ART OF MESOPOTAMIA Survey of Art History I

Ancient Near East

The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East

Mesopotamia-modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran, northeastern Syria and Kuwait

• Due to its geographic location Mesopotamia became the cradle of agriculture

• This is where the first major cities were formed

• Mesopotamia is where the agricultural and domestic revolution began• Wheat- Barley• Sheep -Goats

Mesopotamia • Greek for “Between the

Rivers”• Located between the Tigres

and Euphrates rivers

• Modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria

• Is actually multiple kingdoms

• Sumer (4500-2004 BC)• Babylonia (1894-1026

BC)• Assyria (2400-605 BC)

SUMERIANS4500-2004 BC

SumerSumer was the first urban civilization in Mesopotamia

The Sumerians were the first people to migrate to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)

arguably the first civilization in the world with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley**

Around 5,500 years ago, the Sumerians built cities along the rivers in Lower Mesopotamia,

Achievements: The wheel, the plow, levees (to hold back floods from their fields, canals) and a writing system, which we call cuneiform.

Mesopotamia is considered the cradle, or beginning, of civilization.

Mesopotamia at first glance does not look like an ideal place for a civilization to flourish.

It is hot and very dry. There is very little rainfall in Lower Mesopotamia.

However, snow, melting in the mountains at the source of these two rivers, created an annual flooding.

The flooding deposited silt, which is fertile, rich, soil, on the banks of the rivers every year.

This is why Mesopotamia is part of the fertile crescent, an area of land in the Middle East that is rich in fertile soil and crescent-shaped.

Sumerianscommon language and believed in

the same gods and goddesses.

The belief in more than one god is called polytheism.

There were seven great city-states, each with its own king and a building called a ziggurat, a large pyramid-shaped building with a temple at the top, dedicated to a Sumerian deity.

Although the Sumerian city-states had much in common, they fought for control of the river water, a valuable resource.

Each city-state needed an army to protect itself from its neighbors

Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place.

White Temple and Ziggurat Uruk, (3,200 – 3,000 BC)Mud BrickModern Warka, Iraq• Created using mud, and bricks

• Platform stepped temples

• Some archaeologists believe that these structures were elevated to protect the temples from the flooding that happens in the region every year

• Were used to show off the power of the rulers

• The larger and taller the ziggurat the wealthier the ruler and city state

• Largest ziggurat believed to be The Tower of Babylon

• Believed to be the inspiration for Egypt’s pyramids

Ziggurat of Ur21st century BC

Tell el-Muqayyar, Dhi Qar Province, Iraq

Ziggurat of Ur The ziggurat was a piece in a temple complex that served as an administrative center for the city, and which was a shrine of the moon god Nanna, the patron deity of Ur.

The construction of the ziggurat was finished in the 21st century BC by King Shulgi, who, in order to win the allegiance of cities, proclaimed himself a god.

During his 48-year reign, the city of Ur grew to be the capital of a state controlling much of Mesopotamia.

Many ziggurats were made by stacking mud-bricks up and using mud to seal them together

Statuettes of Two Worshipers (ca. 2,700 BCE)Square Temple at Eshnunna, Tell Asmar, IraqGypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone

Male figure – 2 feet 6 inchesIraq museum,Baghdad

http://www.theiraqmuseum.com/pages/exhibitions-and-publications

/

■ Votive Offerings• Votive offerings are religious objects which are created to

give to the gods as gifts• The objects are usually small and placed around alters in

temples• They often represent the people who worshiped the gods

and were meant to be a way for people to pray all the time

• These statuettes show a lot more detail in the human form, and often look different

• Although they look different they are highly stylized, with the same type of dress, facial expressions, and hair styles

• The variety and amount of small votive offerings which have been found show us that they played an important role in the religious practices of the people at the time

Each sculpture was used as a stand-in for the donor who may have commissioned it.

The concept of representation had a very direct meaning for the Sumerians: the gods were believed to be present in their images and the votive statues offered prayers and transmitted messages to the gods.

