Near Eastern Architecture

Sumeria Phoenicia Babylonia Elam Media Assyria

HISTARC 1De la Salle College of St. Benilde

Overcompensated

“Racial Memory”

Euphrates river

Tigris river

Tigris–Euphrates river system

Tigris–Euphrates river systemThe Tigris and Euphrates, with their tributaries, form a major river system in Western Asia.

Euphrates river - EtymologyAncient Greek Euphrátēs (Εὐφράτης)Old Persian UfrātuElamite ú-ip-ra-tu-išSumerian BuranunaAkkadian PurattuArabic al-FurrātProto-Sumerian *burudu "copper"

an explanation that Euphrates was the river by which the copper ore was transported in rafts

Mesopotamia was the center of copper metallurgy during the period

Tigris river - EtymologyAncient Greek Tigris (Τίγρις) Old Persian TigrāElamite TigraSumerian IdignaAkkadian IdiqlatHebrew ḤîddeqelArabic Dijlah

id (i)gina "running water"

Mesopotamia

The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος (meso) "middle" and ποταμός (potamos) "river" and

literally means "(Land) between rivers“.

The Fertile CrescentEarliest of all civilizations (although everyone knows it’s Indus Valley now) as people formed permanent settlements

Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means “between the rivers”, specifically, the area between the Tigris River and Euphrates River (present day Iraq)

Lasted for approximately 3000 years

Its peoples were the first to irrigate fields, devised a system of writing, developed mathematics, invented the wheel and learned to work with metal.

Cradle of Civilization

Widely considered to be one of the cradles of civilization by the Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the

Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq. In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-

Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia’s popular kingdoms chronologicallyMiddle Bronze Age

Early BabyloniaLate Bronze Age

Old Assyrian PeriodIron Age

Neo-AssyrianNeo-Babylonian

Classical AntiquityPersian-Babylonia (Achaemenid Dynasty)Roman Mesopotamia

Late AntiquityMuslim Conquest (Rashidun)

“Governatorate”

The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens were descended from the City of Gods, but, unlike the ancient Egyptians, they never

believed their kings were real gods.

Most kings named themselves “king of the universe” or “great king”. Another common name was “shepherd”, as kings had to look after their

people.

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Climactic Conditions• Little rainfall

• Hot and dry climate

• windstorms leaving muddy river valleys in winter

• catastrophic flooding of the riversin spring

• Arid soil containing little minerals

• No stone or timber resources

Then why the hell live in Mesopotamia?NATURAL LEVEES: embankments produced by build-up of sediment over thousands of years of flooding

Natural Levee

Natural Levee• create a high and safe flood plain

• make irrigation and canal construction easy

• provide protection

• the surrounding swamps were full of fish & waterfowl

• reeds provided food for sheep / goats

• reeds also were used as building resources

ReligionPolytheistic religion consisting of over 3600 gods and demigods

Prominent Mesopotamian gods• Enlil (supreme god & god of air)• Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)• An (god of heaven)• Enki (god of water & underworld)• Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)

Religion• Position of King was enhanced and supported by religion

• Kingship believed to be created by gods and the king’s power was divinely ordained

• Belief that gods lived on the distant mountaintops

• Each god had control of certain things and each city was ruled by a different god

• Kings and priests acted as interpreters as they told the people what the god wanted them to do (ie. by examining the liver or lungs of a slain sheep)

Sumerians• social, economic and intellectual basis• Irrigated fields and produced 3 main crops (barley, dates and sesame seeds)• built canals, dikes, dams and drainage systems• develop cuneiform writing• invented the wheel• Abundance of food led to steady increase of population (farm, towns, cities)• first city of the world• Developed a trade system with bartering: mainly barley but also wool and cloth

for stone, metals, timber, copper, pearls and ivory• Individuals could only rent land from priests (who controlled land on behalf of

gods); most of profits of trade went to temple

• However, the Sumerians were not successful in uniting lower Mesopotamia

Akkadians• Leader: Sargon the Great• Sargon unified lower Mesopotamia (after conquering Sumerians in 2331 BCE)• Established capital at Akkad• Spread Mesopotamian culture • However, short-lived dynasty as Akkadians were conquered by the invading

barbarians by 2200 BCE

Babylonians KING HAMMURABI’S BABLYON

• (6th Amorite king) who conquered Akkad and Assyria (north and south)

• He build new walls to protect the city and new canals and dikes to improve crops

• Economy based on agriculture and wool / cloth• individuals could own land around cities• Artisans and merchants could keep most profits and

even formed guilds / associations• Grain used as the medium of exchange > emergence of

measurement of currency: shekel = 180 grains of barley; mina = 60 shekels

• Mina was eventually represented by metals which was one of first uses of money (but it was still based on grain)

