In the last post we dealt with Mesopotamian civilization. Now let us talk about the art and architecture of this region. As we have seen, Mesopotamia covers the area of present-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria and occurs between 3,700 BC and 539 BC, precisely when the Persians arrived in its territory.
With a high belief, the Mesopotamians had several artistic creations linked to religion, something common among ancient people. In general, they intended to decorate temples and tombs. Vulnerable as they were to the effects of time, these constructions did not resist for prolonged periods.
The first architectural works
The architecture of Mesopotamia is among the oldest in the world, dating back more than 7,000 years. It began in the north, before the Ubaid Period (c. 5,000 BC - 4,100 BC) and then in the south, in Sumer, during the Uruk Period (4,100 BC - 2,900 BC) at the beginning of the Bronze Age.
Scholars believe that, although the first historical events date back to around 2,900 BC, Sumer was first inhabited by the Ubaidians, sometime between 4,500 BC and 4,000 BC. They were the first to make use of masonry, metallurgy, leather, and weaving. They were also the first to develop trade and drain portions of swamps for agricultural use.
On the border with the Persian Gulf was the city of Eridu, considered the first city in the world. It was home to three cultures that integrated due to their shared geographic position – the fishers, the Semitic-speaking nomadic herders and the Ubaidian farmers. These three groups were experts in food production, so much so that they generated a storable surplus.
The ability to produce and store food, instead of constantly migrating in search of resources, transformed them into permanent residents. The food surplus caused a population increase and, consequently, the requirement for a greater workforce to produce goods, services, crafts, and art.
Mesopotamian and Babylonian architecture
For the ancient people of Mesopotamia, the art of architecture was a divine gift. The lack of suitable building stones in the region meant that clay and sunbaked bricks were the preferred material for building structures.
Pilasters and columns were common features of Babylonian architecture, as were painted frescoes and the use of glazed tiles. The architects of Assyria were enormously influenced by Babylonian architecture, but they built their palaces with bricks and stones.
These palaces used naturally colored, unpainted slab lines. Bracket architectural design was the dominant building style, however, structures such as the sixth century BC Ishtar Gate were influenced by the invention of round arches in Mesopotamia during this period.
Ishtar Gate
The Sargonid Dynasty promoted the reconstruction and expansion of many Sumerian temples (e.g., in Nippur) and built palaces with practical amenities (Tall al-Asmar) and powerful fortresses on their lines of imperial communication (Tell Brak, or Tall Birāk al-Taḥtānī , Syria). The ruins of its buildings, however, are insufficient to suggest changes in architectural style or structural innovations.
Uruk Period
Most cities were theocratic. A deity governed society and a priest was God's earthly representative. There was also a council of elders. This political model would influence the structure of the pantheon of gods in the later Sumerian Period. It was a period of peace, without walls around the cities, without the need for defense or institutionalized violence. Having surpassed fifty thousand inhabitants, Uruk was considered the most urbanized city at the time.
Early dynastic Period
In early Mesopotamia, most houses were made of wood, mud bricks, and reeds. There were no windows because houses did not have adequate structures to support heavy loads. The doors were the only openings in the shelter. There was a distinct division between public and private life in Sumerian culture, so very few house interiors could be seen directly from the street.
The buildings varied in size depending on the number of inhabitants and the social status of the family, but the format was the same, with the space being divided into a large central room and smaller rooms built around it. Bundles of reeds were bent to form the roofs of houses, which may have suggested the use of the same shape for doors in structures made of mud bricks, thus producing the first arches.
It was common to incorporate courtyards into designs to help create natural cooling, a practice that still exists in modern Iraqi architecture. The first public buildings were erected, including temples featuring an early version of the arch inspired by the construction of reed houses.
Materials used in construction
Palaces, temples, industrial facilities, public buildings, and upper-class housing during this era were made of mud bricks, while lower-class houses were made of reeds. Walls, with watchtowers, surrounded most cities.
The use of the arch is evident in the design of these buildings. The walls and structures were made of rounded clay bricks, baked in ovens, or left to dry in the sun. Throughout the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, sunbaked bricks were the most used building material.