Bodies and faces are simplified so that they do not distract attention from the eyes which are the “windows to the soul”

Votive Figures (ca. 2,700 BCE)Square Temple at Eshnunna, Tell Asmar, IraqGypsum inlaid with shell and black limestoneMale figure – 2 feet 6 inchesIraq museum,Baghdadhttp://www.theiraqmuseum.com/pages/exhibitions-and-publications/

Lady of Urk (Inanna) 3100BC. Uruk, IraqMarble• one of the earliest representations of the human face.

The carved marble female face is probably a depiction of Inanna.

• Inanna was the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war (will later turn into the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Roman goddess Venus)

• She was the most important goddess as she brought knowledge and culture to the people of Uruk

• Creating her statue was an important part of Sumerian ritual

• The marble was imported from Persia, and was very expensive

• Construction • The stone part of the head is only the front• The back was probably wood which would be connected

to the body of the rest of the statue• The eyes would have been filled with colored shells and

stones • It is believed that the hair would have been covered in

gold leaf

Depicting Real People• One of the most detailed and interesting statues

from Sumeria is that of the ruler Gueda

• The form is highly stylized, and is meant to show off the most important parts of the human body (eyes, head, chest, and arms)

• There is incredible detail in the arms, and in the face, as well as in the feet.

• • This shows us that even though they want all people

to look the same that they are interested in making the human form look at realistic as possible

• This is also one of the first times that we see human forms being mixed with written forms.

Votive Statue of GudeaGirsu, Sumeria 2090 BC

Cuneiform Sumerian writing, while proven to be not the oldest

example of writing on earth, is considered to be a great milestone in the development of humanity's ability to not only create historical records but also in creating pieces of literature both in the form of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws.

Although pictures — that is, hieroglyphs — were first used, cuneiform and then Ideograms (where symbols were made to represent ideas) soon followed.

Triangular or wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay.

A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, such as personal or business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, daily records, and even libraries full of clay tablets.

Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer, 3100–3000 BC

The Epic of GilgameshThe Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient

Mesopotamia that is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature.

Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk.

The story tells of Gilgamesh’s adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of the earth in quest of the Babylonian Noah and the secret of immortality.

Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about mankind’s eternal struggle with the fear of death.

Various themes, plot elements, and characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh have counterparts in the Hebrew Bible, notably the accounts of the Garden of Eden the Genesis flood narrative.

The Flood Tablet / The Gilgamesh Tablet

Shamhat and EnkidoGarden of EdenThe parallels between the stories of Enkidu/Shamhat

and Adam/Eve have been long recognized by scholars.

In both, a man is created from the soil by a god, and lives in a natural setting amongst the animals.

He is introduced to a woman who tempts him.

In both stories the man accepts food from the woman, covers his nakedness, and must leave his former realm, unable to return.

The presence of a snake that steals a plant of immortality from the hero later in the epic is another point of similarity.

Utnapishtim in his boat saving all life from a global floodThere have been numerous

flood stories identified from ancient sources scattered around the world.

In brief, Utnapishtim had become immortal after building a ship to weather the Great Deluge that destroyed mankind. He brought all of his relatives and all species of creatures aboard the vessel. Utnapishtim released birds to find land, and the ship landed upon a mountain after the flood.

And in other cultures..

Popol Vuh. Maya. Mexico 250 ADManu and Matsya. India. 250 AD

Standard of UrRoyal Cemetery, Ur (Iraq) 2600 BCWood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone

is a small trapezoidal box (8.5inx19.5in) whose two sides and end panels are covered with figurative and geometric mosaics made of pieces of shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone set into bitumen

Depicts life in early Mesopotamia.

The two sides, dubbed the “War Side” and the “Peace Side,” tell a story read from bottom to top.

The top register on each side depicts a king, who is larger in scale than the other figures.

The two most important roles of an early Mesopotamian ruler: the warrior who protected the people and secured access to water and natural resources and the leader who served as an intermediary between the people and the gods.

Shows the defeat of some unknown enemy. At the bottom, war carts, drawn by donkeys, race with increasing speed from left to right, trampling naked enemy soldiers. The second register shows a phalanx of armed soldiers to the left, while on the right soldiers in a variety of poses dispatch some captives and lead others away. The top register shows the ruler, his height exceeding the border of the field, facing right. Behind him, his cart is drawn by four donkeys alongside his attendants. In front of him, soldiers parade nude and bound prisoners.

