Mesopotamian Art And Arquitecture Essay, Research Paper

Mesopotamian Art and Architecture

The arts and buildings of the ancient Middle Eastern

civilizations developed in the area (now Iraq) between the

Tigris and Euphrates rivers from prehistory to the 6th

century BC. Their art reflects both their love and fear of

natural forces, as well as their military conquests.

The soil of Mesopotamia yielded the civilization’s

major building material, mud brick. This clay also was used

by the Mesopotamians for their pottery, terra-cotta

sculpture, and writing tablets. Few wooden artifacts have

been preserved. Stone was rare, and certain types had to

be imported; basalt, sandstone, diorite, and alabaster were

used for sculpture. Metals such as bronze, copper, gold,

and silver, as well as shells and precious stones, were

used for sculptures and inlays.

The art of Mesopotamia includes a mix from people

who differed ethnicly and linguistically. Each of these

groups made its own contribution to art until the Persian

conquest of the 6th century BC. The first dominant people

to control the region and shape its art were the non-Semitic

Sumerians, followed by the Semitic Akkadians,

Babylonians, and Assyrians.

The earliest architectural and artistic remains known

to date come from northern Mesopotamia from the

proto-Neolithic site of Qermez Dere in the foothills of the

Jebel Sinjar. Levels dating to the 9th millennium BC have

revealed round sunken huts outfitted with one or two

plastered pillars with stone cores. When the buildings were

abandoned, human skulls were placed on the floors,

indicating some sort of ritual.

Artifacts from the late Uruk and Jamdat Nasr periods,

also (about 3500-2900 BC), have been found at several

sites, but the major site was the city of Uruk. The major

building from level five at Uruk (about 3500 BC) is the

Limestone Temple; its superstructure is not preserved, but

limestone slabs on a layer of stamped earth show that it

was niched and monumental in size, measuring 250 x 99ft.

Some buildings at Uruk of level four were decorated with

colorful cones inset into the walls to form geometric

patterns. Another technique that was used was

whitewashing, as in the White Temple, which gets its name

from its long, narrow, whitewashed inner shrine. It was built

in the area of Uruk dedicated to the Sumerian sky god Anu.

The White Temple stood about 40 ft above the plain, on a

high platform, prefiguring the ziggurat, the stepped tower,

typical Mesopotamian religious structure that was intended

to bring the priest or king nearer to a particular god, or to

provide a platform where the deity could descend to visit

the worshipers.

A few outstanding stone sculptures were unearthed at

Uruk. The most beautiful is a white limestone head of a

woman or goddess (about 3500-3000 BC), with eyebrows,

large open eyes, and a central part in her hair, all intended

for inlay. A tall alabaster vase (about 3500-3000 BC), with

horizontal bands, or registers, depicts a procession at the

top, with a king presenting a basket of fruit to Inanna,

goddess of fertility and love, or her priestess; nude priests

bringing offerings in the central band; and at the bottom a

row of animals over a row of plants.

The first historical epoch of Sumerian dominance

lasted from about 3000 BC until about 2340 BC. While

earlier architectural traditions continued, a new type of

building was introduced, the temple oval, an enclosure with

a central platform supporting a shrine. City-states centered

at such cities as Ur, Umma, Lagash, Kish, and Eshnunna

were headed by governors or kings who were not

considered divine. Much of the art is commemorative;

plaques, frequently depicting banquet scenes, celebrate

victories or the completion of a temple. These were often

used as boundary stones, as was the limestone stele

(Louvre, Paris) of King Eannatum from Lagash. In two

registers on one side of the stele the king is depicted

leading his army into battle; on the other side the god

Ningirsu, symbolically represented as much larger than a

human, holds the net containing the defeated enemy. The

Standard of Ur (about 2700 BC) a wooden plaque inlaid

with shell, schist, lapis lazuli, and pinkish stone, has three

bands of processions and religious scenes.

The Semitic Akkadians gradually rose to power in the

late 24th century BC; under Sargon I (about 2335-2279

BC), they extended their rule over Sumer and united the

whole of Mesopotamia. Little Akkadian art remains, but

what has survived is endowed with technical mastery, great

energy, and spirit. In the Akkadian cities of Sippar, Assur,

Eshnuna, Tell Brak, and the capital at Akkad (still to be

found), the palace became more important than the

temple.

The most significant Akkadian innovations were those

of the seal cutters. The minimal space of each seal is filled

with action: Heroes and gods grapple with beasts, slay

monsters, and drive chariots in processions. A new

Akkadian theme, developed and continued in the periods to

follow, was the presentation scene, in which an

intermediary or a personal deity presents another figure

behind him to a more important seated god. Except for

stories from the Gilgamesh epic, many myths that are

depicted have not been interpreted.

