Mesopotamian Architecture

Site Structure Orientation Plan Ornamentation Scale Function

In Ancient Sumeria…. There is a theocracy…. Theocracy is a type of government where a god is recognized as the ruler, and the state officials operate on the god’s behalf 40,000 people lived in the city of Uruk….with Anu –the sky god as their primary diety (father of Enlil)…it is the city of the legendary Gilgamesh… How can the people be reminded daily of this system? Of the hierarchy of power?

4 Formal Style Characterstics of Sumerian Architecture….Creating a Sacred Space… Plan: Temple on top of a platform 40 ft above the level of the city. Roughly five times the height of a trailer ceiling. Structure: Made of mudbricks with engineering details to keep water from destroying and eroding the walkways And the building itself. Ornamentation: Polished, gleaming accuracy of vertical cuts covered water proof bitumen Scale: Large and elevated to accommodate the idea that the dieties resided ABOVE the human world.

1500 laborers working on average ten hours per day for about five years to build the last major revetment (stone facing) of its massive underlying terrace (the open areas surrounding the White Temple at the top of the ziggurat).

Digital Reconstruction…. How are the formal choices in structure, plan, communicating here? How does the context help us understand the purpose? Orientation: Corners of the Temple are oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. Site: On flat desert land in the Fertile Crescent. “We have no mountain? Let’s make a mountain…” Ziggurat--  Temple 

Walk all the way around to get in the back…one long hallway with Rooms on either side… Access from a “bent-axis” –the entry is at 90 angle to alter…

Signs of rituals: podium, fires burning on inside…. Signs of accounting: tablets in cuneiform on inside… Signs of conduits from the outside terrace to the center of the temple…where liquid seems to have been poured… How is the formal interior creating a mood or feeling here?

Function: Dedicated to the sky god: Anu…. Only priests and priest-kings were allowed inside at the top. It was designed for only a few people to wait in the temple for the dieties to appear… How did the structure support the function? How did the plan support the function? How did ornamentation support the function? How did scale support the function?

What other function would it have served for the Sumerians? Other people beyond the walls?

White Temple and its ziggurat. Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq). Sumerian. c. 3500–3000 B.C.E. Mud brick. (2 images) What is the overall theme of this work of architecture?

13 Ziggurat at Ur 2100 BCE: base is 50 ft high…there was bitumen facing as well…. 150 years earlier……

14 * Tower of Babel: 270 ft high Hanging Gardens of Babylon

15 Citadel and Palace complex of Sargon II What makes this propaganda for an empire? Palace covered 25 acres There were 200 courtyards and rooms A huge ziggurat that had 6 sanctuaries for 6 different gods.

16 Figure 2-22 Assyrian archers pursuing enemies, relief from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu (modern Nimrud), Iraq, ca. 875–860 BCE. Gypsum, 2’ 10 5/8” high. British Museum, London. Depicts multiple viewpoints of the same event to tell as thoroughly as Possible –an adaptation of conceptual view of one animal to show it As clearly as possible…… They are actually floating on inflatable pigskins… THE AKKADIANS WERE TO THE SUMERIANS WHAT THE ROMANS WILL BE TO THE GREEKS-BIG OLE COPIERS!!!! But….there are new uses for old techniques and devices-and this makes for new effects….. Egyptian Influence in narrative format noted here as well….

17 Figure 2-21 Lamassu (winged, human-headed bull), from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad), Iraq, ca. 720–705 BCE. Limestone, approx. 13’ 10” high. Louvre, Paris. Lamassu: A winged man-headed bull As a guardian at the gate of the palace. An innovation in composite/conceptual View: from the front –he is at rest and From the side in motion-all his relevant Parts exist (discuss problem of the 5 th leg) ASSYRIAN

18 Power & Authority Palace at Persepolis (Citadel)….5 th century BCE -huge stairways accommodating huge amts of people (palace at Persepolis) -LARGE SPACES – again, to accommodate people (palace at Persepolis) -centrally placed (palace at Persepolis) -tons of reliefs – storytelling?(reliefs from the royal audience hall) -HUGE COLUMNS – very very impressive (palace at Persepolis)

19 Largest known citadel at this point It was eventually razed to Alexander the Great: to symbolize the destruction of Persian imperial power….this was actually after the Persians destroyed the Athenian Acropolis –so retaliation? Gate of all lands symbolized the harmony of all Persian peoples…

21 Figure 2-29 Head of a Sasanian king (Shapur II?), ca. 350 CE. Silver with mercury gilding, 1’ 3 3/4” high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Sassanian How is this work different in form Than the portraits from earlier Mesopotamian periods? This work is influenced by the Greeks And exported to influence motifs in The Christian West as well as the Islamic Traditions further east. Detailed extraordinary metalwork is Typical of the Sassanians

22 For Homework, “unlock the blocks” for the two images pictured on the next slides: in other words-in a notes format –compare the plan of both _compare the orientation of both -compare the site of both _compare the structure of both _compare the ornamentation of both _compare the scale of both _compare the function of both Write a paragraph that summarizes the way each building’s characteristics reflect their cultural context. This is due Monday.

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