Ancient Near East Architecture

Architecture in the Ancient Near East

• The history of Mesopotamia is tied to a larger region that includes Egypt, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, the Gulf states, and Turkey.
• This area is often referred to as the Near or Middle East.

Geography and the Growth of Cities

• Mesopotamia features stark geographical contrasts with deserts rimmed by mountains and lush oases.
• Rivers and irrigation systems in southern Mesopotamia supported early urban centers.

Cuneiform

• The earliest writing dates back to about 3000 B.C.E., likely by the Sumerians in southern Iraq.
• Early tablets with inscriptions represent administrators' work, recording allocation of rations or storage of goods.
• Cuneiform was used for about 3,000 years to write around 15 languages.

Historical Background Period

• The area saw the earliest rise of civilization around 4500 BC.
• Transformation from prehistory to villages and cities occurred there.
• Civilization in this area lasted for 5000 years.
• Cultural development wasn't consistent throughout the period.
• Different cultures established city-states and empires at different times.
• Cultures included Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian.
• Architectural Character includes Massiveness, Monumentality, and Grandeur

Sumerian Architecture (4500 BC to 2000 BC)

• Sumer was founded in Mesopotamia, in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
• Sumerians were innovators in language, governance, and architecture
• Sumerians invented time by dividing the day into 12-hour periods, hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds.
• They created the first schools, versions of the Great Flood tale, governmental bureaucracy, monumental architecture, and irrigation techniques.
• Sumerians created sophisticated architecture in the fourth millennium BC, using brick, arches, domes, and vaults.
• The Eanna temple precinct at Uruk had two temple groups linked by a portico with brick columns.
• The ziggurat at Ur (C22 BC) had battered walls, stairs, and a summit temple.
• Basic Sumerian architectural principles were adopted by the Assyrians around 2000 BC.
• The region's history is divided into six eras:
  • The Ubaid Period (c. 5000-4100 BCE)
  • The Uruk Period (4100-2900 BCE)
  • The Early Dynastic Period (2900-2334 BCE)
  • The Akkadian Period (2334-2218 BCE)
  • The Gutian Period (c. 2218-2047 BCE)
  • The Ur III Period or Sumerian Renaissance (2047-1750 BCE)
• The earliest cities in Sumer were:
  • Eridu
  • Uruk
  • Ur
  • Larsa
  • Isin
  • Adab
  • Kullah
  • Nippur
  • Kish
• Sumerians developed a writing system around 3000 BCE.
• Writing served as an inventory form for agriculture and donations to gods.
• They established a lunar calendar and mathematical computation system
• Ziggurat at Ur was built around 2100 BCE.

White Temple Uruk

• Uruk was a major Sumerian city by 3300 BC, also known as Warka in Arabic
• Iraq's name comes from Uruk.
• It covered 2 square kilometers, with 40,000 people.
• The White Temple exemplifies early Sumerian temple development.
• The Ziggurat, a 12-meter mound of earth, used mud bricks supported by buttresses.
• The temple had doorways at each end, but worshippers entered through a side room.
• Sumerian themes include Offerings, Gods, Warfare and hunting, and Rulers.
• Forms used include Mud brick construction, Natural and conceptual treatments of figures, Registers of space and Hierarchy of scale

Great Ziggurat Ur

• Ur was a Sumerian city near the Euphrates River mouth.
• By 2600 BC, Ur was a thriving city considered sacred to Nnanna, the moon god.
• It was built on previous temples' ruins, incorporating their remains using thin twisted reeds within the bricks.
• A temple and its court was attached to the ziggurat, called priest temple.
• Constructed of mud layers of matting and cables.
• The 4th staircase accessed the ziggurat's 2nd and 3rd stages and the temple.
• Priests accessed the temple, where gods were believed to give instructions.
• The ziggurat symbolized heaven and earth uniting.
• Climbing the ziggurat's staircase was considered a holy experience.
• The chief temple was a last defense line in war.

Great Ziggurat

• Sumer Example includes:
• Ziggurat platform
• Monumental mud construction
• Axial alignment
• Temple for god on top
• Cella for priests
• "Waiting room”
• Votive offerings placed inside
• Hierarchy of space

Oval Temple-Khafaje

• The Oval Temple is a second Sumerian temple type constructed around 2600 BC.
• Named for its oval walls, encircles space within courtyards.
• Structure is designed to create a peaceful island away from the city
• Temples placed on raised platforms
• Subsidiary chambers built at ground level
• Priestly residence with chapel extended from the outer wall.
• Inner court includes offering table and sacrificing evidence
• Basins for cleansing, workshops and storage rooms contained within the inner court.