Sumerian Period
The beginnings of monumental architecture in Mesopotamia are considered contemporary with the founding of the Sumerian cities and the invention of writing, around 3100 BC. Attempts at architectural design during the so-called Protoliterate Period (c. 3400 - c. 2900 BC) are recognizable in the construction of religious buildings.
There is, however, a temple, at Abū Shahrayn (ancient Eridu), rebuilt from a sanctuary whose original foundation dates to the beginning of the fourth millennium. Some considered the continuity of the project to confirm the presence of the Sumerians throughout the temple's history.
Akkadian Period
The founding of the first Mesopotamian empire, by Sargon of Akkad (reigned c. 2334 BC and c. 2279 BC) profoundly affected art, language, and political thought. The period of the Akkadian Empire lasted from 2270 BC to 2154 BC. The increasing proportion of Semitic elements in the population was on the rise. Personal loyalty to Sargon and his successors replaced the regional patriotism of the ancient cities.
Sumerian renaissance
At the beginning of the eighth century BC there was a large-scale Sumerian revival, which lasted four centuries and culminated in the unification of the entire country under the rule of Hammurabi. Dominated first by the powerful third Dynasty of Ur and later by the rival states of Isin and Larsa, the people of ancient Sumer fell back to pre-Akkadian cultural traditions. On its northern borders, Sumerian culture was extended to younger and increasingly prosperous city-states such as Mari, Ashur, and Eshnunna, located in the middle reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The period was notable for the advances recorded in architectural planning and the large-scale reconstruction of ancient buildings. In the south, Sumerian architecture first appeared in the great ziggurats, a form of temple, created by the Sumerians and common to the Babylonians and Assyrians, pertinent to the time of the ancient Mesopotamian valley and built in the form of earthwork pyramids. Its stepped towers rose above the walled precincts of temples in cities such as Ur, Eridu, Kish, Uruk, and Nippur.
These enormous structures, with their summit sanctuaries (at the top), were covered with baked bricks, paneled, and recessed to break the monotony of their colossal facades, reinforced with bitumen and twisted reeds. Tradition associates the Ziggurat of Borsippa (present-day Birs Nimrūd, Iraq), near Babylon, with the biblical Tower of Babel.
The surrounding ground-floor temples were also very elaborate. The basic plan consisted of an entrance flanked by a tower, a central courtyard, an internal vestibule, and a sanctuary, all arranged on a single axis. This plan could be expanded through connecting courtyards. Facades were often decorated with panels of pilasters (recessed columns) or interlocking half-columns, skillfully modeled in clay bricks.
At Ur, kiln-fired bricks were again used to construct corbelled vaults over enormous underground tomb chambers, accessed through ground-floor burial chapels. Corbel is a projecting ornament attached to the wall, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top, which supports a vault arch, cornice, pulpit, support for a vase, statue, etc.
Better elaborate residential palaces are found in the newer cities of the north, especially Mari, where a vast building with over two hundred rooms was built by a ruler named Zimrilim (c. 1779 BC – c. 1761 BC).
In this palace is the standard reception unit common to all Babylonian palaces: a rectangular throne room that is accessed through a central door from a square court of honor; and behind it a large hall, serving some religious purpose. There was also an immense external courtyard, dominated by a raised audience chamber. In the most remote corner of the building, a heavily guarded residential suite. In some of the main chambers, wall paintings depicting scenes of rituals and processions have been preserved.
Assyrian Period
Ashur, a small Sumerian city-state on the middle Euphrates, began to rise to political prominence during the period before Hammurabi. In the second half of the second millennium BC, Assyria's borders were expanded to include most of northern Mesopotamia and the city of Ashur itself.
Excavations have revealed fortifications and public buildings built or rebuilt by a lengthy line of Assyrian kings. The character of these buildings suggests a logical development of Old Babylonian architecture.
There were some innovations, such as the incorporation of small twin ziggurats into the design of a single temple, while in the temples themselves the sanctuary was lengthened on its main axis and the altar itself was withdrawn into a deep recess. Furthermore, the absence of ornamentation and the multiplication of buttressed facades with crenellations tended towards monotony.
In defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, the battlement comprises a parapet, separated regularly by a merlon, with gaps or recesses, at intervals to permit the launch of arrows or other projectiles from within the defenses.
