Mesopotamian Art, 3500 – 300 B.C.E.

The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia are the source of the earliest surviving art;
these civilizations were situated between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. Dating
back to 3500 B.C.E., Mesopotamian art was intended to serve as a way to glorify
powerful rulers and their connection to divinity. Art was made from natural resources
such as stone, shells, alabaster and marble, and was often created as didactic pieces. No
artist signatures can be found on most of the work, because the pieces were meant to
embody the subject matter, rather than the creator. Popular items that typify this time
period include cylindrical seals, steles, narrative relief sculptures, and lavishly decorated
tombs.

The major civilizations that flourished during the Mesopotamian time were the
Sumerians (3500-2300 BC), Akkadians (2180-2340 BC), Babylonians (1792-
1750 BC), Hitties (1600-1200 BC), Assyrains (1000-612 BC) and the Persians
(559-331 BC).

Sumerian Art

Standard of Ur, 2600 B.C.E.

Shown is a Sumerian container depicting war and peace. This work is inlayed with shell,
lapis lazuli and limestone. It served as a visual representation of a civilization’s conquest
and the serenity of victory to follow. The representation of the profile figures in the
narrative within registers (horizontal bands) was typical for art from this period.
Through size differences and central placement of important figures, it becomes clear
who the important people are.

Akkadian Art

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, 2230 B.C.E:

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin

This work from Akkadian culture was the first work that depicted a man as synonymous
to a god. Made from sandstone, this work utilizes two important staples of ancient art:
hierarchy of scale and symbolism. Naram-Sin is physically shown above all other figures
in the piece, establishing him as the most important. He is also wearing a horned crown
and standing under stars that appear close enough for the ruler to touch them. Such
imagery was meant to indicate his divinity.
Babylonian Art

lshtar Gate, 575 B.C.E:

Ishtar Gate

This gate is made from blue-glazed brick with images of alternating bas-relief dragons
and wild cattle. Commissioned by King Nebuchadnezzar II, this structure was once
considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was later replaced in this list by
the Lighthouse of Alexandria. This gate was dedicated to the Babylonian goddess, Ishtar,
and played a large part in processional festivals.
Hittite Art

Stele of Hammurabi, 1790 B.C.E:

This sculpture represents the set of laws that the sixth king Hammurabi enforced. It is a
prime example of how the society depended on art in order to find organization and
structure. Hammurabi believed he was chosen by God to enforce his divine laws. In
order to show this relationship, Hammurabi ordered a sculpture that depicted the king
in an animated dialogue with the divine, situated directly above the list of engraved
laws.
Assyrian Art

Lamassu, 720-705 B.C.:

This statue is a combination of a bull’s body, eagle’s wings, and a human crowned head,
and represents the ultimate protection from evil. Often, as is the case with this
particular piece, it was placed with an identical twin by the entrance to a city, serving as
a permanent protector.

Persian Art

Persepolis, 500 B.C.:

This architectural feat was built by architects Darius I and Xerxes I. Located in what is
now Iran, this structure was once a place for spectacular receptions. It was constructed
on artificial terraces made of mud-brick. Lamassu gates, relief sculptures and bell-
shaped columns characterize this structure.

For more information on Persepolis, check out this link!

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/persepolis/persepolis1.php
Lamassu (bull-
man)
Lamassu: Babylonian protective demon with a bull's body, eagle's
wings, and a human head.

The name lamassu is not without problems. The Sumerian

word lama, which is rendered in Akkadian as lamassu, refers
to a protective deity, who is usually female. She is often
represented as a standing figure that introduces guests to
another, superior god. So she is actually a servant. Her male
counterpart is called alad or, in Akkadian, šêdu.

A lamassu from Khorsabad (Louvre)

During the Neo-Assyrian Empire (c.883-612), large

monumental bulls, often with wings and always with human
heads, were placed as gateway guardians at the entrances of
royal palaces like Khorsabad and Nineveh. The general idea
behind them was that they warded off evil. (In jargon: they
were apotropaic figures.) Usually, they have five legs. Lion-
bodied protective deities are also known, and are usually
called "sphinxes".

These monumental statues were called aladlammû

("protective spirit") or lamassu, which means that the original
female word was now applied for a rather macho demon. In
one modern interpretation, they combine the strength of a bull,
the freedom of an eagle, and the intelligence of a human
being. Female lamassu's are called apsasû.

Lammasu's are also known from the palaces of the

Achaemenid kings. Those in Pasargadae have now
disappeared, but in Persepolis, we can still see them in the
Gate of All Nations. The hoofs are visible in the Unfinished
Gate; in the building that is identified as either a Council Hall
or a Tripylon ("triple gate"), lamassu's served as the capitals of
columns.