Akkadian Architecture (2350 BC to 2200 BC)

• Sargon of Akkad's Sumerian city-state unification impacted people's art, language, and politics.
• A large proportion of Semitic people’s loyalty to Sargon replaced regional patriotism.
• New kingship resulted in artworks of secular grandeur, in contrast to the Sumerian god-fearing world.
• The Sargonid dynasty reconstructed and extended many Sumerian temples.
• Akkadian buildings used handfuls of wet clay, resulting in poorly constructed walls.
• Dome-shaped houses built using lumps of clay or wood planks with clay in between.
• Forms included New concept of absolute monarchy (theocratic monarch), Skilled casting, polishing, and engraving, Balance of naturalism and abstract patterns, Geometric clarity, Use of contrasting textures, Sensitivity to formal pattern.

Babylonian Architecture (2000 BC to 1600 BC)

• Characterized by mud-brick construction, walls with pilasters and recesses, glazed brick, narrow, timber-covered rooms.
• Babylon used bitumen in drain and pavement construction, and as mortar.
• Babylon contained the Tower of Babel, Ishtar Gate, and Hanging Gardens of Semiramis.
• Assyrian Palace of Khorsabad ruins showed monumental sculptural decoration.
• The Palace of Darius at Persepolis showed carvings.
• Babylon was the capital of ancient Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia.
• Situated on the Euphrates River, 50 miles south of Baghdad.
• Babylon held tremendous wealth and power evidenced by it's monumental size, which was substantiated during the 19th century.
• Today part of Syria and Iraq. Timeline -2006-1894: Babylonia, Isin-Larsa period: when Isin and Larsa were the dominant cities
• 1792-60: Babylon, Hammurabi rules
• 1763: Larsa is overthrown by the Kassites
• 1757: Mari, Royal palace destroyed by the Babylonians
• 1415-1155: Southern Mesopotamia, Kassite invaders rule Babylon
• 612: Assyria is defeated by the Medes and Babylonians
• 605-562: Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II rules

Law Code of King Hammurabi

• One of Hammurabi's laws stated: "If a man destroys the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye."
• Regarding religion, "If anyone accuses a sister of a god or a wife and can't prove it, his brow shall be marked."
• With slavery, "If anyone takes a slave outside the city gates, he shall be put to death."
• Concerning thievery, "If anyone is committing robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.”
• Regarding food, "If a merchant gives goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt and compensate the merchant
• Striking a father would result in cutting that child’s hand off.

NEO-BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE (612 BC TO 539 BC)

• The Neo-Babylonian Period ruler Nebuchadnezzar II was the builder of Babylon.
• He ruled for 45 years and commanded Nabopalassar's armies.
• He broke Egypt's power at Carchemish and became a monarch.
• He invaded Tyre, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Jerusalem.
• Features:
• 250 towers at 450 feet high
• wide moat -Euphrates River flowed, with boats and a bridge with drawbridges.
• "Hanging Gardens" with river-raised water.
• Eight inner city gates and 100 brass gates
• Paved streets that were 3ft of stone slab
• Tower (Great Ziggurat) and 53 temples including "Temple of Marduk," and 180 altars to Ishtar

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PALACE

• considered the most magnificent building ever erected.

WALLS OF THE BABYLONIA

• Nebuchadnezzar II built Babylon had wonder
• Walls around Babylon 40ft high that chariots could race around.
• Ishtar Gate claimed greater then the Wonders of the Ancient World

ISHTAR GATE

• The eighth Babylon inner city gate.
• Constructed around 575 BC by Nebuchadnezzar II on the city's north side.
• Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
• She was the "Queen of Heaven" and Eanna temple patron in Uruk.
• Linked to planet Venus, symbols like lion and star.
• Glazed brick construction with alternating rows of bas-relief dragons and aurochs, which symbolized gods Marduk.
• Gate covered Lapis Lazuli that gives a jewel-like shine to it's bricks.
• Processional Way ran through it, holding walls of 120 animals/flowers in black and yellow bricks (symbolizing Ishtar).
• The gate featured statues of Ishtar, Adad, and Marduk that were paraded during the New Year.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

• Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders
• Built by Nebuchadnezzar II in 600 BC
• Had ascending series of tiered gardens with trees, shrubs, and vines.
• Shaped like a green mountain as they rose
• Built by Nebuchadnezzar II for his Median wife, Queen Amytis, who missed her homeland's hills.
• Ruins of The Hanging Gardens
• Nebuchadnezzar II also built a grand palace known as 'The Mankind Marvel'.
• Some theorize it’s mythical, potentially destroyed after the first century AD.

Ziggurats

• Ziggurats had "stepped" structures holding temples and are religious and civic centers. The ziggurat's height would reach 150 feet.

Inhabitants of Babylon

Inhabitants had houses that:-Farmers and artisans lived in sun-dried brick houses.

• Streets were narrow and irregular, with houses featuring windowless walls.
• Houses were small, one-story mud-brick structures with rooms around a court.
• Two-story dwellings had a dozen rooms, plastered and whitewashed.
• Reception room, kitchen, lavatory, servants' quarters, occasional private chapel comprised ground floors .
• Low tables, high-backed chairs, and wooden beds.
• Clay and stone vessels, with reed and wood baskets/chests.
• Floors and walls adorned mats, rugs, and hangings.
• Mausoleums were often below the house as a place to contain family members
• Agriculture sustained the civilization through production of barley, wheat, fruits, vegetables with cattle and sheep predominating.

