kingship: its effects on urban form and architectural monumentality in mesopotamia
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Kingship: Its Effects on Urban Formand Architectural Monumentality in Mesopotamia
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Neolithic:• extra-terrestrial powers • signs of social hierarchies• sedentary living; first signs of urbanism
Kingship (most Bronze-Age cultures):
• urbanism (pop. 10,000-50,000)• marked social hierarchy• designation and appropriation of the center by the king/priest • marking of the center through design and architecture• polytheism incl. extraterrestial powers
Bronze head of an Akkadian king, 2200 B.C.
I. Historical context for most Bronze Age cultures
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II. Kingship and Mesopotamian urbanism
City plan of Ur, Iraq, state in c. 2000 B.C.
reconstructive rendering
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II. A. City walls as boundary: What are two different purposes of city walls?
Ur, IraqJericho, Israel, c. 7000 BC (Neolithic), pop. 3000
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II. B. How is the ideology of kingship embodied within the walls of Mesopotamian cities?
Ur, Iraq
temenos – a precinct severed from its surroundings and reserved , from the Greek word meaning to cut
center – where the extraordinary intersects the ordinary
Ur, Iraq
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II. B. 1. What are the formal characteristics of the temenos under Mesopotamian kingship?
The temenos (royal precincet) at Ur, Iraq
intercardinal – northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest
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II. B. 1.
Ur, Iraqresidential: organic, metabolic
street patternoverall city plan
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II. B. 1.
Ur, Iraq: residential neighborhood
dwellings
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II. B. 1.
Ur, Iraq
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On top of the ziggurat at Ur, Iraq
II. B. 1.
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III. Monumentality in architecture comes hand in hand with kingship: the example of the artificial mountain
Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu, Ur, Iraq, c. 2113-2006 B.C.
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III. A. Basics: What is a ziggurat? What stood on top of a ziggurat?
ziggurat – towered temple platform in the form of a stepped pyramid
Ziggurat at Ur, 2000Ziggurat at Warka (“White Temple”)
3500-3000
estimated 21m high (65‘)
estimated 12m high (40‘)
Temple temenos at Tepe Gawra, Iraq, 3000
no ziggurat
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III. A.
Ziggurat at Ur
Ziggurat at Warka (“White Temple”)
house (deity’s dwelling)
Ur’s 3rd platform and temple on top are
entirely conjectural
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Tepe Gawra temple
III. A. 1. Temple orientation, typology, materials, and furnishings.
Buttresses where beams and rafters rested
Mud-brick masonry plastered, painted, or whitewashed
bricks = uniform units = proof of human control aesthetic of the artificial
Tepe Gawra temple
Temple on top of ziggurat at Warka
mudbrick
temple = house
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III. A. 1.
offering table
niche or platform for god’s appearance
Temple on top of ziggurat at Warka
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Tepe Gawra temple
III. A. 1. a. Precedents: what paleolithic monument privileged the interior space?
Lascaux Cave
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III. B. Formal Analysis of the Ziggurat at Ur – a. orientation and building materials
Ur, Iraq2.
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Stele of King Ur-Nammu Seated Statue of King Gudea w/ Architectural Plan
To be discussed in lecture on Friday
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III. B. a.
Ziggurat at Ur
+ bitumen mortar
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III. B. b. massing (effects of bulk, density, and weight)
decorative buttresses
batter – the receding slope of the wall
superimposed, battered platformsZiggurat at Ur3.
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III. B. c. optical refinements
Ziggurat at Ur
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III. C. Ritual and architecture: how does the design consolidate the king’s relationship with the gods?
Ziggurat at Ur
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Ziggurat at UrStele of Naram Sim
III. C. 1. Religion/Politics: Who mounts the ziggurat/why?
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symmetric composition
Ziggurat at Ur, c. 2100 B.C.Ziggurat at Warka, c. 3500-3000 B.C.
III. C. 2. What formal qualities help the stair ritualize the action of climbing (i.e., transform climbing into ascent)?
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III. C. 2.
symmetric composition
Ziggurat at Ur
steps eat into the solid mass
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steps eat into the solid mass
symmetric composition
primacy of the center staircase
III. C. 3. Conclusion: Formal properties all focus on a single point
Ziggurat at Ur
III. C. 2.
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III. D. Power: Monumentality and coercion1. Monumental space welds the members of society into a “consensus”
Ziggurat at Ur on June 28, 2004Ziggurat at Ur, reconconstruction c. 2000 BC
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II. D. 2. Religious and political realms exchange attributes
Ziggurat at Ur Tower of Babel
Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563
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F.L.Wright, design for a planetarium, 1924 F.L.Wright, drwg for Guggenheim Museum
New York City, 1943, “an inverted ziggurat”