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MESOPOTAMIA THE MEOSPOTAMIAN ZIGKURAT IS THE HOUSING OF GOD. ZIGKURATS IN URA AND BABYLON. GLAZED BRICK AND RHYTHMIC PATTERN ARE THE MAIN DECORATIVE MEANS. ISHTAR GATE, ROAD OF PROCESSIONS IN NEW BABYLON.
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The first civilization arose around the 4th millennium BC. on the territory of the "fertile crescent" between the tiger and the Euphrates, giving life to the colorful culture of Mesopotamia (the two rivers). This culture, as was customary in the ancient agricultural tribal communities, reflected the main thing for them - ensuring fertility on the basis of community irrigation. Agriculture. The culture of Mesopotamia is divided into several periods. According to the name of the city-states Sumer in the south and Akkad in the north, the culture of Mesopotamia IV-II millennium BC. called Sumero-Akkadian. According to Babylon in the south (1894-732 BC) and Assyria in the north (1380-625 BC) - Assyro-Babylonian. New Babylon gave rise to the Neo-Babylonian, or Chaldean, culture (626-538 BC), whose style continued in the artistic traditions of Persia.
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Small city-states with adjacent lands had their own lord and patron - some kind of fertility deity, which was part of the numerous pantheon of the Sumerian-Akkadian gods. The central temple of the city was dedicated to the patron god. Its size was determined by the scale of the surrounding world: colossal mountains, valleys, rivers. Frequent and sometimes catastrophic rises of salty groundwater to the surface and sandstorms forced the construction of structures on high platforms with stairs or a gentle entrance - a ramp.
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Due to the fact that these lands did not have enough wood and stone, the temples were built from fragile raw brick and required constant renovation. The tradition of not changing places and building a "home of God" on the same platform led to the emergence of a ziggurat - a multi-stage temple consisting of cubic volumes stacked on top of each other. Each subsequent volume was smaller than the previous one along the perimeter. The height and size of the ziggurat testified to the antiquity of the settlement and the degree of closeness of people to the gods, giving hope for their special patronage. The idea of a high platform, which not only preserves the building during the rise of the waters, but also allows you to view it from all sides, determined the main feature of Mesopotamian architecture - the predominance of mass over internal space. Its heavy plasticity was softened by the rhythmic relief on the plane of the wall and the colorful decor of shining multi-colored glazed bricks.
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Etemenniguru ziggurat in ur (xxi century BC) - the temple of the Sumerian god of the moon Nanna: four cubic monoliths connected by stairs. The walls of each platform had vertical brick ledges that ran a zigzag pattern of mother-of-pearl, shells, metal plates, and ceramic nails whose caps flared red in the bright sunlight. Black, blue, golden sparks. Plants in tubs filled the wide platform platforms: pomegranates, grapes, roses, jasmine. Such "hanging gardens", which arose as a way to save from groundwater, later became the main highlight in decorating the palaces of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings.
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Etemenanki ziggurat (6th century BC) The temple of the Babylonian sun god Marduk, erected on a sacred territory in New Babylon. In the biblical legend about how God in anger mixed the languages of people who decided to build a tower to heaven, it was called the Tower of Babel. The temple consisted of seven platforms. Vertical protrusions on the walls of each platform crushed their heavy volumes, giving the silhouette aspiration upwards, towards the sky. The spiral of the ramp, encircling the ziggurat, gave it additional lightness. Thanks to the blinding glaze of the five lower platforms in white, black, red, blue, yellow colors, the structure took on the appearance of a fabulous phantom floating in the air, but without losing its monumental grandeur. The last two platforms, lined with silver and gold plates, reflecting the sun, radiated such radiance that they lost their outlines and seemed to be the embodiment of a radiant god.
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Public buildings, palaces of the Assyrian and Babylonian rulers were also colorful and monumental. The combination of strict graphics and colorful decoration is another feature of the Mesopotamian style in architecture and fine arts. At the same time, the repeated reproduction of the same relief on glazed bricks of white, black, red, blue, and yellow colors created a special ceremonial rhythm.
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Ishtar gate (VI century BC) Powerful rectangular volume the Ishtar gate, enlarged with square jagged towers with an arched passage between them - the so-called Hittite portal - was covered with dark blue tiles. This blue mass was somewhat softened by the monotonous alternation of the relief: golden-yellow, depicting sacred bulls, and milky-white, recreating the beasts of the god Marduk, fantastic creatures with a small horned head on a serpentine neck, with front lion and hind legs of an eagle.
