 - 1748) and the French and Indian War aka the Seven Years War (1754-1763)
1688: (1688-1699) King William's War (part of the French and Indian Wars) between France and the Wabanaki Confederacy and England and the Iroquois Confederacy. Peace Treaty made at Pemaquid. August 11,1693. and was ratified on Jan. 7. 1699
1690: Schenectady Massacre - French and Algonquins destroy Schenectady, New York, killing 60 settlers
1778: Cherry Valley Massacre - British and Seneca Indian forces attack a fort and village in eastern New York
1754: 1754 - 1763: The French Indian War is won by Great Britain against the French so ending the series of conflicts known as the French and Indian Wars
1763: Treaty of Paris
1775: 1775 - 1783 - The American Revolution.
1776: July 4, 1776 - United States Declaration of Independence
1803: The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France for 15 million dollars for the land
1812: 1812 - 1815: The War of 1812 between U.S. and Great Britain, ended in a stalemate but confirmed America's Independence
1830: Indian Removal Act
1832: Department of Indian Affairs established
1861: 1861 - 1865: The American Civil War.
1862: U.S. Congress passes Homestead Act opening the Great Plains to settlers
1865: The surrender of Robert E. Lee on April 9 1865 signalled the end of the Confederacy
1887: Dawes General Allotment Act passed by Congress leads to the break up of the large Indian Reservations and the sale of Indian lands to white settlers
1969: All Indians declared citizens of U.S.
1979: American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed
Names of the New York Indian Tribes
New York is a state of the northeast United States. There are many famous Native American tribes who played a part in the history of the state and whose tribal territories and homelands are located in the present day state of New York. The names of the New York tribes included the Delaware, Erie, Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida and Seneca.

History & Causes of the French Indian War - Political Policies and Beliefs
What were the causes of the French Indian War / Seven Years War? The causes of the Indian wars, battles and conflicts, including the French Indian War, were generally because of the opening of Indian lands to colonization of Europeans and highly lucrative trade prospects. The French Indian War was a North American counterpart to the Seven Years War which was one of the dynastic wars that raged in Europe. Some of the history and causes of the Indian Wars were dictated by political policies and beliefs which shaped the historical background to the causes of the French Indian War
    European Imperialism: The policy of forcefully extending a nation's authority, power and influence by territorial gain and by the establishment of economic and political dominance.
    Colonialism: Establishing colonies in America provided land and new trading opportunities
    Trade: The Europeans all wanted to monopolize the fur trade

Sadly History is reduced to an enumeration of wars instead of achievements cultural educational life style art or anything else.

History Timeline of the French Indian / Seven Years War
French Indian / Seven Years War
1688    1688 - 1763 The French and Indian Wars begin between France and Great Britain for lands in North America. The Iroquois Indians were allied to the British and the Algonquian speaking tribes were allied to the French. T
The French and Indian Wars was an intermittent series of wars and conflicts consisting of the:

King William's War (1688-1699)
Queen Anne's War (1702-1713)
King George's War (1744 - 1748)
French and Indian War (1754-1763)

1748    The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed on 18 October 1748 ended King George's War restoring conquered territory, but the result was indecisive hence the continuation of the conflicts known as the French and Indian Wars
1754   1754 - 1763:The French Indian War
(1754-1763) is won by Great Britain. France gives England all French territory east of the Mississippi River, except New Orleans. The Spanish give up Florida to the British.
1754    May 1754: The Battle of Jumonville Glen. In 1754 the French gained a victory and ousted a British force, including a colonial militia under the young Colonel George Washington, at Fort Necessity, Pennsylvania.
1755    The Capture of Fort Beausejour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia
1757    Up to 1757 France continued to dominate. There were failed British campaigns against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry
1758    1758 Great Britain increased support to its troops based in North America and won victories at Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac in the Great Lakes region, and Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh.
1760    The final British victory at the Battle of Quebec in 1759 led to the demise of New France in 1760.         1760    September 1760: Montreal falls to the British
1763    The Treaty of Paris ends French and Indian War
(1754-1763). Canada, east of the Mississippi River, was added to the British empire.
The Significance and Effects of the French Indian / Seven Years War
The effects and significance of the Seven Years / French Indian Wars in history at a local level were:
    France ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Florida
    France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon
    Although Britain was victorious the French and Indian Wars British had caused the 'mother country' to incur a massive war debt. The British efforts to reduce the debt included reversing their policy of Salutary Neglect that ultimately led to insurrection in the colonies, the Boston Tea Party, the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence.