Hittites Architecture (1600 BC to 1180 BC)

• The Hittites people lived in Anatolia (Turkey/Syria), known as Asia Minor.
• Rising to prominence around 1600-1180 BC, they eventually ruled much of Asia Minor.
• The Hittites used heavy stone and construction with structure and clear defensive purposes.
• Architecture includes:
• Boulders for Construction
• Large Fortification
• Guardian lions
• Hittites created a palace entrance hall surrounded by columns.
• People climbed a staircase with pillars to access the hall.
• Massive temple structures with storage spaces, courtyards, columns were built.
• Four temples were constructed at Hattusa

Assyrian Architecture (1350 BC to 612 BC)

• The Near East dominated Assyria, with warrior kings and a brutal military society.
• They terrorized opponents into submission through torture and public displays.
• The Assyrians destroyed houses, salted fields, and cut orchards.

Assyrian Luxurious Palaces

• Assyrians acquired resources making them rich and palaces large.
• A contemporary text describes Assurnasirpal II's palace inauguration in Kalhu (9th century).
• Wealth was allocated on palaces of several gigantic.
• Interior reception rooms had limestone reliefs depicting power and wealth of the Assyrian kings.
• Assyria was located on the upper Tigris.
• Leading Assyrian cities were Nineveh, Dun, Khorsabad, Nimrud, and Assur.
• Their art reflected the their warrior spirit through violent sculptures and relief carving made in stone

City of Khorsabad

• Khorsabad was designed as Assyria's royal capital of Assyria.
• It built on flat land that was roughly a square mile large
• Enclosed by a wall and a double wall which contained the 7 gates
• The city only build palaces, temples and government headquarters.
• The palace was built to the north-west of the city

Palace of Sargon

• Palace can be entered at ground level and entered through a walled citadel.
• Is set upon a platform, to the north of the center.
• Contains a main palace, as well as two minor palaces
• Also, contains a temple dedicated Nabu
• Courtyards provide the building its architectural outline
• Consisted of large and small rooms which contained many thrones, and had sculpted relief.
• Glazed Brick added to the building.

Protective Spirit of deity

• Lamassu or “winged bull” used to protect the city
• Displayed a bearded Man's face at City gate.
• 5 legs allowed you to experience it as a standing still or as a walker.
• In Ebla 3000 bc was the first winged animal
• In tiglath pileser II first displayed LAMASSU as an symbol of power
• Lamassu were placed at Palace entrance.
• It was common to see “double aspect” figures walk, apparent on corners or oblique viewpoints

Persian Architecture (539 BC to 330 BC)

• Situated in what is now Southwest Iran the area called Fars
• The Persians also called the Achaemenids created an empire that spread from the Indus Valley to Northern Greece and Egypt
• The Persians were know to be particularly tolerant and their empire housed multi cultures. The subjects faiths, languages and political was all recognised
• Materials for construction also came from faraway places like Babylon mud brick, wooden beams from Lebanon , India and Egypt. Ionic greeks carved stone columns
• The Achitecture was very distinctive compared the sources surrounding it it with the buildings often used for receptions and festivals. -Darius 1 and Xersess 1 where the rulers who lead and built the empire

The Apadana

• Included mass column, hall used to to receive by the king. The fall contained 72 columns and 2 monumental stair ways. spaces also contain many hundreds of figures.

Palace at Persepolis

• achieved architectural monumentality for the Persian Empire. New capital constructed 510-460 BC. 1800ft x 900ft platform.
• Surrounded by a fortification wall.
• Site was more than half covered by buildings.
• Palace had Monumental stairways, gateways and avenues, Two great state halls and The palaces of Xerxes and Darius.

Persepolis - Hall of a 100 columns

• the throne room in the palace contained columns in 37 ft hight, columns spaced 20 feet (7diameters}
• Slim column created spaced created spacious halls

Conquered by Alexander the Great

• impressed how the Persian Empire adopted cultures (absorbed and retain) Alexander adopted these tactics
• made a point to give last emperor the burial he deserved
• Showcases Alexander's ability to be diplomatic with his adversaries

Parthian Architecture (247 BC to 224 AD)

• Turmoil of a battle that spread spread from Iran to the defeat of Alexander 323 BC
• This lead to the rise of parthian.
• The art produced wasn't refined, so this lead to building with dressed stone.
• Building included sculpted beads, with mural painting, from a ruler.
• The Partni Style architecture appeared after Alexander's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire.
• The architecture also includes elements of Sassanian, parthian, and Islamic
• Although many borrowed and incorporated from Greek designs, architects and builders had developed many concepts to fit their vision towards Parthia.