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The procession road, which led from the gates to the sanctuaries, was framed by a wall, also lined with tiles. On their turquoise field, roaring coffee-colored lions with a luxurious red mane and baring mouth majestically stepped; their measured gait, as it were, echoed the procession of people to the temple.
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Royal hunting (relief of the palace of King Ashurbanapal) In addition to monumentality and colorful decorative art of Mesopotamia was distinguished by extreme accuracy in depicting wildlife. This can be seen from the reliefs on the alabaster plates, which lined the walls of the Assyro-Babylonian palaces from the outside and from the inside with a continuous carpet. Preference was given to battle scenes, ritual offering of gifts, royal hunting, as well as decorative patterns based on the image of winged bulls and winged geniuses with the "tree of life" - the deities of the resurgent spring nature.
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The human figure in the Assyrian reliefs was depicted with a full or three-quarter turn of the shoulders, legs and face in profile. At the same time, without attaching importance to portrait resemblance, Mesopotamian artists quite accurately reproduced the Asian type: a stocky muscular figure, a large head with a heavy lower jaw, a hooked nose sticking out like a bird's beak, thin sinuous lips, a low sloping forehead and a huge eye looking at viewer. The king could be recognized by a long curled beard, thick hair, also curled and falling over his shoulders, a powerful torso and magnificently decorated clothes made of embroidered fabrics with fringes and heavy tassels.
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conclusions The deification of royal power and the cult of the gods, characteristic of the peoples of Mesopotamia, led to the construction of monumental ziggurats dedicated to them, which became a landmark phenomenon of Mesopotamian art. At the same time, not constrained by religious boundaries, since all power was concentrated in the hands of the kings, Mesopotamian art was predominantly secular in nature, with a predominance of palace and public buildings in the architecture. Along with the scale, they were distinguished by lush decorativeness. The organic fusion of the jubilant brilliance of glazed bricks and the rigidity of the linear rhythm of the relief is the originality of the Mesopotamian style. The original Mesopotamian art strongly influenced the art of its closest neighbors - the Egyptians and Persians. In later centuries, it spread through North Africa to Western European art, and through the peoples who inhabited the basin of the Caspian Sea, to Eastern Russia.
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What features are characteristic of architectural structures in the city-states of Mesopotamia? What are they due to? What decorative means did the architects use to decorate the temples of Etemenniguru in Ur and Etemenanki in New Babylon? What do their decors have in common? What realities are reflected in the Assyro-Babylonian reliefs?
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Mesopotamia lat. Mesopotamia - "Mesopotamia"
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Mesopotamia is the country where the oldest civilization in the world arose, which lasted approx. 25 centuries, from the time of the creation of writing and ending with the conquest of Babylon by the Persians in 539 BC.
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This country, separated from the rest of Asia Minor by barely passable deserts, began to be settled around the 6th millennium BC. e. During the VI-IV millennia, the tribes settled here lived extremely poorly: barley, sown on a narrow strip of land between swamps and a scorched desert and irrigated by unregulated and uneven floods, brought small and unstable crops. Sowing was better on lands that were irrigated by canals diverted from the small Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris. Only in the middle of the IV millennium BC. e. separate groups of communities coped with the creation of rational drainage and irrigation systems in the Euphrates basin.
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Inhabitants of Mesopotamia
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Religion. The religion of Mesopotamia in all its major moments was created by the Sumerians. Over time, the Akkadian names of the gods began to replace the Sumerian ones, and the personifications of the elements gave way to star deities. Local gods could also lead the pantheon of a particular region, as happened with Marduk in Babylon or Ashur in the Assyrian capital. But the religious system as a whole, the view of the world and the changes taking place in it differed little from the initial ideas of the Sumerians. None of the Mesopotamian deities was the exclusive source of power, none had supreme power. The fullness of power belonged to the assembly of the gods, who, according to tradition, elected the leader and approved all important decisions. Nothing was set forever or taken for granted. But the instability of the cosmos led to intrigues among the gods, and therefore promised danger and gave rise to anxiety among mortals.
