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How Art Made the World

Once Upon a Time (Season 1, Episode 4)
TV Episode | Documentary
In essence, the use of images to tell stories, as in movies, TV or cartoons, relies upon the same powerful techniques since Antiquity. Cuneiform, the world's oldest writing, sets in the world oldest and long greatest city, Uruk in early ...See moreIn essence, the use of images to tell stories, as in movies, TV or cartoons, relies upon the same powerful techniques since Antiquity. Cuneiform, the world's oldest writing, sets in the world oldest and long greatest city, Uruk in early Mesopotamia (southern Iraq), the oldest recorded story, the still told Gilgamesh epic. As every great story it has a hero, defined by the events and his spiritual and moral ability to respond to them. The Assyrian (northern Iraq) king Assurbanipal had it transposed from -then no longer legible- cuneiform to images, only starring himself in four relief sculptures in his Ninive palace, as a mini-cartoon about the lion hunt, and added far more with thousands of 'extra characters' about his victorious war against the Elamites, an intrigue complete with side-plots. The missing element, emotion, came with the Greek mythological sculptures, notably since Homer's Odysseia. Written by KGF Vissers See less
Read more: Plot summary
Director
Francis Whately
Composer
Danny Mulhern (as Daniel Mulhern)
Editor
Andrea Carnevali
See all filmmakers & crew (53)
Status
Edit Released
Updated Jul 17, 2005
Release date
Jul 17, 2005 (United States)

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1 cast member
Name Known for
Nigel Spivey's primary photo
Nigel Spivey
Presenter (as Dr. Nigel Spivey) Presenter (as Dr. Nigel Spivey)   See fewer
Cunk on Earth (2022)
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