• Hammurabi’s Legacy: law code

• Babylonians reunited Mesopotamia in 1830 BCE

• central location dominated trade and secured control

• YET AGAIN, Mesopotamia was not unified for long…

Code of Hammurabi• To enforce his rule, Hammurabi collected all the laws of Babylon in a code that

would apply everywhere in the land

• Most extensive law code from the ancient world (c. 1800 BCE)

• Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar placed in the public hall for all to see

• Hammurabi Stone depicts Hammurabi as receiving his authority from god Shamash

• Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as societal laws

• Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as people must be responsible for own actions

• Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye for an eye…” ie. If a son struck his father, the son’s hand would be cut off

• Consequences for crimes depended on rank in society (ie. only fines for nobility)

• 10th century BCE, Assyria emerged as dominant force in the north• City of Assur- became important trading and political centre• After Hammurabi’s death, Babylon fell apart and kings of Assur controlled

more of surrounding area and came to dominate • Made conquered lands pay taxes (food, animals, metals or timber)• Rule by fear as kings were first to have a permanent army made up of

professional soldiers (estimated 200 000 men)• Made superior weapons of bronze and iron • iron changed lifestyles in Mesopotamia in weapons and in daily life ie.

replaced wooden wheels and applied to horse drawn chariots

• Assyrian reunited Mesopotamia and established the first true empire • However, states began to revolt and ONCE AGAIN, Assyrian Empire collapsed by late 7th century BCE• By 539 BCE, Mesopotamia part of the vast Persian Empire (led by Cyrus the Great)• Persian Empire dominated for 800 years until Alexander the Great

Assyrians

Sumerian Akkadian Babylonia

Assyrian SoldierThe secret to its success was a professionally trained standing army, iron weapons, advanced engineering skills, effective tactics, and, most importantly, a complete ruthlessness which came to characterize the Assyrians to their neighbors and subjects and still attaches itself to the reputation of Assyria in the modern day.

Interesting Facts!• Mesopotamia, specifically Babylon used a mathematical system based

on sixty as all their numbers were expressed as parts of or multiples of sixty • Some parts of the ‘base-sixty’ system still remain today: 360 degrees

in a circle, 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in 1 hour• Devised a calendar base on cycles of the moon (number of days

between the appearance of two new moons was set as a month; 12 cycles made up a year

Who was the best?Sumer

• Closely tied to environment

• Irrigation techniques for farming

• wheel• Trade- bartering• Writing- cuneiform• Religion tied to

government as priests and kings made decision for gods

• ziggurats

Babylon

• Production of food through farming

• Private ownership of land vs ownership by the gods

• Developed mathematics and calendar system and system of units for currency

• Hammurabi’s law code

Assyria

Kings conquered lands to create empire of Assyria Cooler climate could produce crops with little irrigation Deposits of ore allowed for development and use of iron Assyrian army became most effective military force

Legacies of MesopotamiaRevolutionary innovations emerged in

Mesopotamia such as:• codified laws• ziggurats• Cuneiform• Irrigation• Metal working, tools• Trade• transportation• wheel• Writing• mathematics• prosperous living based on large scale agriculture

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“Architecture” of Mesopotamia

“Tower of Babylon”

ZigguratsZiggurats were built by the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions.

According to Herodotus, at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine, although none of these shrines have survived.

Great Ziggurat of Ur, Iraq

ZigguratOne practical function of the ziggurats was a high place on which the priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of miles.

Another practical function of the ziggurat was for security.

Nabonidus

ZigguratSince the shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways, a small number of guards could prevent non-priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as initiation rituals such as the Eleusinian mysteries, cooking of sacrificial food and burning of carcasses of sacrificial animals.

Granite “Stele” of Nabonidus

ZigguratEach ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which a city was built.

Sumerian masonry was usually mortarless although bitumen was sometimes used. Brick styles, which varied greatly over time, are categorized by period;

Patzen 80×40×15 cm: Late Uruk period (3600–3200 BC)Riemchen 16×16 cm: Late Uruk period (3600–3200 BC)Plano-convex 10x19x34 cm: Early Dynastic Period (3100–2300 BC)

Urban PlanningThe very first cities were founded in Mesopotamia after the Neolithic Revolution, around 7500 BCE. Mesopotamian cities included Eridu, Uruk, and Ur. Early cities also arose in the Indus Valley and ancient China.

UrukThe Sumerians were the first society to construct the city itself as a built form.

They were proud of this achievement as attested in the Epic of Gilgamesh which opens with a description of Uruk its walls, streets, markets, temples, and gardens.

Uruk itself is significant as the center of an urban culture which both colonized and urbanized western Asia.

