United Arab Emirates UniversityCollege of Engineering

ARCH 340: History and Theory of Architecture

NOTES: ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA(and other cities and civilizations in the Fertile Crescent)

Based on Textbook Chapter: “The Growth of Cities: The Rise of Civilization” from Jonathon Glancey, The Story of Architecture, 2000

Ancient Mesopotamia and Region Cities and Civilization

PART A: MAIN POINTS (ideas and concepts)

1. Birth of Architecture

Early architecture typically took the form of permanent (not temporary or mobile) homes, shrines, temples and palaces (and tombs). Architecture was only possible once cities were formed; cities were only possible once populations became stable and settled; settlement required agriculture; agriculture required a steady source of water, normally irrigation from rivers

2. Earliest Cities: Civilization

The word ‘civilization’ comes from the Latin work civis, meaning ‘city-dweller’.

Cities required sources of fertile land, reliable irrigation waters, crop-conducive climates, nad culture willing to shift form nomadic hunting and gathering to settled agriculture. This combination emerged in 2 places about the same time: Nile River (Egypt) and The Fertile Crescent (stretching in an arc across Palestine/Israel, Iraq and Iran).

Earliest permanent homes currently known were built at Jericho at least 8000 BC, out of mud-brick. Earliest shrines form about 7000 BC.

3. Wealth and Symbolic Need

What produced architecture out of simple practical building was a combination of enough wealth to allow extra to be spend on ‘unnecessary’ building and decoration, and the needs of priests and kings to show through symbols how important or powerful they were. Priests – temples. Kings -- palaces.

4. Early Temples and Palaces

The earliest temples were basically rectangular structures built in several stepped layers: ziggurats. They normally functioned as practical places for worship, of course, but more importantly as signs of the important roles of priests who were the ones who could speak directly to god for the people and their needs (rain, sun, good weather, bountiful crops, protection from enemies, etc.)

The earliest palaces were similarly practical in the sense that they provided for the housing of the King and royal family (etc.) and allowed for meetings of state and other events necessary for the ruling of a kingdom to take place. They were also, however, just as symbolic as the temples – in this case, they functioned to allow the king to demonstrate his wealth, power as protector … but also as absolute ruler and dispenser of justice to the people.

5. Differences between Then and Now

A special, point about many of these ancient civilizations is that they combined extreme sophistication (in art, decoration, city planning, building construction, and other aspects of culture) with an extraordinary barbarism (in dealing with enemies, criminal, rebels, and others who were a threat to the kings or priests.

This should remind us of one of the points we made about historiography early in the semester: we talk about history by talking about 2 times: a then of the events and monuments, and a now of our interpretation and telling of the past. Today we find it difficult to think that a culture, a people, or a person could be both sophisticated or highly educated, while also being cruel and barbaric. There are some things about ancient cultures that we will never understand or grasp fully since our time (now) is not the time of the past (then) that we discuss: the only way we could fully understand the past in some of its aspects would be to be there when the past took place – something obviously impossible. This is why history as an activity and set of interpretations is always tentative, incomplete, and partial.

6. Empire and Hybridity

Prior of the Persian empire, the arts and architecture of the early civilizations (e.g. Sumeria, Mesopotamia and Assyria) were relatively monolithic and consistent in materials, methods, forms, colors, styles (etc.). With the Persian empire, and with all empires after them (Greek, Roman, Christian, Ottoman, etc.), the empires arts and architecture became freer in

form, more varied, fused with the expressions of the cultures the empire conquered – the great empires produced great hybrid expressions in art and architecture, mostly because they were so vast, and so many different aesthetic expressions co-existed, that no single style could be legislated and forced upon everyone. Also, once so much variety could be seen, appreciation for variety developed, and new ideas kept emerging.

PART B: IMPORTANT WORKS (examples of art and architecture)

1. Sumeria

Ziggurat of Urnammu, Ur (ca. 2125 BC)

TempleZiggurat form (a type of stepped pyramid)Dedicated to the Sumerian moon god, NannaSiting: on a flat featureless plain, in the city of UrTowered over the low, densely packed city, and farmlandsVery large, rising like an artificial mountain; each level may have been planted with treesMain feature: access by a monumental ceremonial stairConstruction: sun-dried mud brickBuilt and modified over many centuriesFunctioned as a sign of religious power for the population to see form all locations

2. Mesopotamia

Tower of Babel, Babylon (possibly ca. 600 BC)

Temple (probably the temple of Etemenanki)Ziggurat formSpiral structureFaced in blue-glazed bricksBase 90 meters on each sideHeight seven stories (about 30 meters)

2

Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace, Babylon (ca. 600 BC)

PalaceBuilt on banks of the Euphrates riverIncluded Royal apartments, which led to the famous Hanging Gardens (part of the palace)These gardens considered one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient WorldVaulted construction, with water and ice storage under the vaults; tress and plants aboveArtificial irrigationThe main entrance to the city guarded by the Ishtar Gate which led to a street running through the palace grounds across the city to the main temple.

3. Assyria

Palace of Sargon II, Khorsabad (ca. 700 BC)

TempleAnother temple connected by a street to the city walls and a huge main gateGate (and the city) ‘protected’ by terrifying sculptures of man-headed winged bulls.

4. Persia

Palace of Persepolis, Persepolis (ca. 500 BC)

3

PalaceBegun by King Darius I and completed by King Artaxerxes IRaised on a mighty platformShallow stairs that horses could climb led to the topConstructed of brick, stone and terracotta (earth ceramic)Walls coved in relief carvings showing the people and warriors of PersiaLarge: several hundred buildings, including haremGiant throne room (about 70 meters on each side), painted timber ceiling and held up by many columnsColumns topped with capitals resembling bulls and unicornsVery brightly colored and lavishly decorated

Achaemenid Tombs, Naksh-i-Rustum, (ca. 400 BC)

TombsBurial place for Achaemenid kingsCarved into a rock faceVery simple and profound

4