WEST ASIATIC

NEAR EAST
Asian Near East ARCHITECTURE
HOA1: Beginning to Byzantine Architecture
The namesake rivers of Babylon (in present-day Iraq) are the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The song also has words from Psalm 19:14:

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight...
INTRODUCTION

MESOPOTAMIA: “Cradle of Civilization”

Earliest Civilization; the Fertile Crescent

Categorized as the earliest of all civilizations

as people formed permanent settlements

Mesopotamia
is a Greek word that means
“BETWEEN THE RIVERS”

Specifically,
the area between the
TIGRIS RIVER and
EUPHRATES RIVER
(present day Iraq)
INTRODUCTION
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
INTRODUCTION
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
INFLUENCES
HISTORY

Started as villages on the flat land between Tigris

VILLAGES
and Euphrates rivers - “Mesopotamia”

CITY-STATES Turned into city-states with populations of

thousands
WALL & Each city-state surrounded by a wall and dominated
TEMPLE by a large temple

KINGS Society of kings, craftsmen, soldiers, farmers,

priests
FOUGHT
Fought and traded with each other
& TRADED
Sometimes would conquer each other and form an
CONQUER empire
INFLUENCES
HISTORY
SOCIAL STRUCTURE

▪ NOBILITY (Kings/ Priest)

▪ FREE CLIENTS (Artist/ Philosophers)
▪ COMMONERS (merchants/ peasants/ poor farmers)
▪ SLAVES (criminals, debt/ servitude)
INFLUENCES
RELIGION
• Each city-state worshipped their own god for protection
• People aimed to make peace with their wrathful god
PROMINENT MESOPOTAMIAN GODS

Enlil An Enki
supreme god god of heaven, god of water
& god of wind, air, sky god & underworld
earth, & storms
TRIAD OF DEITIES

Ishtar Shamash
goddess of fertility god of sun
& life, love & war & giver of law
INFLUENCES
RELIGION

“gods were worshipped at huge temples

called ziggurats”
INFLUENCES
GEOGRAPHY and GEOLOGY

Fertile Crescent:

• Marshlands with few natural advantages

aside from water and soil
• Import materials like hardwood and metals
is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning
modern-day Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon,
Egypt, and Jordan as well as the southeastern fringe of
Turkey and the western fringes of Iran. Some authors
also include Cyprus.

Also:
• Deserts of the Arabian Peninsula
• Mountains and plateaux from west to east
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
MATERIALS
• Only materials readily available was clay, soil, reeds, rushes
• Bricks made of mud and chopped straw, sun-dried or kiln-fired
• Timber, copper, tin, lead gold, silver imported

DECORATION

• Colossal winged-bulls guarding chief portals

• Polychrome glazed bricks in blue, white, yellow, green
• Murals of decorative continuous stone
STATES IN MESOPOTAMIA
URUK
• 1st largest city in the world (80,000 people)
AKKAD
• center of world’s first empire
(Akkadian empire: Sargon)
ASSUR
• First city of Assyrian Empire

BABYLON
• Capital of Babylonian Empire (King Hammurabi/Nebuchadnezzar).
Became the Largest City in the world (200,000 people) after URUK
NIMRUD
• capital of Assyria (13th century) (King Ashurnasirphal II- rebuilt the city)

NINEVEH
• greatest city of Assyrian under King Senacherib and king Ashurbanipal-
last king of Assyria)
PERSEPOLIS
• capital of Persian Empire built by Cyrus the Great, Darius I and Xerxes)
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ZIGGURAT
• is a type of
massive structure
built in ancient
Mesopotamia
• has the form of a
terraced compound
of successively
receding stories or
levels
• Important for gods
to be honored by
religious
ceremonies

• Ceremonies performed by priests in sacred temples

• Temples created from mud brick and placed on platforms due to
constant flooding
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ZIGGURAT

started in circa 2050–2030 BC, completed in circa 2030–1980 BC

• is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat
• city of Ur in present-day Dhi Qar Province, Iraq
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ZIGGURAT
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ZIGGURAT
Builder :
• Ur-Nammu
(Ur-Namma, Ur-Engur, Ur-Gur)
King of Ur
King of Sumer and Akkad
• The structure was
built during the Early
Bronze Age (21st
century BCE) but had
crumbled to ruins by
the 6th century BCE
of the Neo-
Babylonian period,
when it was restored King of Babylon
by King Nabonidus. King of Sumer and Akkad
King of the Universe
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ZIGGURAT
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ZIGGURAT
TRIVIA
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ISHTAR GATE
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ISHTAR GATE
8th gate to the inner
city of Babylon

• constructed in about
575 BCE
• by order of King
Nebuchadnezzar II
• part of a grand walled
processional way
leading into the city

