MESOPOTAMIAN

CIVILIZATION
 Protoliterate Period (3500 3000 B.C.)
Battlements of ringwalls
Temple and ziggurat began to gain architectural definition
First written document
Early Dynastic Period (30002350 B.C.)
Kingship and establishment of hereditary kingship
Monumental palace as an administrative centre
Raising the defensive system of the city
Later Sumerian Period (upto 1600 B.C.)
Rise of empire, collective rule of citystates
High point of building type of ziggurat ( ziggurat of Ur Nammu)
The Assyrian Period (1350 612 B.C.)
The northern region flourished at the expense of lower Mesopotamia
imposing state reliefs and palaces accompanied by decline in
position of ziggurat
 Historical background

the fertile land between

the Tigris and Euphrates.

Lasted for approximately 3000

years

They were the first to irrigate

fields, devised a system of
writing, developed
mathematics, invented the
wheel and learned to work with
metal
 Mesopotamia, specifically Babylon used a mathematical system
based on sixty as all their numbers were expressed as parts of or
multiples of sixty.

Some parts of the base-sixty system still remain today: 360

degrees in a circle, 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in 1
hour.

Devised a calendar based on cycles of the moon (number of

days between the appearance of two new moons was set as a
month; 12 cycles made up a year.
 Geographic Conditions

Little rainfall

Hot and dry climate

windstorms leaving muddy river valleys in winter

catastrophic flooding of the rivers

in spring

Arid soil containing little minerals

No stone or timber resources

NATURAL LEVEES: embankments produced by build-up of sediment over
thousands of years of flooding
 Building Materials in Mesopotamia

stone and wood for construction were scarce.

Instead of wood, the Mesopotamians used bundles of reeds

that grew in the rivers, and instead of stone, they used sun-dried
mud or burned bricks, which they molded of silt, which was
abundant due to the frequent floods.

Mud was often mixed with straw to improve the durability of the
bricks. The advantage of bricks over other building materials was
their being cheap and affordable. Another advantage was the ease
of their production, which allowed each family to build the house on
her own without the help of professional builders. The latter dealt
with the construction of public buildings.
 Mud usually served as mortar, both for mud bricks dried in the sun
and bricks burned in a kiln. In order to protect the outer walls from
weather damages they were covered with burnt bricks coated with
plaster and bitumen.

mud bricks were used as an excellent isolating material. To

increase, the isolation, particularly thick walls were built.

The brick size and shape changed from one period to another. Each
period has its own characteristic bricks. The earliest bricks were
long and narrow. Since the fourth millennium BCE to the third
millennium BCE, they were of a uniform rectangular shape their
length was twice their breadth. During the early dynasties, they had
a curved shape and thus the walls had uneven surface. During the
Akkadian period, quadratic bricks were used.
 A building built with sun-dried
bricks without a strong roof and
external plaster walls would
gradually turn into a mound
called "tell". The more durable
buildings had to be repeatedly
fixed after the winter
rains. Such tells became a
distinctive feature of the
Mesopotamian landscape.

Tells were created also as a

result of the abandonment of
the city by its inhabitants
following wars, floods and
disease. The remaining
buildings were demolished and
turned into tells. On the ruins of
the destroyed city, a new city
was founded and the city's level
rose
 The limitations of building materials in Mesopotamia influenced the
construction plan.

Sun-dried bricks require thick walls and small openings to ensure

durability. As a result, narrow rooms were built or halls with
many supporting columns. A system of canals drilled into the
walls ensured full drying of the heart of thick walls built of semi-dried
bricks.

Construction of doors and passages for houses in Mesopotamia set

a challenge to the builders. They solved it by using the post and
lintel method. Two vertical columns supported a horizontal beam.
 In order to enable construction
of very large openings and
spaces, arches and vaults of
various types were built. Two
types of arches were developed:
corbel arch (formed of rows of Corbel arch
horizontal stones one on the top
of the other, leaving an open
arch), and a standard arch
(stones arranged in a radiant
shape with a keystone, so that
their mutual pressure makes
them support one another). As
early as the fourth millennium
BCE corbel arches were built by
Key stone
the Sumerians.
 Religion

Position of King was enhanced and supported by religion

Kingship believed to be created by gods and the kings power was

divinely ordained

Belief that gods lived on the distant mountaintops

Each god had control of certain things and each city was ruled by a
different god

Kings and priests acted as interpreters as they told the people what
the god wanted them to.
Polytheistic religion consisting of over 3600 gods and demigods

Prominent Mesopotamian gods

Enlil (supreme god & god of air)
Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)
An (god of heaven)
Enki (god of water & underworld)
Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)

gods were worshipped at huge temples called ziggurats

 Ziggurats
Large temples dedicated to the
god of the city.

Made of layer upon layer of mud

bricks in the shape of a pyramid
in many tiers
(due to constant flooding and
from belief that gods resided on
mountaintops).

Temple on top served as the

gods home and was beautifully
decorated.

Inside was a room for offerings

of food and goods.

Temples evolved to ziggurats

- a stack of 1-7 platforms
decreasing in size from bottom
to top.
 The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan,
Iran, is the oldest known
ziggurat.

The Mesopotamians believed

that these pyramid temples
connected heaven and earth.

Each ziggurat was part of a

temple complex that included a
courtyard, storage rooms,
bathrooms, and living quarters,
around which a city was built.
 Ziggurat of Ur

The massive ziggurat measured

210 feet (64m) in length,
150 feet (46m) in width and over
100 feet (30m) in height.
 Legacies of Mesopotamia

Revolutionary innovations emerged in Mesopotamia such as:

codified laws
ziggurats
Cuneiform
Irrigation
Metal working, tools
Trade
transportation
wheel
Writing
mathematics
prosperous living based on large scale agriculture