After ruling for about a century and a half, the

Akkadian Empire fell to the nomadic Guti, who did not

centralize their power. This enabled the Sumerian cities of

Uruk, Ur, and Lagash to reestablish themselves, leading to

a Neo-Sumerian age, also known as the 3rd Dynasty of Ur

(about 2112-2004 BC). Imposing religious monuments

made of baked and unbaked brick and incorporating

ziggurats were built at Ur, Eridu, Nippur, and Uruk. Gudea

(2144?-2124? BC), a ruler of Lagash, partly contemporary

with Ur-Nammu, the founder of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur, is

known from more than 20 statutes of himself in hard black

stone, dolomite and diorite. His hands are clasped in the

old Sumerian style, but the rounded face and slight

musculature in the arms and shoulders show the sculptor’s

will to depict form in this difficult medium with more

naturalism than had his predecessors.

With the decline of the Sumerians, the land was once

more united by Semitic rulers (about 2000-1600 BC), the

most important of whom was Hammurabi of Babylon. The

relief figure of the king on his famous law code (about 1760

BC) is not much different from the Gudea statues (even

though his hands are unclasped), nor is he depicted with

an intermediary before the sun god Shamash. The most

original art of the Babylonian period came from Mari and

includes temples and a palace, sculptures, metalwork, and

wall painting. As in much of Mesopotamian art, the animals

are more lifelike than the human figures.

The early history of the art of Assyria, from the 18th to

the 14th century BC, is still largely unknown. Middle

Assyrian art (1350-1000 BC) shows some dependence on

established Babylonian stylistic traditions: Religious

subjects are presented rigidly, but secular themes are

depicted more naturalistically. For temple architecture, the

ziggurat was popular with the Assyrians. At this time the

technique of polychromed glazing of bricks was used in

Mesopotamia; this technique later resulted in the typical

Neo-Babylonian architectural decoration of entire

structures with glazed bricks.

These Assyrian kings adorned their palaces with

magnificent reliefs. Gypsum alabaster, native to the

Assyrian region of the upper Tigris River, was more easily

carved than the hard stones used by the Sumerians and

Akkadians. Royal chronicles of the king’s superiority in

battle and in the hunt were recounted in horizontal bands

with cuneiform texts, carved on both the exterior and

interior walls of the palace, in order to impress visitors. The

viewer was greeted by huge guardian sculptures at the

gate; the guardians were hybrid genii, winged

human-headed lions or bulls with five legs (for viewing both

front and side) as known from Nimrud and Khorsabad. At

times mythological figures are portrayed, a Gilgamesh-like

figure with the lion cub, or a worshiper bringing a sacrifice,

such as the idealized portrait from Khorsabad of Sargon II

with an ibex (about 710 BC). The primary subject matter of

these alabaster reliefs, however, is purely secular: the king

hunting lions and other animals, the Assyrian triumph over

the enemy, or the king feasting in his garden, as in the

scene (7th century BC) of Ashurbanipal from Nineveh. The

king’s harpist and birds in the trees make music for the

royal couple, who sip wine under a vine, while attendants

with fly whisks keep the reclining king and seated queen

comfortable. Nearby is a sober reminder of Assyrian

might the head of the king of Elam, hanging from a tree.

Sculptors were at their best in depicting hunting

scenes, for their observation of real beasts was even more

profound than their imagination in creating hybrid beings.

Other reliefs from this monument depict real events:

battles, the siege and capture of cities, everyday life in the

army camp, the taking of captives, and the harsh treatment

meted out to those who resisted conquest.

The palace architectural reliefs at Nimrud, Khorsabad,

and Nineveh are important not only because they represent

the climax of Mesopotamian artistic expression, but

because they are valuable as historical documents. Even

though cities, seascapes, and landscapes were not

rendered with the realism and perspective of later Western

artists, the modern observer is still able to reconstruct the

appearance of fortified buildings, ships, chariots, horse

trappings, hunting equipment, weapons, ritual libations,

and costumes through the skill of Assyrian sculptors. The

various ethnic groups inhabiting Mesopotamia, Syria, and

Palestine in the 1st millennium BC are depicted with great

realism and can be identified by their dress, facial features,

and hairstyles.

Between the 9th-century BC Nimrud reliefs and the

7th-century BC Nineveh reliefs, stylistic changes took

place. In the earlier scenes, armies are represented by a

few soldiers only, without regard to the relative size of

humans and architecture. Figures are in bands, one above

the other, to suggest space. In the Nineveh scenes, the

figures, carved in lower relief, fill the entire picture plane.

