Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about Sumer and other early civilizations, and what made them similar.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe the arts of some early civilizations.

Before we start, I'd like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson.

So it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are: art, pottery, clay, bronze.

I'm gonna say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Art.

Pottery.

Clay.

Bronze.

Good job.

Let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions of our keywords.

Art is something someone has created to be beautiful, interesting, or to make you feel an emotion.

Pottery are items like pots, cups, or dishes made from clay that are baked hard in fire.

Clay is a type of soil that is useful for making objects.

Bronze is a useful metal made by mixing copper and tin.

Pause the video here to make a note of the keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we will be working through together in today's lesson.

What art did ancient civilizations create? Similarities and differences in ancient art.

In the first learning cycle, we'll explore the art that ancient civilizations created.

What do you think of when you hear the word art? What do you think of? Often art is thought to be just paintings or drawings by famous artists.

There are many famous paintings such as "Mona Lisa," by Leonardo da Vinci, and "Sunflowers" by Vincent Van Gogh.

But paintings are only one kind of art.

Art can take many forms. There's a picture there of the "Mona Lisa" painted by Leonardo da Vinci.

So art can take many forms. It can be sculpture or statues, pottery and even jewellery.

Art can also be made from lots of different materials, not just paint.

For example sculptures and statues are made from stone or other hard materials.

Pottery is made from clay, and jewellery can be made from metals like gold and silver.

Even though art can take lots of different forms, it has all been made to be beautiful, interesting, or to make you feel an emotion.

All types of art are created by skillful artists.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Look at this statement.

"Art is only paintings or drawings." Is this true or false? Take a moment to think.

If you said that it's false, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

If we were gonna justify our answer, let's take a look at these two statements.

Art can take many different forms. There are many famous painters who are artists.

Which of these two statements helps to justify our answer? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

Which of these statements helps to justify the answer of false? And when you're ready to continue, press play.

What did you discuss? Did you say that art can take many different forms? If you did, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

The early civilizations that developed in the cradles of civilization all produced art.

Sometimes early civilizations made art from useful items that have a purpose, like vases.

They made these useful items beautiful by decorating them with patterns and designs.

It takes a lot of skill to make a vase that is useful and beautiful.

And this suggests the artists from the ancient civilizations were skillful creators.

Take a look at that photo of a vase from the Shang civilization.

Can you see all of that detail from that pattern within the design? Fantastic.

Some ancient art shows the skill of the maker as well as the wealth of the owner of the art.

For example, in ancient civilizations, art could be also worn or carried to show wealth like jewellery.

Ancient jewellery was sometimes made from gold or other expensive materials.

And was designed to catch people's eye so the owner could show off how much money they had and how much they were able to spend on their art.

Take a look at some of those, that photo there of those earrings from the Sumer civilization.

I think that person was quite wealthy.

Other art from ancient civilizations represented people, animals, gods and other figures.

This kind of art had purposes such as telling stories or recording ideas.

This type of art often requires a lot of skill as they were carved from a hard material such as stone, or formed from clay and were made by hand.

Some examples of early art include toys.

You can see there the photo of a clay toy from the Indus Valley, and the photo of an animal carved into stone.

Very detailed.

Let's take a moment to pause.

What were three purposes of ancient art? To show wealth.

To be eaten.

To decorate useful objects.

To represent people, animals, or gods.

What do you think? Have a discussion with your partner.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, one purpose was to show wealth.

Another purpose was to decorate useful objects.

And the final purpose is to represent people, animals, or gods.

Well done.

We're now ready to have a go at our first learning task.

Can you match the type of ancient art to its purpose? So you can see the three pieces of art at the bottom.

The vase from the Shang, earrings from Sumer and the animal carving.

So what is the purpose of each of these pieces of art? To show wealth, to decorate useful objects, to represent people, animals, or gods.

So match the art to its purpose.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look? So the earrings from Sumer, they showed wealth.

They were made from metals like gold and silver.

So the person wearing them would have looked very wealthy.

The vase from the Shang, its purpose was to decorate useful objects.

So you can see the intricate detail on the vase there.

And the animal carving shows the representations of people, animals, or gods.

Well done if you're able to match those correctly and for completing that learning task.

We're now ready to move on to the second part of this lesson.

We're going to take a look at the similarities and differences in ancient art.

Comparing similarities and differences is a good way for historians to learn about art made by different ancient civilizations.

There are many similarities between the art of ancient civilizations.

Can you think of a similarity we've already looked at in this lesson? Have a think.

Well Yohan says he knows a similarity.

The ancient civilizations created art for similar purposes, such as decorating useful objects, telling stories, and showing wealth.