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Economy. The economy of Mesopotamia was determined natural conditions region. fertile soils the valleys gave rich harvests. The South specialized in date palm cultivation. The vast pastures of the nearby mountains made it possible to keep large herds of sheep and goats. On the other hand, the country felt a shortage of stone, metal, wood, raw materials for the manufacture of dyes and other vital materials. The surplus of some goods and the lack of others led to the development of trade relations.
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At the same time, there was always the possibility that events would turn into better side if the person behaves correctly. The temple tower (ziggurat) was the place where the celestials stayed. She symbolized the human desire to establish a connection between heaven and earth. As a rule, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia relied little on the goodwill of the gods. They tried to propitiate them by performing increasingly complex rites.
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Writing and science. The supreme authority of the law was hallmark Mesopotamia historical period and could even precede it, but the effectiveness of legislative activity is associated with the use of written evidence and documents. There is reason to believe that the invention of the written language of the ancient Sumerians was led primarily by concern for private and communal rights. Already the earliest texts known to us testify to the need to fix everything, whether it be objects necessary for a temple exchange, or gifts intended for a deity. Such documents were certified by an imprint of a cylinder seal.
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The most ancient writing was pictographic, and its signs depicted objects of the surrounding world - animals, plants, etc. The signs formed groups, each of which, for example, consisted of images of animals, plants or objects, was composed in a certain sequence. Over time, the lists acquired the character of a kind of reference book on zoology, botany, mineralogy, etc. Since the Sumerian contribution to the development of the local civilization was perceived as very significant, and after the establishment of the Akkadian dynasty, colloquial Sumerian became of little use, the Akkadians did everything in their power to preserve the Sumerian language. Efforts in this direction did not stop with the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur and continued into Amorite times. As a result, word lists, numerous Sumero-Akkadian dictionaries, and grammar studies were created.
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There were many other cultural phenomena that were systematized thanks to writing. Among them special place occupied by omens, by which people tried to know their future through various signs, such as the shape of the liver of a sacrificed sheep or the alignment of the stars. The list of omens helped the priest to predict the consequences of certain phenomena. Compilation of lists of the most common legal terms and formulas was also widespread. In mathematics and astronomy, the ancient Mesopotamians also made significant advances. According to modern scholars, the system of Egyptian mathematics was crude and primitive compared to the Babylonian; it is believed that even Greek mathematics learned much from the achievements of earlier Mesopotamian. A highly developed area was the so-called. "Chaldean (i.e. Babylonian) astronomy".
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CULTURE Saterial culture. Ceramics gradually improved in terms of manufacturing techniques, variety of shapes and ornaments, this can be traced from the ancient Jarmo culture through other prehistoric cultures up to the emergence of a single technology for the production of stone and metal vessels. Now it is impossible to say what important discoveries in the field of ceramics were brought to Mesopotamia from outside. A significant development was the introduction of the closed kiln, which allowed the craftsman to achieve a higher temperature and more easily control it, and as a result to obtain dishes of high quality in shape and finish. Such ovens were first discovered at Tepe Gavre, north of present-day Mosul. In the same settlement, the oldest known samples of carefully made seals-stamps were found.
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Mesopotamia created the oldest known structures of monumental architecture in the north - in Tepe Gavre, in the south - in Eridu. The high technical level of this time can be judged by the aqueduct in Jervan, approx. 50 km, through which water entered Nineveh. Mesopotamian craftsmen brought metal work to the level of high art. This can be judged by items made of precious metals, remarkable samples of which, dating back to the early dynastic period, were found in burials in Ur, and a silver vase of the Lagash ruler Entemena is also known.
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Sculpture in Mesopotamia reached a high level of development even in prehistoric times. Cylinder seals with indented images are known, and rolling them on clay made it possible to obtain convex impressions. Samples large form ancient era are the reliefs on the stele of Naram-Suen, carefully executed portrait sculptures of the ruler of Lagash Gudea and other monuments. Mesopotamian sculpture reached its highest development in the 1st millennium BC. in Assyria, when colossal figures and exquisite reliefs were created with images of animals, in particular, galloping horses, wild donkeys struck by hunters, dying lionesses. In the same period, magnificent reliefs depicting individual episodes of hostilities were sculpted.
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Little is known about the development of painting. Murals could not survive due to moisture and soil conditions, but surviving examples from various eras show that this type of art was widespread. Magnificent examples of painted ceramics were found, in particular, in Ashur. They testify that their creators preferred bright colors.