Gilgamesh• Gilgamesh is an ancient story or epic written in

Mesopotamia more than 4000 thousand years ago

• Gilgamesh is the first known work of great literature and epic poem

• Epic mentions a great flood

• Gilgamesh parallels the Nippur Tablet, a six-columned tablet telling the story of the creation of humans and animals, the cities and their rulers, and the great flood

ANALYSIS• Gilgamesh and the Nippur tablet both parallel

the story of Noah and the Ark (great flood) in the Old Testament of the Jewish and Christian holy books

• Modern science argues an increase in the sea levels about 6,000 years ago (end of ice age)

• the melting ice drained to the oceans causing the sea level to rise more than ten feet in one century

Assyrian ArchitecturePalaces – came with or without a ziggurat, “hypostyle hall”, monumental entrances.

Palace of Nebuchanezzar II in Babylon

Building Types• Palaces – “seraguo” (palace proper which includes the king’s

residences, statehalls, men’s apartments and reception, haram (private chamber), khan (private chamber).

HISTORICAL CONDITION: The ancient architecture of West-Asiatic developed FROM 3000 BC TO 330 BC. in the following period.(a) Early Sumerian (3000—2000 BC)(b) Old Babylonian (2016-1595 BC) ---NEO Babylonian (626-539 BC)(c) Assyrian (1859—626 BC)(d) Persian (750—330 BC)

SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE

The transition from prehistory was made around 4500 BC with the rise of the Sumerian civilization.

The major cities of the Sumerian civilization were Kish, Urukand, Ur.

The Sumerian were the first civilization to make a conscious attempt of designing public buildings.

Mud was their building material. Mud was formed into brick, sun dried and built into massive walls. Walls were thick to compensate the weakness of mud. They were reinforce with buttresses.

Spaces were narrow because of the walling material Facade of buildings were white washed and painted to disguise the

lack of attraction of the material. Buttresses and recesses also relieve the monotony of the plastered

wall surfaces. Temples was their major building type.

Cities were enclosed in walls with Ziggurat temples and palace as centers of the city.

Fabric of the city is made up of residences mixed with commercial and industrial buildings.

The houses were densely packed with narrow streets between them.

Streets were fronted by courtyard houses of one story high.

The houses streets were usually punctuated by narrow openings that serve as entrance to houses.

Temples were the principal architectural monuments of Sumerian cities.

Temples consist of chief and city temples.

WHITE TEMPLE (URUK) Uruk was a major Sumerian city by 3300 BC. Uruk is also known as warka in Arabic. The white temple was built around 3000 BC. IT is an example of earliest development of

Sumerian temples and Ziggurat. The temple is place on a great mound of

earth called Ziggurat, rising more than 12 meters above ground.

The ziggurat and temple are built with mud bricks.

The temple is rectangular in shape.

Temple walls were thick and supported by buttresses.

In the inner part of the temple was a long sanctuary, that contains an alter and offering table.

Rooms oblong and in shape and vaulted surrounded the long side of the sanctuary.

The temple had imposing doorways located at its either end.

Worshippers enter to the temple through a side room.

Series of staircases and stepped levels lead worships to the entrance of the temple.

The temple was plastered white externally, making it visible for miles in the landscape.

GREAT ZIGGURAT (UR)

Ur was a Sumerian city located near the mouth of the Euphrates river.

It was constructed of mud bricks reinforced with thin layers of matting and cables of twisted reeds.

The Great Ziggurat was located as part of a temple complex.

The king was the chief priest of the temple and lived close to it.

The temple sits on a three multi-tiered Ziggurat mountain.

Access to the temple is through triple stairways that converge at the summit of the first platform.

From this stage, one passed through a portal with dome roof to fourth staircase.

The fourth staircase gave access to the second and third stages of the ziggurat and to the temple.

The temple is usually accessed only by the priest, where gods are believed to come down and give

instructions. The people believed that climbing the staircase of the

ziggurat gives a holy experience. The chief temple was also used as a last line of

defense during times of war.

Most of what is known about what exist on top of the ziggurat is projection

BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE

After the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC and the end of the Assyrian civilization, focus of Mesopotamian civilization shifted to old Babylon.

A new dynasty of kings, including Nebuchadnezzar, revived old Babylonian culture to create a Neo-Babylonian civilization.

Old Sumerian cities were rebuilt. The capital old Babylon was enlarged

and heavily fortified.

The capital old Babylon was enlarged and heavily fortified and magnificent new buildings were built.

The traditional style of Mesopotamian building reached its peak during the period.

Traditional building was enhanced by a new form of facade ornament consisting of figures designed in colored glazed brick work.

City of Babylon: The city of Babylon is shaped in the form of a quadrangle sitting

across and pierced by the Euphrates.

The city was surrounded by a fortification of double walls.

These had defensive towers that project well above the walls.

The walls also had a large moat in front, which was also used for navigation .

The length of the wall and moat is about five and a quarter miles.

