When a modern viewer sees the works of artists and sculptors of ancient times on a museum exhibition, no matter what civilization they belong to, he is usually struck by the gross violations of natural proportions inherent in these works. The heads can be turned into a flat disk, the legs are either stretched out until they turn into fragile reeds, or, on the contrary, compressed into two massive heavy curbstones, the ears are stretched almost to the shoulders or are absent altogether. And one more thing: the spirit of death seems to hover over the creations of ancient masters. Sculptures are devoid of internal movement, their faces are cold, frozen, gazing into an unknown space, the eye sees nothing, although the eyes are open. But there are, however rarely, works of a different series. I remember being deeply moved in the Cairo Museum of Antiquities, the world's greatest collection of treasures of Egyptian civilization, when among the huge stone statues of pharaohs with indifferent faces, among the figures of half-forgotten gods who seemed frozen in the consciousness of their own greatness, I suddenly saw a live duck floating through the glass of one of the showcases among blooming blue lotuses and green papyrus, whose black, glittering eyes seemed to be watching my every move. For fear of startling her, I was afraid to move my hand. And she continued to swim on, not looking back at the millennia behind her. In this dark realm of dead grandeur, she looked like a glittering spark of distant life. Do we need any other proof that in the deepest antiquity there were not only artisans, but also great masters? 1. It is amazing how early humanity developed the most essential foundations of its worldview, which it will adhere to for many centuries to come. In the future, they become fertile sites where the main ideologemes characteristic of certain national groups grow. If, for example, some of the findings of the philosophers of Sumerian or ancient Greek civilization are ... Read more