It would be interesting if we could establish a link between the

Asian bull-man lamassu and the Greek bull-man Minotaur,
although the first one has a man's head and a bull's body, and
the Minotaur has a man's body and a bull's head. However,
there are Greek coins that show lamassu's, like those of the
Sicilian cities of Gela and Panormus. The latter, modern
Palermo, may, as a Phoenician colony, have had artistic ties
with the east.
Ishtar Gate - Definition

The Ishtar Gate was constructed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II circa
575 BCE. It was the eighth gate of the city of Babylon (in present day Iraq) and
was the main entrance into the city. The Ishtar Gate was part of Nebuchadnezzar's
plan to beautify his empire's capital and during the first half of the 6th century BCE,
he also restored the temple of Marduk and built the renowned wonder: the Hanging
Gardens as part of this plan. The magnificence of the Ishtar Gate was so well
known that it made the initial list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
However, it was later replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria, but some authors
(Antipater of Sidon and Calliamchus of Cyrene) wrote that the "Gates of Ishtar" and
"Walls of Babylon" should still be considered one of the wonders.

The Ishtar Gate and Deities

The Ishtar Gate is named so, because it was dedicated to the Babylonian goddess
Ishtar, although Nebuchadnezzar pays homage to other Babylonian deities through
various animal representations. The animals represented on the gate are young
bulls (aurochs), lions, and dragons (sirrush). These animals are symbolic
representations of certain deities: lions are often associated with Ishtar, bulls with
Adad, and dragons with Marduk. Respectively, Ishtar was a goddess of fertility,
love, war, and sex, Adad was a weather god, and Marduk was the chief or national
god of Babylon.

Materials & Construction

The front of the gate is adorned with glazed bricks with alternating rows of dragons
and bulls. The beasts are furnished in yellow and brown tiles, while the bricks
surrounding them are blue. The blue enameled tiles are thought to be of lapis lazuli,
but there is some debate to this conjecture. The gates measured more than 38 feet
(11.5 m) high with a vast antechamber on the southern side.

Through the gatehouse is the Processional Way, which is a brick-paved corridor

over half a mile long with walls over 50 feet tall (15.2 m) on each side. The walls
are adorned with over 120 sculptural lions, flowers, and enameled yellow tiles. The
Processional Way was used for the New Year's celebration, through which statues of
the deities would parade down and the path paved with red and yellow stones
(rows of red stone on the outer layers and a yellow row in-between). Each one of
these stones has an inscription underneath: a small prayer from King
Nebuchadnezzar to the chief god Marduk. It was this processional way that led to
the temple of Marduk.

Dedication Plaque

On the Ishtar Gate, there is a dedication plaque written from Nebuchadnezzar's

point of view that explains the gate's purpose and describes it in some detail.

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, the faithful prince appointed by the will of

Marduk, the highest of princely princes, beloved of Nabu, of prudent counsel, who
has learned to embrace wisdom, who fathomed their divine being and reveres their
majesty, the untiring governor, who always takes to heart the care of the cult of
Esagila and Ezida and is constantly concerned with the well-being of Babylon and
Borsippa, the wise, the humble, the caretaker of Esagila and Ezida, the firstborn
son of Nabopolassar, the King of Babylon.

Both gate entrances of Imgur-Ellil and Nemetti-Ellil following the filling of the street
from Babylon had become increasingly lower.

Therefore, I pulled down these gates and laid their foundations at the water table
with asphalt and bricks and had them made of bricks with blue stone on which
wonderful bulls and dragons were depicted.

I covered their roofs by laying majestic cedars length-wise over them. I hung doors
of cedar adorned with bronze at all the gate openings.

I placed wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and thus adorned them
with luxurious splendor so that people might gaze on them in wonder

I let the temple of Esiskursiskur (the highest festival house of Marduk, the Lord of
the Gods a place of joy and celebration for the major and minor gods) be built firm
like a mountain in the precinct of Babylon of asphalt and fired bricks.

Excavation & Reconstruction

The Ishtar gate was excavated between 1902 to 1914 CE during which 45 feet
(13.7 m) of the original foundation of the gate was discovered. The material
excavated by Robert Koldewey was used in a reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and
the Processional Way. In 1930 CE, the reconstruction was finished at the Pergamon
Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Due to size restrictions at the Pergamon Museum, the Ishtar Gate is neither
complete nor its original size. The gate was originally a double gate, but the
Pergamon Museum only utlizes the smaller, frontal part. The second gate is
currently in storage. Originally, the gate had a door and roof made of cedar and
bronze, which was not built for the reconstruction. A smaller reconstruction of the
Ishtar Gate was built in Iraq under Saddam Hussein as the entrance to a museum.
However, this reconstruction was never finished due to war.
There are several museums in the world that have received portions of the Ishtar
Gate: the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Royal
Ontario Museum, the Louvre, Munich's State Museum of Egyptian Art, New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Oriental Institute of Chicago, and many others.