The walls were finished in glazed bricks mostly in blue, with animals and
deities in low relief at intervals, these also made up of bricks that are
molded and colored differently.
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

ISHTAR GATE. It was excavated in the early 20th century, and a reconstruction
using original bricks, completed in 1930, is now shown in Berlin's Pergamon
Museum. Other panels are in many other museums around the world.
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

HANGING GARDENS
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

HANGING GARDENS
7 Wonders of the Ancient World

• a remarkable feat of engineering with an

ascending series of tiered gardens
containing a wide variety of trees,
shrubs, and vines, resembling a large
green mountain constructed of mud
bricks

• was said to have been built in the

ancient city of Babylon, near present-
day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES
TRIVIA
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

HANGING GARDENS
According to one legend,
• Hanging Gardens were built alongside a grand
palace known as The Marvel of Mankind
• by the Neo-Babylonian King NEBUCHADNEZZAR
II (who ruled between 605 and 562 BC)
• for his Median wife QUEEN AMYTIS, because
she missed the green hills and valleys of her
homeland.

• The construction of the Hanging Gardens has also

been attributed to the legendary Queen Semiramis,
who supposedly ruled Babylon in the 9th century BC,

• they have been called the Hanging Gardens of

Semiramis as an alternative name
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

HANGING GARDENS
HOA1: Beginning to Byzantine Architecture

ZIGGURAT
ISHTAR GATE
HANGING GARDENS MESOPOTAMIA

is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East

• Iraq
• Israel
• Palestine
• Syria
• Lebanon
• Egypt
• Jordan
• Turkey
• Iran
• Cyprus
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

TOWER OF BABEL
(Babel means Gate of God)

• The story of the Tower of

Babel explains the origins of
the multiplicity of
languages.
• God was concerned that
humans had blasphemed by
building the tower to avoid a
second flood so God brought
into existence multiple
languages.
• Thus, humans were divided
into linguistic groups,
unable to understand one
another.
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

TOWER OF BABEL
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

Palace Platform at PERSEPOLIS

city of Shiraz in Fars Province, Iran

• Ruins still exist

• 50 years to build
• Built by Darius I, Xerxes I and
Artaxerxes I

• People from all over the empire

were involved in its construction

• Variety of architectural styles

parts: audience halls, reception
halls, storerooms for tributes and
valuables, military quarters,
apadana – tallest building, with 36
columns of 20m height
MESOPOTAMIAN STRUCTURES

MEGARON
• palace
• great hall for poetry, feasts,
meetings and worships.
• used for royal functions and
court meetings
• religious functions such as the
practice of animal sacrifices

• Entrance at end rather than on

the long sides
• Portico - colonnaded space
forming an entrance or
vestibule, with a roof supported
on one side by columns
Code of Hammurabi
• Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone
pillar placed in the public hall for all to see

• Hammurabi Stone shows Hammurabi as

receiving his authority from god Shamash

Hammurabi
(c. 1810 – c. 1750 BC) sixth king of
the First Babylonian dynasty of
the Amorite tribe reigning from c.
1792 BC to c. 1750 BC
Shamash
Babylonian God of the sun,
justice, morality, and truth

• Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as

societal laws
Code of Hammurabi
Code of Hammurabi

• Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as people

must be responsible for own actions
Includes many harsh punishments, sometimes demanding the removal of
the guilty party's tongue, hands, breasts, eye or ear.

• Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye

for an eye…”

• Consequences for crimes depended on rank in society

(ie. only fines for nobility)

But the code is also one of the earliest examples of an

accused person being considered innocent until proven guilty.
Code of Hammurabi
Code of Hammurabi
Code of Hammurabi
Code of Hammurabi
Cuneiform Writing
▪ Greatest contribution of Mesopotamia
to western civilization was the
invention of writing
▪ allowed the transmission of
knowledge, the codification of laws,
records to facilitate trade
▪ First written communication was
PICTOGRAMS
▪ As society evolved, the first form of
writing was developed called
CUNEIFORM (meaning “wedge
shaped”), dating to 3500 BCE
▪ Cuneiform spread to Persia and
Egypt and became the vehicle for the
growth and spread of civilization and
the exchange of ideas among
cultures
Cuneiform Writing
Deciphering Cuneiform
Epic of Gilgamesh The best-known and most popular hero in the
mythology of the ancient Near East,
Gilgamesh was a Sumerian* king who wished
to become immortal. Endowed with
superhuman strength, courage, and power,
he appeared in numerous legends and myths,
including the Epic of Gilgamesh.

• epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia

• regarded as the earliest surviving
great work of literature
HOA1: Beginning to Byzantine Architecture