Motifs
This Egyptian symbol of life appears on furniture, jewelry, and temple reliefs.
What is the ankh?
This stepped Mesopotamian temple platform towered over early cities like Ur and Khorsabad.
What is a ziggurat?
In a Roman domus, this shallow pool in the atrium collected rainwater from the roof opening.
What is the impluvium?
This elegant Greek chair with splayed legs and a curved back is closely tied to the arts.
What is the klismos?
The Great Mosque famous for alternating light-and-dark “ablaq” arches stands in this Spanish city.
What is Córdoba?
This flowering plant motif—linked to rebirth and the Nile—decorates Egyptian furniture and capitals.
What is the lotus?
Designed by Imhotep at Saqqara, this Old Kingdom monument is the earliest large-scale stone complex.
What is the Step Pyramid of Djoser?
The main inner room of a Greek temple, housing the cult statue.
What is the cella?
The most indispensable Romanesque household piece—used for storage, transport, seating, dining, and sometimes sleeping.
What is the chest (coffer/bahut)?
The Umayyad Mosque is a landmark of this Middle Eastern capital.
What is Damascus?
Assyrian furniture often features inverted date spathes and these spiral, coiled details.
What are volutes?
With a central courtyard, frescoed rooms, and distinctive columns, this Cretan palace became a model for later Greek form.
What is the Palace of Knossos?
The subtle swelling of a column shaft that corrects optical illusion in Classical architecture.
What is entasis?
A portable writing chest on a stand from Islamic Spain, used for secure storage and desk work.
What is a vargueño?
The Palace of Knossos—frescoed rooms and distinctive columns—sits on this island.
What is Crete?
In Córdoba you’ll see arches banded in alternating light and dark stone; the visual motif is called this.
What is ablaq?
Saint-Sernin exemplifies Romanesque churches with thick walls and this arch type.
What is the semicircular arch?
This mosque wall orients worshippers toward Mecca and organizes the prayer hall.
What is the qibla?
A Roman official’s folding X-frame seat that signaled authority.
What is the sella curulis?
Imhotep’s Step Pyramid complex is at this Egyptian necropolis.
What is Saqqara?
Across Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Nubia, decorative programs frequently used these hybrid creatures in monumental sculpture.
What are fantastic animals (mythic composites)?
These two innovations let Romans span vast interiors like the Pantheon and revolutionize civic space.
What are the arch and concrete? (Accept: “the arch and dome (in concrete)”)
These triple-grooved blocks alternate with metopes on a Doric frieze.
What are triglyphs?
On Roman dining couches, these often-bronze ornamental end pieces capped the headrest/arm and gave the lectus its signature profile.
What are fulcrums?
The Assyrian citadel with palace and ziggurat reconstructed from 721–705 BCE is in this ancient city in modern Iraq.
What is Khorsabad (Dur-Sharrukin)?