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code, dating back to about
1772 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth
Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a human-sized stone
stele and various clay tablets. The Code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting
"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis)[1] as graded depending on social status, of
slave versus free man.[2]

Nearly one-half of the Code deals with matters of contract, establishing, for example, the wages
to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon. Other provisions set the terms of a transaction,
establishing the liability of a builder for a house that collapses, for example, or property that is
damaged while left in the care of another. A third of the code addresses issues concerning
household and family relationships such as inheritance, divorce, paternity and sexual behavior.
Only one provision appears to impose obligations on an official; this provision establishes that a
judge who reaches an incorrect decision is to be fined and removed from the bench
permanently.[3] A handful of provisions address issues related to military service.

One nearly complete example of the Code survives today, on a diorite stele in the shape of a
huge index finger,[4] 2.25-metre (7.4 ft) tall (see images at right). The Code is inscribed in the
Akkadian language, using cuneiform script carved into the stele. It is currently on display in The
Louvre, with exact replicas in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, the library of
the Theological University of the Reformed Churches (Dutch: Theologische Universiteit
Kampen voor de Gereformeerde Kerken) in The Netherlands, the Pergamon Museum of Berlin
and the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.
Ziggurat of Ur

Ziggurat of Ur, c. 2100 B.C.E. mud brick and baked brick, Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq (largely
reconstructed)

The Great Ziggurat

The ziggurat is the most distinctive architectural invention of the Ancient Near East. Like an
ancient Egyptian pyramid, an ancient Near Eastern ziggurat has four sides and rises up to the
realm of the gods. However, unlike Egyptian pyramids, the exterior of Ziggurats were not
smooth but tiered to accommodate the work which took place at the structure as well as the
administrative oversight and religious rituals essential to Ancient Near Eastern cities. Ziggurats
are found scattered around what is today Iraq and Iran, and stand as an imposing testament to
the power and skill of the ancient culture that produced them.

One of the largest and best-preserved ziggurats of Mesopotamia is the great Ziggurat at Ur.
Small excavations occurred at the site around the turn of the twentieth century, and in the
1920s Sir Leonard Woolley, in a joint project with the University of Pennsylvania Museum in
Philadelphia and the British Museum in London, revealed the monument in its entirety.

What Woolley found was a massive rectangular pyramidal structure, oriented to true North,
210 by 150 feet, constructed with three levels of terraces, standing originally between 70 and
100 feet high. Three monumental staircases led up to a gate at the first terrace level. Next, a
single staircase rose to a second terrace which supported a platform on which a temple and the
final and highest terrace stood. The core of the ziggurat is made of mud brick covered with
baked bricks laid with bitumen, a naturally occurring tar. Each of the baked bricks measured
about 11.5 x 11.5 x 2.75 inches and weighed as much as 33 pounds. The lower portion of the
ziggurat, which supported the first terrace, would have used some 720,000 baked bricks. The
resources needed to build the Ziggurat at Ur are staggering.
Moon Goddess Nanna
The Ziggurat at Ur and the temple on its top were built around 2100 B.C.E. by the king Ur-
Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur for the moon goddess Nanna, the divine patron of the city
state. The structure would have been the highest point in the city by far and, like the spire of a
medieval cathedral, would have been visible for miles around, a focal point for travelers and
the pious alike. As the Ziggurat supported the temple of the patron god of the city of Ur, it is
likely that it was the place where the citizens of Ur would bring agricultural surplus and where
they would go to receive their regular food allotments. In antiquity, to visit the ziggurat at Ur
was to seek both spiritual and physical nourishment.

Ziggurat of Ur, partly restored, c. 2100 B.C.E. mudbrick

and baked brick ,Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq

Clearly the most important part of the ziggurat at Ur was the Nanna temple at its top, but this,
unfortunately, has not survived. Some blue glazed bricks have been found which archaeologists
suspect might have been part of the temple decoration. The lower parts of the ziggurat, which
do survive, include amazing details of engineering and design. For instance, because the
unbaked mud brick core of the temple would, according to the season, be alternatively more or
less damp, the architects included holes through the baked exterior layer of the temple
allowing water to evaporate from its core. Additionally, drains were built into the ziggurat’s
terraces to carry away the winter rains.

Hussein’s Assumption
The Ziggurat at Ur has been restored twice. The first restoration was in antiquity. The last Neo-
Babylonian king, Nabodinus, apparently replaced the two upper terraces of the structure in the
6th century B.C.E. Some 2400 years later in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein restored the façade of
the massive lower foundation of the ziggurat, including the three monumental staircases
leading up to the gate at the first terrace. Since this most recent restoration, however, the
Ziggurat at Ur has experienced some damage. During the recent war led by American and
coalition forces, Saddam Hussein parked his MiG fighter jets next to the Ziggurat, believing that
the bombers would spare them for fear of destroying the ancient site. Hussein’s assumptions
proved only partially true as the ziggurat sustained some damage from American and coalition
bombardment.