The Standard of Ur in War

Lapis lazuliHow are the people depicted?

The Standard of Ur in Peace

Its two lower registers illustrate the bounty of the land. The bottom one depicts men carrying produce in bags on their shoulders and in backpacks supported by headbands. The second register shows men leading bulls, sheep and goats and carrying fish. The upper register depicts a royal banquet. The ruler, wearing a kilt, is shown larger in scale than the others—the center of attention. The other banqueters, who wear plain-fringed kilts, face him and raise their cups together while attendants provide food and drink. Banqueting in early Mesopotamia usually involved music. A lyre player and a singer, distinguished by their long black hair, stand to the right of the scene.

Lyres are instruments (like harps) that were common throughout the Ancient Near East

They are often highly decorated

It is covered in lapis lazuli (blue colored), gold leaf, and ivory

The imagery on the music box (solid bottom part), is shown in registers with mythical imagery found in each register

Bull-Headed Lyre2600 BCRoyal Cemetery, Ur

The imagery used in the lyre represent significant parts of Early Mesopotamian funerary rituals. 

The bearded bull on the front represents the sun god Shamash, depicted in cuneiform texts as the golden bull with lapis lazuli beard. 

Shamash is the divine judge who shines light on all things. 

Only Shamash can descend into the underworld and emerge again at sunrise.

Iconography

Taken as a whole, the lyre imagery shows the human cycle of the kings’ control over nature, the funerary ritual and entry into the underworld. All of this is presided over by the god of judgment and destiny, the sun god Shamash.

The front panel of the lyre tells the story of the funeral ritual itself.  At the top, the nude hero grapples with two rampant human-headed bulls, representing royal control over nature.  Beneath are three scenes that show the ritual with otherworldly actors. A hyena carries butchered meat on a table. Behind his is a lion, holding a jar and a pouring vessel identical to ones found in the graves.  The third register depicts music-making: an equid plays a lyre while a bear supports it, nearby a small animal shakes a rattle. On the bottom is the last stage of the ritual, where the deceased meets the scorpion man, the guardian of the entrance to the underworld. 

Showing this ritual in the symbolic language of animals acting as humans.  

heraldic composition: composition that is symmetrical on either side of a central figure

BABYLONIAN

Hammurabi and the Rise of Babylon■ The following two centuries witnessed the reemergence of the traditional

Mesopotamian political pattern of several independent city-states existing side by side.

■ Until Babylon’s most powerful king, Hammurabi (1792-1750BC) reestablished a centralized government that ruled southern Mesopotamia, Babylon was one of those city-states

■ Hammurabi was famous for his conquests. He is best known today for his law code, which prescribed penalties for everything from adultery and murder to the cutting down of a neighbor’s tree.

• It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world.

• Is a large stela/stele• an upright stone slab or column typically bearing a

commemorative inscription or relief design• On the bottom is the code of Hammurabi inscribed in

cuneiform• The first law code in the world• Hammurabi created this law code to help create

order in his empire• The code consists of 282 laws, with scaled

punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" as graded depending on social status

• The Code issues justice following the three classes of Babylonian society: property owners, freed men, and slaves.

• For example, if a doctor killed a rich patient, he would have his hands cut off, but if he killed a slave, only financial restitution was required

Stele with Law Code of Hammurabi Susa, Iran 1780 BC

• On the top is an engraving of Hammurabi who is standing before Shamash (the god of justice)

• The king raises his hand in respect. The god bestows on Hammurabi the authority to rule and to enforce laws

• It is one of the first times that art is being used for propaganda purposes

• The combination of these engravings is what has made this stele so influential in art history

Iconography

Hammurabi’s Law Code■ If a man puts out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. ■ If someone steals property from a temple, he will be put to death, as will

the person who receives the stolen goods.■ If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the

river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

■ If a man’s wife is caught in bed with another man, both will be tied up and thrown in the water.