Not only is there more detail, but at times figures overlap,

giving the viewer a sense of people and animals in real

space.

The art of the late Assyrian seal cutter is a

combination of realism and mythology. Even the

naturalistic scenes contain symbols of the gods. These

objects may have originated outside of Assyria, for they

resemble Syro-Phoenician crafted objects found at Arslan

Tash on the upper Euphrates and at Samaria, capital of the

Israelite kingdom. The lioness plaques incorporate

Egyptian iconography and are examples of the best

Phoenician craftsmanship. Thousands of ivory carvings

displaying a variety of styles have been recovered at

Nimrud.

The art of the peoples who lived on the fringes of the

Assyrian Empire at times lacks the aesthetic appeal of that

of the capital. In Tell Halaf, a local ruler’s palace was

decorated with weird reliefs and sculpture in the round;

among the hybrids is a scorpion man. At the site of Tell

Ahmar in northern Syria, ancient Til Barsip (Assyrian Kar

Shalmaneser), a palace decorated extensively with

Assyrian wall paintings was uncovered. Some of the

paintings are attributed to the mid-8th century BC; others to

a rebuilding by Assurbanipal in the 7th century BC. From

the earlier building are scenes with winged genii, the defeat

of the enemy and their merciless execution, audiences

granted to officials, and scribes recording booty from

subjugated nations. The paintings in Khorsabad were more

formal repeat patterns in bands are topped by two figures

paying homage to a deity. Excavations in Lorestan, the

mountainous region of western Iran, yielded fine bronzes of

fantastic creatures, probably made in the middle or late

Assyrian period. These were used as ornaments for

horses, weapons, and utensils.

Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine were on the land route

between Asia Minor and Africa, and the ancient art of this

area always shows the influence of those who conquered,

passed through, or traded with its inhabitants.

Mesopotamian-style cylinder seals from the Jamdat Nasr

period have been found. Pottery, works in stone, and

scarabs were influenced by dynastic Egypt beginning in the

29th century BC. Bronze figurines from Byblos of the early

2nd millennium are more distinctly Phoenician, as are

daggers and other ceremonial weapons found there.

Although the motifs used by local artisans came from

beyond the immediate region–Crete, Egypt, the Hittite

Empire, and Mesopotamia–the technique embodied in

crafted objects found at Byblos and Ugarit is distinctly

Phoenician. Phoenician goldsmiths and silversmiths were

skilled artisans, but the quality of their work depended on

their clientele. Ivory work was always of the highest

standards, probably because of Egyptian competition.

Phoenicians sold their wares all over the Middle East, and

the spread of Middle Eastern style and iconography, like

the alphabet, can be attributed to these great traders of

antiquity.

The Babylonians, in coalition with the Medes and

Scythians, defeated the Assyrians in 612 BC and sacked

Nimrud and Nineveh. They did not establish a new style or

iconography. Boundary stones depict old presentation

scenes or the images of kings with symbols of the gods.

Neo-Babylonian creativity manifested itself architecturally

at Babylon, the capital. This huge city, destroyed (689 BC)

by the Assyrian Sennacherib, was restored by

Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II. Divided by

the Euphrates, it took 88 years to build and was

surrounded by outer and inner walls. Its central feature was

Esagila, the temple of Marduk, with its associated

seven-story ziggurat Etemenanki, popularly known later as

the Tower of Babel. The ziggurat reached about 300 ft in

height and had at the uppermost stage a temple (a shrine)

built of sun-dried bricks and faced with baked bricks. From

the temple of Marduk northward passed the processional

way, its wall decorated with enamelled lions. Passing

through the Ishtar Gate, it led to a small temple outside the

city, where ceremonies for the New Year Festival were

held.

Nabonidus (reigned 556-539 BC), the last Babylonian

king, rebuilt the old Sumerian capital of Ur, including the

ziggurat of Nanna, rival to the ziggurat Etemenanki at

Babylon. It survived well and its facing of brick has recently

been restored.

In 539 BC the Neo-Babylonian kingdom fell to the

Persian Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great. Mesopotamia

beame part of the Persian Empire, and a royal palace was

built at Babylon, which was made one of the empire’s

administrative capitals. Among the remains from Babylon

of the time of Alexander the Great, is a theater he built at

the site known now as Humra. The brilliance of Babylon

was ended about 250 BC when the inhabitants of Babylon

moved to Seleucia, built by Alexander’s successors.