Neo-Babylonian Period
As the Middle Bronze Age gave way to the Late Bronze Age in the second millennium BC, Assyria and Babylonia were the most prominent cultures of the time in the Near East. Although stone was also used for sculpture, clay was the most used material. Mesopotamian artifacts from this period reveal the production of small free-standing sculptures, cylinder seals, and reliefs, as well as inexpensive molded ceramic slabs for domestic religious use.
The temples of Mesopotamia
The temples consisted of a walled courtyard. The space located on one of its sides had the characteristic element called ziggurat (not the temple, just a part of it), which consisted of a square tower with several floors in a stepped shape, on top of which rested the sanctuary. They were on one floor with several courtyards arranged in labyrinths, and even in rows with a courtyard surrounding them.
Access to the diverse levels was via a ramp that ran around its four sides. It was also accessed by two symmetrical stairs located on both the front and sides.
In general, the purposes of Mesopotamian temples were diverse, considering that the priests were responsible for the internal organization of the temples. Inside there were spaces for cultivation, as well as workshops for the manufacture of various utensils, spaces for herds of animals and even warehouses for crops.
Typical temples of the Protoliterate Period - both the platform type and the type built on the ground floor, were much more elaborate in both planning and ornamentation. Interior wall ornament was usually a patterned mosaic of terracotta cones set into the wall, with the exposed ends dipped in bright colors or coated in bronze.
An open hall in the Sumerian city of Uruk (biblical Erech; modern Tall al-Warkāʾ, Iraq) contained free-standing and attached brick columns, brightly decorated. The inner faces of the walls of a platform temple could be ornamented with wall paintings depicting mythical scenes, as at ʿUqair.
Both forms of temple (platform and ground) persisted throughout the early dynasties of Sumerian history (c. 2900-c. 2400 BC). It is known that two of the platform temples were originally located in walled enclosures, oval and containing, in addition to the temple, accommodation for priests. But the high sanctuaries themselves are lost, and their appearance can only be judged from the facade ornaments discovered at Tall al-ʿUbayd.
Babylonian Lion - Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (copyright)
These devices, intended to alleviate the monotony of sun-dried brick or clay plaster, include an enormous lintel, clad in copper, with animal figures modeled partly in a circle; wooden columns covered with a patterned mosaic of colored stone or shell; and bands of copper-sheathed bulls and lions, modeled in relief but with projecting heads. Lintel is a bar made of varied materials (wood, stone, concrete, etc.) that forms the finish on the upper part of doors and windows.
The planning of the ground-floor temples continued to elaborate on a single theme: a rectangular sanctuary, inserted on the transverse axis, with an altar, offering table and pedestals for votive statues (used for vicarious worship or intercession).
Ziggurats
For the people of the Mesopotamian culture, one of the most incredible achievements was the construction of their ziggurat structures. Ziggurats are like pyramids, consisting of terraced steps with recessed levels that were built by stacking exceptionally large cuts of stones. They usually had a temple or sanctuary at the top of the stairs.
Ziggurat of Ur (artistic impression). Leyla Johnsonby Mohawk Games. published on October 16, 2020.
These beautiful examples of architecture were not open to the public for worship or visitation and could only be visited by priests and other religious officials to offer gifts and maintain the building. The oldest surviving examples of ziggurat architecture were created in the fourth millennium BC by the Sumerian culture.
The ziggurat style continued to be a commonly used architectural form from the fourth to the early second millennium B.C. A fine example of ziggurat architecture is the Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat built in 1250 B.C. It was erected in honor of Inshushinak, the Elamite god, by the king of Elam, Napirisha.
After studying the widths and heights of ziggurats, modern archaeologists and architects have suggested that they were created using a system of pulleys and ramps to hoist the massive bricks up the sides of the structure.
The topography of Mesopotamia became increasingly elevated as ancient buildings were built on top of even older ones, due to the deterioration in the quality of sundried bricks compared to kiln-fired bricks.
Vast palaces
The vast palaces discovered in the 19th century emphasize the new interest in secular construction and reflect the ostentatious grandeur of the Assyrian kings. Like temples of earlier times, they are usually erected artificially on a platform at the level of the top of the city walls, upon which they often stand.
Its gates are flanked by colossal stone portal sculptures, and its inner chambers are decorated with pictorial reliefs carved into vertical stone slabs, or orthostats, square stone blocks much larger in height than in depth that are usually built at the bottom of a wall.