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Ancient Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia) In the fertile valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the 4th - 1st millennium BC. such large city-states as Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and the Assyrian state were formed. Here, over the centuries, as a result of numerous bloody wars, states arose and perished, nationalities succeeded each other, ancient communities disintegrated and reappeared. The peoples of high culture lived here, to whom we owe the basics of mathematical knowledge and the division of the clock dial into 12 parts. Here they learned to calculate with great accuracy the movement of the planets, the time of revolution of the Moon around the Earth.
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The ancient palaces of Nineveh, the capital, built by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpalom II in the 9th century. BC. The richest mythology of the peoples of Mesopotamia had a huge impact on the culture of Europe and Asia. Subsequently, some of their legends became part of the Bible and even the Scandinavian sagas. In Mesopotamia, they knew how to build the highest towers, drained the marshland, laid canals and irrigated fields, planted beautiful gardens, invented the wheel, the potter's wheel, built ships, made tools and weapons from copper.
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Small city-states with adjacent lands had their own lord and patron - some kind of fertility deity, which was part of the numerous pantheon of gods. Unlike Dr. Egypt, man dr. Mesopotamia was not too worried about the afterlife, he was much more attracted by the momentary joys of earthly life. Goddess of fertility, feeding goats. 14th century BC
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The emergence of writing By the III millennium BC. in the southern valley of Mesopotamia, the city-state of Sumer was formed. The Sumerians went down in history, first of all, thanks to the invention of writing, which arose here about 200 - 300 years earlier than in Dr. Egypt. The culture of ancient Mesopotamia is known for its ancient cuneiform clay tablets.
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In Mesopotamia, there were schools for scribes - eddubba, which meant "house of tablets." According to the surviving clay tablets, we can judge how it was built studying proccess. Teachers kept students in strictness and obedience. We are told about this by numerous ancient complaints left on the tablets by the pupils.
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“In the tablet house, the overseer remarked to me: “Why are you late?” I was scared, my heart was beating wildly. Approaching the teacher, I bowed to the ground. The father of the tablet house begged for my tablet, he was unhappy with it and hit me. Then I was zealous with the lesson, I was tormented with the lesson ... The class overseer ordered us: “Rewrite!” I took my tablet in my hands, wrote on it, but there was also something on the tablet that I did not understand, what I could not read ... The fate of the scribe was disgusting to me, I hated the fate of the scribe! (translated by L. Shargina)
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In the city of Neneveia, the library of King Ashurnasirpala (669 - c. 633 BC) was discovered, containing more than 30 thousand tablets. Sacred tablet of Urnan.
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An outstanding literary monument "The Epic of Gilgamesh" ("About who has seen everything") of the III millennium BC. - the ruler of the Sumerian city of Uruk - preserved on clay tablets subsidized by the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. "Gilgamesh, where are you going? The life you seek so much, you can never achieve. Because when the gods created man, they instilled mortality in him, leaving immortality to themselves. Gilgamesh, fill your womb, rejoice day and night, may your days be full of joy ... "
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Architecture of Mesopotamia The most notable works of architecture of Mesopotamia are temples and palaces. Scientists attribute the earliest of the temples to 4-3 millennia BC. They were zikkuraty, which means “holy mountain” in translation. In Mesopotamia, they did not attach such great importance, as in Egypt, to burial structures, since the population did not find a connection between immortality and the preservation of the body of the deceased.
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Due to the fact that there was not enough wood and stone on these lands, the temples were built from fragile raw brick and, in conditions of high humidity, required constant renovation. The tradition of not changing the place and building a “home of God” on the same platform led to the appearance of a zik kura ta - a multi-stage temple consisting of cubic volumes stacked on top of each other, moreover, each subsequent volume was smaller in volume than the previous one. . A sanctuary was located on the upper platform of the zikkurat and a statue of a deity was placed in it. Simple people were never allowed into the sanctuary, only kings or priests who watched the heavenly bodies could be there.
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The most famous was the ziggurat of the moon god in Ur (modern Iraq). Frequent, and at times catastrophic rises of groundwater to the surface and sandstorms forced the construction of structures on high platforms with stairs or a gentle entrance - a ramp.