ASSYRIAN

Citadel of Sargon II720-705 BC

Ashur: creates the world of humankind.

The earliest germ of the Creation myth was the idea that night was the

parent of day, and water of the earth. Out of darkness and death came light and life

Citadel of Sargon II at Dur SharrukinCitadel: fortified area of a town or cityUnfinished

Ambitious layout the confidence of the Assyrian kings in their all-conquering might.

Strong defensive walls also reflect a society ever fearful of attack during a period of almost constant warfare.

Sargon II regarded his city and palace as an expression of his grandeur.

The Assyrians cultivated an image of themselves as merciless to anyone who dared to opposite them, although they were forgiving to those who submitted to their will.

• Guarding the gate to Sargon’s palace were colossal limestone monsters probably called lamassu.

• These winged, man-headed bulls served to ward off the king’s enemies, visible and invisible.

• Partly in the round- combine the front view of the animal at rest with the side view of it in motion.

• They were mean to be imposing and show the power and might of the king

Guardian Figures at Gate A of the Citadel of Sargon II Dur Sharrukin, Iraq (721 – 706 BC)Limestone

■ The Assyrian kings expected their greatness to be recorded in unmistakably exact forms in their palaces.

■ To this end, they commissioned sculptors to produce extensive series of narrative reliefs exalting royal power and piety and recording not only battlefield victories but also the slaying of wild animals.

■ (The Assyrians like many other societies before and after, regarded prowess in hunting as a manly virtue on a par with success in warfare)

■ One of the most extensive-and earliest- examples of a cycle of historical narrative reliefs comes from the palace of Ashurbanipal II (r. 883-859 BC) at Kalhu

■ Every relief celebrated the king and bore an inscription naming Ashurbanipal and describing his accomplishments.

PALACE OF ASHURBANIPAL IIKALHU (MODERN NIMRUD, IRAQ)

Assyrian archers purposing enemies, relief from Palace of Ashurbanipal II. 875-860BC

Probably depicts an episode that happened in 878 BC when Ashurbanipal drove his enemy’s forces into the Euphrates River. In the relief, two Assyrian archers shoot arrows at the fleeting foe. Three enemy soldiers are in the water. One swims away with an arrow in his back. The other two attempt to float to safety by inflating animal skins.

How many perspectives are present?

Ashurbanipal II with attendants and solider, from his palace in Kalhu, Iraq. 875-860BC Glazed Brick

The Assyrian palace reliefs frequently portrayed the king and his retinue in ceremonial roles or paying homage to the gods.

Unfortunately, Assyrian paintings, because of their fragile nature, are much rarer today than stone reliefs.

Here we have the king, taller than everyone else as befits his rank, delicately holding a cup.

With it, he will make a libation (ritual pouring of liquid) in honor of the protective gods.

The artist rendered the figures in outline, lavishing much attention on the patterns of the rich fabrics they wear. The king and the attendants are in consistent profile view, but the rule of showing the eye from the front in a profile head still held.

PALACE OF ASHURBANIPAL IN NINEVEH (MODERN IRAQ)668-627BC

Two centuries later sculptors carved hunting reliefs for the Nineveh palace of Ashurbanipal (r. 668-627BC). The hunt did not take place in the wild but in a controlled environment, assuring the king’s safety and success. Lions released from cages in large enclosed arena charge the king, who , in his chariot and with his attendants protecting his blind sides, shoots down the enraged animals. The king, menaced by the savage spring of a lion at his back, escapes from harm by the quick action of two of his spearmen. They ward off the beast but do not kill it. Only the great king had that privilege. Behind his chariot lies a pathetic trail of dead and dying animals, pierced by what appears far more arrows than needed to kill them.

A dying lioness , blood streaming from her wounds, drags her hindquarters, paralyzed by arrows that have pierced her spine. The artist ruthlessly depicted the straining muscles, the swelling veins, the muzzles wrinkled skin, and the flattened ears

Glorifying their ruler by showing the king of men pitting himself against and conquering the king of beasts repeatedly.

Depicting Ashurbanipal’s beastly foes as possessing not merely strength but courage and nobility as well served to make the king’s accomplishments that much grander