In addition to the 9th-century structure at Nimrūd, palace platforms were exposed at Khorsabad (ancient Dur Sharrukin), where Sargon II established his own short-lived capital in the late 8th century BC, and at Nineveh, which was rebuilt in the 7th century, first by Sargon's son Sennacherib, and then by his grandson Esarhaddon. On the platforms of Nineveh and Nimrūd, successive kings multiplied palaces and temples.
The Khorsabad platform is occupied by a single royal residence, associated with a group of three modest temples and a small ziggurat. Similar buildings occupy a walled citadel at the foot of the platform, thus completing a meticulously excavated ensemble that constitutes the most informative example of typical contemporary architecture. Sargon's palace, like Zimrilim's, is planned, firstly, around a gigantic open courtyard accessible to the public and, secondly, around an interior court of honor.
From the latter, access to the large throne room is through triple doors, around which a beautiful set of portal sculptures is concentrated, as is the main entrance to the palace. The throne room has an adjacent staircase that leads to a flat roof and a suite of apartments at the back. Other state rooms lead to an open terrace facing the mountains. All the main inner chambers are decorated with reliefs, except the throne room itself, where mural painting appears to have been preferred.
Golden calf mosaic. Credit: Depositphotos.
Public buildings
Public buildings such as palaces and temples were highly decorated externally with elements such as enameling, gold leaf and painting in vibrant colors. Most of the elements were multifunctional and used for structural support and decoration, such as terracotta panels and colored stones used to strengthen these buildings and to slow their deterioration.
Durable masonry, such as stone, became used more prominently between the 13th and 10th centuries BC, as the Assyrians used it to replace sunbaked bricks. Painting was replaced by bas-reliefs and colored stones as commonly used decoration materials.
From 2900 BC (Early Dynastic period) to 612 BC (Assyrian Empire period), palaces grew immensely in complexity and scale. During the reign of the Assyrian Empire, palaces began to be equipped with their own gates and the walls were highly decorated with narrative reliefs.
An excellent example of this style is the high relief at the entrance gate to Dur-Sharrukin Palace. Belonging to Sargon II, the palace gate featured the Babylonian mythological creature known as Lamassu, which had the body of a bull, enormous wings, and the head of a man.
Sometimes the body is that of a lion instead of a bull, in some versions the deity takes on a female form. These mythical creatures, also known as Shedu, can be found in Mesopotamian literature and art as early as 5,500 BC and in the palace of Persepolis around 550 BC.
The round arch, often attributed to the Romans, was originally created by Mesopotamian engineers. Although the structural walls typically used were not strong enough to withstand the pressure of too many windows or doors, by adding round arches, the structures could absorb more pressure, which allowed for the inclusion of larger openings to improve wind and sunlight flow.
Examples of round arches in Mesopotamian architecture can be found as early as the eighth century BC and used at the entrances of palaces such as Dur-Sharrukin in the central portal and in the windows to the left and right of the entrance.
The walls
The walls, as the name suggests, were specifically used to guard the cities. They were vertical, at right angles and reinforced by square towers. Access was through fortified doors. They consisted of a half-cannon vault, on which the respective protective statues were placed on each side.
The Ishtar Gate (walls of Babylon)
The construction of the Ishtar Gate dates to approximately 575 BC, built by Nebuchadnezzar II. What currently remains is a reconstruction located in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. It was made of adobe and glazed ceramics, most of which were blue in color due to lapis lazuli (a type of gemstone). The contrast with the rest of the buildings was evident thanks to this, considering that the rest were reddish or golden.
It was one of the eight gates in the walls of Babylon, the main one leading to the temple or ziggurat of Marduk. Its facade was adorned with silhouettes of bulls, dragons, and lions like mythological beings. Currently, the gate is in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The gate depicts several bas-reliefs of animal figures and floral motifs that were linked to Ishtar, the goddess of war and fertility.
Ishtar Gate - Pergamon Museum, Berlin
The tombs
The tombs were built in the form of a hypogeum with a brick vault and, in turn, several chambers. Inside them, a funeral jaguar is conceived with servants, musicians, guards, corpses of ladies, immolated according to the funeral customs of Mesopotamia.
The next post will address the other artistic manifestations of Mesopotamia.
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