What is marble? A Cycladic figurine from Ancient Greece in marble, once realistically painted. What is marble made out of? Marble is metamorphic limestone . That is, marble is a metamorphic rock [...]
A Samnite man cutting the bronze pins off a newly poured lost wax statue. This is the only ancient image of lost wax casting; it's from Pompeii, about 400 BC. [...]
A block of limestone Starting with seashells Limestone is a kind of sedimentary stone that is very common all over the world. This kind of stone forms out of the shells of [...]
Parthenon frieze (Athens, Greece, 440s BC): What is a frieze? Definition of a frieze A frieze (pronounced FREEZE) is a long narrow band of sculpture that runs along the architrave [...]
Fresco painting from Thera, Greece (about 1600 BC) Why are they called frescos? Fresco is the Italian word for "fresh", and that's because painters do fresco painting on fresh, wet plaster [...]
A copper bracelet To understand what bronze is, you need to check out some copper, some tin, and some bronze. You can get copper wire out of any broken electrical [...]
History of clay: Clay on a potter's wheel What is clay? Clay is very fine particles of dirt which float in a stream or river and then sink to the [...]
What is bronze? this is the bronze head of an Akkadian king (ca. 2300 BC) What is bronze? Copper and tin Bronze smiths make bronze by melting two different metals [...]
What is ivory? History of ivory: An elephant using her tusks What is ivory? Ivory is the same thing as elephant tusks (but see below). Elephants grow these long teeth [...]
Egyptian art: Fishing in the swamps on the edges of the Nile River from the tomb of the astronomer Nakht Sixth Dynasty (New Kingdom, ca. 1400 BC) Egyptian art comes [...]