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Cities occupied an area of 2-4 square meters. km and numbered more than one tens of thousands of inhabitants. In the center of the city there was a temple complex, surrounded by a wall, with a ziggurat erected in honor of the patron god of the city. The palace of the king or ruler and the main state economic buildings were also located here. The rest of the city was occupied by residential buildings and other buildings, with small temples of less important deities located between them. The houses stood close to each other, forming winding streets 1.5-3 m wide. On the banks of the river or canal, near which the city grew, there was a harbor where merchant ships stood. In the area adjacent to the harbor, there was a brisk trade. The life of the townspeople was centered around numerous temples and palaces.
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3ikkurat Etemenniguru in Ur Very few Mesopotamian architectural structures have survived to our time. Most often, these are only the foundations of buildings. They were built from unbaked raw clay and quickly collapsed under conditions of high humidity. Numerous wars did not spare them either.
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The most important architectural achievement of Mesopotamia was the invention of the vaulted-arched structure. The gates of the goddess Ishtar were built by order of King Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of Dr. Babylon in the 6th century BC e. . They are a huge semicircular arch, bounded on the sides by high walls. They overlooked the Processional Road and were built of brick covered with white, black, blue and yellow glaze. Unusually beautiful bas-reliefs depicting animals adorned the walls of the gate and the Processional Road. Bulls and sirrushi (dragons) were depicted in alternating rows on the walls of the gate. In total, about 575 animals were depicted on the gate.
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In the 1930s, the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Road were reconstructed in Berlin at the Pergamon Museum. The restored gate is 14 meters high and 10 meters long. In Iraq, a copy of the gate was built at the entrance to the museum, which was never completed.
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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The correct name of this building is the Hanging Gardens of Am and t and s: that was the name of the wife of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, for whose sake the gardens were created.
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Nebuchadnezzar ordered his soldiers to dig up all unknown plants that they met during military campaigns and immediately deliver them to Babylon. There were no caravans or ships that would not bring here more and more new plants from distant countries. Thus, a large and diverse garden grew up in Babylon - the first botanical garden in the world. There were miniature rivers and waterfalls, ducks swam and frogs croaked on small ponds, bees, butterflies and dragonflies flew from flower to flower.
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The very name of the miracle - Hanging Gardens - misleads us. Gardens did not hang in the air. The gardens were, rather, not hanging, but protruding. In architectural terms, the gardens were a pyramid, consisting of four tiers-platforms. They were supported by columns up to 25 meters high. The pyramid looked like an evergreen hill. Pipes were placed in the cavity of the columns. Day and night, hundreds of slaves turned the lifting wheel with leather buckets, bringing water from the Euphrates to the gardens.
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Hanging gardens existed for about two centuries. First, they stopped caring for the garden, then powerful floods destroyed the foundations of the columns, and the entire structure collapsed. Thus perished one of the wonders of the world. Modern archaeologists are still trying to collect enough evidence before drawing final conclusions about the location of the Gardens, their irrigation system, and the true reasons for their appearance and disappearance.
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Only in 1898, thanks to the excavations of Robert Koldewey, it was possible to slightly reveal the secret of the existence of a grandiose monument of engineering thought. During excavations, he discovered a network of intersecting trenches near the Iraqi city of Hille (90 km from Baghdad), in the sections of which traces of dilapidated masonry are still visible. Now tourists visiting Iraq are offered to look at the ruins left from the Gardens, but these debris can hardly impress.
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art The fine arts of Mesopotamia are represented mainly by reliefs and mosaics that adorned the inner ceremonial halls of temples and palaces.
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A significant part of them is devoted to the life of kings and their entourage. The main place is occupied by the themes of solemn processions. Standard of Ur 3000 BC
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Winged bull Shedu from the palace of Sargon II. Bas-relief In Akkadian mythology, there were good demons shedu - winged bulls (or lions - lamassu) with male heads, decorated with rectangular beards typical of Assyrian and Iranian culture. The main function of the shedu was to protect the home. Two small shedu figures were usually placed near the doors (or a clay tablet with their image was buried under the threshold). The entrances to the cities were guarded by statues of colossal size, decorated with incantatory carvings. The beard was identified with the mind.
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Processional Road Tiles Thanks to the technique of enameled bricks, the ancient painting of Mesopotamia looked realistic and spectacular. The structure of the brick made it possible to build huge walls on which sacred emblems, zoomorphic figures and other motifs were depicted. Bricks could be painted in different colors, and some parts of the picture were made voluminous.
