Objects as history

Faculty – Devanshi Shah

Tool

week 1

9.01.2020

The class started with the discussion about different tools in the paleolithic, chalcolithic and neolithic periods.

Paleolithic tools seemed difficult to identify as it seemed very similar to any rock. But it had sharp edges and place for holding it so it was used for hunting mainly.

In the chalcolithic period was more advanced and the tools were made out metals, mainly bronze. The tools were getting standardized by then.

In the neolithic age, The tools were standardized and common to all.

It was very interesting to know how at that time also they found a way to standardize objects.

Indus Valley civilisation

Week 2

16.01.2020

We saw interesting pictures of the objects and rituals from the indus valley civilization. I knew a lot of it already as we had studied it in school in history.But there were very interesting conclusions and facts we came to.

We understood from the harrapa civilization that

We saw pictures of jewellery, pots, burial sites etc.

Assignment 1

These copper spearheads are from the Indus Valley civilisation and are currently housed in the National Museum of New Delhi. | Location: National Museum of New Delhi, New Delhi, India. (Photo by Angelo Hornak/Corbis via Getty Images)

Because of the discovery of these tools i feel the the occupations could be:-

1.a person sourcing the metal

2.someone digging the ground to get metal

3.someone melting and making the tools

4.the person using it; a farmer

Objects at that time and Mesopotamia civilization

week 3

23.01.2020

there was a focus on the symmetry.

Egyptian civilization

week 4

30.01.2020

mummies,pyramids, after life, pharaoh, protector of the realm, slavery, river Nile, worshipers of wolf and cat.

Greek civilization

week 5

6.02.2020

We discussed the main aspects in the greek civilization.

Mythology plays a very important role in the greek civilization.
The human body has been idealized
order of pillars
Acropolis in Athens
Everything has been personified to gods.
There was an amphitheatre which meant it was their source of entertainment.
greeks also played sports which eventually gave us the olympics.

We then discussed about the objects that each one of us had decided to go ahead for the project. I decided to go with seals found in every civilization. I found out that seals was a very vast topic as it started from an early period till recent times. Every civilization had separate seals for the royals and the commoners and each seal has a different art form in it.

Maam gave me feedback to choose only one kind of seals, for examples seals with mythological creatures or seals of royals etc.

Roman civilization

week 6

13.02.2020

Research work

week 7

20.02.2020

Final submission of my timeline

Week 8

27.02.2020

Icons and symbolisms

week 9

5.03.2020

In this class we discussed about what is ‘Iconography’. Icons are symbols, illustrations and visual representations to depict something. It is mostly used for people to understand. Whereas emblem stands for something.

After further discussion we realised that all religions have icons. Example- the tilak worn by different people is an icon to represent class, caste, religion.

We also discussed about different icons that have different meaning in different religions and cultures.

We took snake as an example-

In christianity- it