Did you think of that similarity too? Well, Laura has also thought of one.

One similarity between the civilizations art was that they used many of the same materials such as stone, clay, and metals.

And another similarity is that each cradle of civilization developed highly skilled craftspeople to make their art.

These skilled artists invented techniques for working with different materials.

Evidence of art made from stone has survived from all the ancient civilizations.

For example, limestone carvings from ancient Egypt have been discovered by archaeologists as well as jade items from the Yellow River valley made by the Shang civilization.

Jade is a hard stone, and it was used to make small figures as well as useful items like knives with a sharp edge.

The artists needed to be highly skilled in carving techniques to make such impressive carvings and sculptures.

Take a look at that photo of ancient Egyptian statues carved from stone.

They're thousands of years old.

And look at how detailed they still look.

All ancient civilizations also made a form of art called pottery.

Pottery is made from clay, a type of mud which can be moulded and formed into shapes.

It's then turned into pottery by baking it in a fire, which makes the clay dry hard.

The pottery could be practical items like being used to hold and pour liquid, or could be decorative pieces that were painted or that had patterns pressed into it.

Let's have a look at these photos here.

We've got a photo of Sumerian pottery and also a photo of pottery from the Indus Valley.

Can you see the difference in their designs there? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Ancient artists use similar materials in their art.

Is that true or false? What do you think? Is that true or false? If you said that's true, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

And if we were to justify our answer, we have two statements here.

They formed pottery from clay and carved stone.

They formed pottery from stone and carved clay.

Interesting.

Have a discussion with your partner.

Which of these two statements helps to justify your answer? Pause the video here and restart when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said they formed pottery from clay and carved stone, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

Good job.

Each cradle of civilization also developed their metalwork skills to create art.

They invented a way of mixing two metals, copper, and tin to make bronze.

Take a look at that photo of a bronze wine holder from the Shang civilization.

Quite fascinating how they've got all of that amazing detail in the design, in that bronze.

Now bronze is a very useful metal for making weapons, tools, and art.

The use of bronze is so important that this period of history is called the Bronze Age.

Take a look there at the photo of bronze art by the Shang and this bronze figure by the Indus.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What were three materials ancient artists used? Clay, plastic, bronze, stone.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

Shall we take a look at the answers? So three materials ancient artists used were clay, bronze, and stone.

Good job.

Well done.

Now, despite the similarities, ancient arts did have some differences.

Let's learn now about some of these differences.

One difference was that each civilization created art in different styles.

For example, the figures of people and animals looked very different when carved or formed by people from the different ancient civilizations.

Take a look at the photo of the ancient Egyptian carving and the photo of a Sumerian carving.

Can you see how the people are different? How they've been styled differently? Artists from the early civilizations used different patterns and designs in their art too.

For example, when decorating pottery, artists used objects that they had found in their local area to press patterns into the piece.

Take a look at the photo of the Shang pottery and the photo of Sumerian pottery.

Can you see how they're different? The different patterns they use.

So objects they might have found, might have been leaves and flowers.

Have you ever pressed a leaf into clay and to see what it looks like? Artists also painted different pictures and patterns onto pottery in different styles.

You can see the Indus painted pottery and the ancient pottery.

How they've painted on different designs.

Let's take a moment to pause.

This statement "All ancient art was made in the same style." Is that true or false? What do you think? All ancient art was made in the same style? If you've said that that was false, you are absolutely right.

How would we justify our answer? We have two statements here that we could take a look at.

Artists use clay or bronze in their art.

Artists use different patterns and designs in their art.

Which of these two statements helps to justify your answer? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? If you said that artists use different patterns and designs in their art, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our second learning task.

I'd like you to decorate each piece of pottery using a different style.

So use patterns or shapes from the ancient art we have looked at in this lesson.

You can add labels or explain to your learning partner to show which early civilizations you were inspired by.

So take some time now to decorate your pottery and using those patterns and shapes, and also adding those labels or explaining to your partner.

So pause the video here, take enough time and restart when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? So you might have done something a bit like this.

Can you see on each of these pieces of pottery, there is a difference style? And Alex has says that his pottery has a painted pattern like the ancient Egyptian pottery we saw in this lesson.

Well done for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about the art and artefacts of the earliest civilizations.

The early civilizations that developed in the cradles of civilizations all made art.

The purpose of this art was to decorate useful objects, to show wealth, to represent people, animals or gods, and to tell stories.

There are many similarities in ancient art, like the use of the same materials such as stone, clay, and when it was discovered, bronze.

Despite similarities, the ancient civilizations all had their own styles of art.

For example, pottery was decorated differently through painting or pressing decorative patterns.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today, and I hope to see you at the next one.

See you next time.