The most important things that ever happened at Wall and Broad Streets — the convening in 1789 of the first Congress and the inauguration of George Washington as the first president — occurred in a building, Federal Hall, that was demolished in 1812.

Of the estimated 15 million visitors who pass through the crossroads every year, only 200,000 enter Federal Hall National Memorial, even though it is free and open eight hours each weekday.

The original structure on the site was built as New York's second City Hall in 1699 - 1703, on Wall Street, in what is today the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. In 1735, John Peter Zenger, an American newspaper publisher, was arrested for committing libel against the British royal governor and was imprisoned and tried there. His acquittal on the grounds that the material he had printed was true established freedom of the press as it was later defined in the Bill of Rights.

In October 1765, delegates from nine of the 13 colonies met as the Stamp Act Congress in response to the levying of the Stamp Act by the Parliament of Great Britain. Drawn together for the first time in organized opposition to British policy, the attendees drafted a message to King George III, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons, claiming entitlement to the same rights as the residents of Britain and protesting the colonies' "taxation without representation".

After the American Revolution, the City Hall served as the meeting place for the Congress of the Confederation of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, from 1785 until 1789. Acts adopted here included the Northwest Ordinance, which set up what would later become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, but more fundamentally prohibited slavery in these future states.

In 1788, the building was remodeled and enlarged under the direction of Pierre Charles L'Enfant,who was later selected by President George Washington to design the capital city on the Potomac River. This was the first example of Federal Style architecture in the United States. It was renamed Federal Hall when it became the first Capitol of the United States under the Constitution in 1789. The 1st United States Congress met there on March 4, 1789 to establish the new federal government, and the first thing it did was to count the votes that elected George Washington as the first President of the United States. He was inaugurated on the balcony of the building on April 30, 1789.

Many of the most important legislative actions in the United States occurred with the 1st Congress at Federal Hall. Foremost was the proposal and initial ratification of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution; twelve amendments to the Constitution were initially drafted (ten were later adopted), and on September 25, 1789, the United States Bill of Rights was proposed in Federal Hall, establishing the freedoms claimed by the Stamp Act Congress on the same site 24 years earlier. Also, the Judiciary Act of 1789 was enacted in the building, which set up the United States federal court system that is still in use today.

In 1790, the United States capital was moved to Philadelphia, and what had been Federal Hall once again housed the government of New York City until 1812, when the building was razed with the opening of the current New York City Hall Part of the original railing and balcony floor where Washington was inaugurated are on display in the memorial. The current structure, one of the best surviving examples of classical architecture in New York, was built as the first purpose-built U.S. Custom House for the Port of New York.Designed by John Frazee, it was constructed of Tuckahoe marble and took more than a decade to complete. It opened in 1842.

In 1862, Customs moved to 55 Wall Street and the building served as one of six United States Sub-Treasury locations. Millions of dollars of gold and silver were kept in the basement vaults until the Federal Reserve Bank replaced the Sub-Treasury system in 1920.

In 1882, John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze George Washington statue was erected on its front steps, marking the approximate site where he was inaugurated as President in the former structure.
In 1920, a bomb was detonated across the street from Federal Hall at 23 Wall Street, in what became known as the Wall Street bombing. Thirty-eight people were killed and 400 injured, and 23 Wall Street was visibly damaged, but Federal Hall received no damage. A famous photograph of the event shows the destruction and effects of the bombing, but also shows the statue of Washington
In 2006, Federal Hall opened after a brief closure and a $16 million renovation, mostly to its foundation, after cracks threatening the structure were greatly aggravated by the collapse of the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732-1799)
Location: Federal Hall at Broad, Nassau and Wall Streets Sculptor: John Quincy Adams Ward Year installed: 1883

In 1789, New York City was the capital of the United States, and it was very near the spot where the present statue stands that George Washington took his oath of office as our first president.
In one sense, New York was a rather inappropriate place for Washington to be sworn in, because he didn't fare well as a general in NYC and environs. He was defeated in Harlem, White Plains, and Kips Bay, and perhaps his greatest military achievement here was his strategic retreat in The Battle of Long Island that saved most of his troops to fight on.

Washington was sworn in in front of the original Federal Hall. The present Federal Hall was built in 1833.

Apparently we lost the ability to built these ceilings.
MET Metropolitan Museum of Art tried and was unsuccessful.
It is possible that we lost also the real history of this building?