The city had a palace located on its northern side on the outer wall.

ISHTAR GATE From the palace originated a procession

street that cuts through the city raised above the ground to the tower of Babel.

The procession street enters the city through the famous Ishtar gate.

The Ishtar gate is built across the double walls of the city fortification.

The gate had a pair of projecting towers on each wall.

All the facades of gates and adjoining streets were faced with blue glazed bricks and ornamented with figures of heraldic animals-lions, bulls, and dragons.

These were modelled in relief and glazed in other colors.

None of the buildings of old Babylon has survived to the present age.

Architecture in the city of Babylon: Nebuchadnezzar’s palace covered a land

area of 900 feet by 600 feet. It had administrative offices, barracks, the

king’s harem, private apartment all arranged around five courtyards.

The palace is also praised for its legendary hanging garden.

This is recorded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but exact knowledge of the nature of this garden is not known.

Temples and towers were also prominent architectural elements of Babylon.

The legendary tower of Babel located at the end of procession street is mentioned in the Christian bible.

ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE The principal cities of Assyria were Nineveh,

Dun, Khorsabad, Nimrudand Assur. The Assyrians were great warriors and

hunters, and this was reflected in their art. They produced violent sculptures and relief

carving in stone that was used to ornament their houses.

During the Assyrian periods, temples lost their importance to palaces.

Palaces were raised on brick platforms, and their principal entrance ways were flanked by guardian figures of human headed bulls or lions of stone.

Their halls and corridors were lined with pictures and inscriptions carved in relief on stone slabs up to 9 feet high.

The interiors were richly decorated and luxurious. The walls of cities were usually strengthened by many towers

serving as defensive positions.

PALACE OF SARGON: The palace is approached at ground level

through a walled citadel. Within the citadel is found the main palace,

two minor palaces and a temple dedicated to Nabu.

The main palace was set on a platform located on the northern side of the citadel.

All the buildings within the citadel were arranged around courtyards.

The palace was arranged around two major courtyards about which were grouped smaller courtyards.

The palace consisted of large and smaller rooms with the throne room being the largest.

The building was decorated with relief sculpture and glazed brick.

PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE Their architectural solutions were a synthesis of ideas gathered

from almost all parts of their empire and from the Greeks and Egyptians.

Their materials of construction was also from different locations. Material included mud-brick from Babylon, wooden roof beams

from Lebanon, precious material from India and Egypt, Stone columns quarried and carved by Ionic Greeks.

Despite sourcing materials and ideas from different areas, their architecture was original and distinctive in style.

PALACE OF PERSEPOLIS: Persian architecture achieved its greatest

monumentality at Persepolis AND WAS constructed as a new capital for the Persian Empire.

It is set along the face of a mountain levelled to create a large platform 1800 feet by 900 feet.

It was surrounded by a fortification wall. The site was more than half covered by

buildings The palace consisted of three parts:1) An approach of monumental staircases, gate ways and avenues.

2) Two great state halls towards the center of the platform.3) The palace of Xerxes, the harem, and other living quarters at the south end of the site. Structurally, the buildings relied on a

hypostyle scheme throughout. Some of the spaces were very big and

generally square in plan. The spaces were enclosed by mud brick

walls. The most impressive aspect of the palace

was the royal audience hall.

The Royal audience hall was a square 250 feet in length. It contained 36 slender columns widely space & 67 feet high. The columns had a lower diameter of only 5 feet. The centers of the columns were spaced 20 feet or 4 diameters

apart. The column was the greatest invention of the Persians. The columns were fluted and stand on inverted bell shaped bases.

Their capital combine Greek motifs with Egyptian palm leaf topped by an impost of paired beast.

Another famous aspect of the palace at Parsepolis was the throne room.

This was also known as hall of a 100 columns. The columns in the room were 37 feet high,

with a diameter of only 3 feet. They were spaced 20 feet apart or seven

diameters from axis to axis. The slim nature of the column created room

and spacious feeling in the room when compared to the audience hall.

The monumental entrance to Parsepolis is also one of the unique aspects of the Palace.

The monumental gateway ensure a dramatic entry to the Palace.

It was heavily adorned with relief sculpture ornamenting its stairway.

The relief structure addresses different themes relating to the role of Parsepolis as the capital of the Persian Empire.

In some places, the sculpture shows delegates from the different parts of the Persian bringing gifts and rare animals to the king during celebrations.

In some palaces, royal guards and nobles of the imperial court are shown.

Elsewhere, the king is seen in conflict with animals or seated beneath a ceremonial umbrella.

Some columns supporting the halls of the great halls have survived.

The mud brick fabric of the palace and its enclosing walls have perished completely.

Only the sculptures which adorn doorways or windows and openings and the relief ornamenting its entrance way remain.

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