The gesture code in Ancient Art is based on a hierarchical combination of different parts. In
some respect it can be compared to a agglutinative language, in which words may contain different
morphemes to determine their meaning. Ancient craftsmen assembled figures from general
types (e.g. the elderly woman in domestic dress) by attaching intentional and coded gestures
(e.g. the hand holding up the arm of a suffering) and various unintentional patterns of behaviour (e.g.
the shoulder strap falling; the head leaning back). These elements act as morphological prefixes
and suffixes to define the meaning of the figure as a whole.