Art of the countries of Mesopotamia. Sumer. Assyria. Babylon. Persia
Grade 2
Presentation prepared
Fine arts teacher
MBU TO DSHI a. Tahtamukay
Jaste Saida Yurievna
- The very first world civilizations were Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley and Ancient China. Other major civilizations also arose near large rivers, as fertile coastal soils allowed people to successfully engage in agriculture.
- One of the first, in the 4th millennium BC, the ancient states of Mesopotamia arose - countries located between the Caucasus in the north and the Persian Gulf in the south, between the Syrian steppe in the west and the mountainous regions of Iran in the east (the territory of modern Iraq). From north to south, the country is crossed by two large rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. These rivers created a fertile valley due to river sediments and served as good transport routes connecting the states of Mesopotamia with their neighbors.
- Mesopotamia means "land between rivers". By the 5th millennium BC. the agricultural communities of Mesopotamia, formed on the fertile banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, reached their peak. In the south, the Sumerian kingdom was formed.
Sumer and Akkad
Sumer and Akkad
The oldest city (IV millennium BC) Mesopotamia - Uruk (reconstruction II - III millennium BC)
- The Sumerians and Akkadians are two ancient peoples who created a unique historical and cultural image of Mesopotamia IV-III millennia BC. e. There is no exact information about the origin of the Sumerians. It is only known that they appeared in southern Mesopotamia no later than the 4th millennium BC. e. Having laid a network of canals from the Euphrates River, they irrigated the barren lands and built the cities of Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Lagash, etc. on them. Each Sumerian city was a separate state with its own ruler and army.
- Different cities believed in different gods. They built multi-stage towers - ziggurats ("home of the gods"), with a temple on top. The first ziggurat was built in Ur.
- The gods were the patrons of cities. In one city, it was the god of the Sun - Shamash, in another - the god of the Moon Sin. They revered the god Ea - after all, he nourishes the fields with moisture, gives people bread and life. To the goddess of fertility and love, Ishtar, people turned to requests for rich harvests of grain and the birth of children.
- Scientists-priests were engaged in mathematics. The number 60 they considered sacred. Under the influence of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia, we divide an hour into 60 minutes, and a circle into 360 degrees. The Sumerians also revered the number 12. They especially revered the number 7. They denoted 7 with the same sign as the entire universe. This number expressed six main directions (up, down, forward, backward, left and right), and even the place from which this countdown comes. The Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians had seven steps in their temples, these temples were illuminated by seven-candlesticks, they knew seven metals, and so on.
- The Sumerians also created a unique form of writing - cuneiform.
- Wedge-shaped signs were pressed out with sharp sticks on wet clay tablets, which were then dried or burned on fire.
- Sumerian writing captured laws, knowledge, religious ideas and myths.
Epic of Gilgamesh
- One of the oldest literary monuments of that time is the Epic of Gilgamesh in Akkadian (translated from an earlier Sumerian text). The poem was written in the 2nd millennium BC. Gilgamesh, king of the Sumerian city of Uruk, is presented in the poem as the son of a goddess and a demigod. Brave and strong. He decides to measure his strength with the gods and learn the secret of immortality. After 12 years he
returns to the walls of his city Uruk (the flower of immortality steals a snake from him), sees its walls and understands that his immortality is a majestic and beautiful city that he will leave to his descendants.
Sumer and Akkad
Hong Nian Zhang . Sargon the Great - Birth of the Kingdom of Akkad
- Around 2370 B.C. King Sargon I, the ruler of Akkad, a city in northern Mesopotamia, conquered the Sumerian kingdom and created an empire that lasted 200 years. later the Sumerian and Akkadian kingdoms became part of Hammurabi's Babylonian empire.
- There was little fuel, and the bricks were not fired, but dried in the sun. Unfired brick crumbles easily, so the defensive city wall had to be made so thick that a wagon could pass over the top. Due to the swampy terrain, buildings were erected on artificial platforms - embankments. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, the Sumerians were the first to use arches and vaults in construction.
White Temple in Uruk
Fragment of ornamental patterns on the surface of the Red Building in Uruk
Temple goddesses Ninhursag(mothers of gods and wooded mountains)
Relief of the lintel of the Ninhursag temple with Imdugud and deer.
Ninhursag
Temple of Ninhursag in Ubaid. Early dynastic period, ser. III millennium BC
- Another significant monument is the small temple of the fertility goddess Ninhursag at Ur. It was built using the same architectural forms, but is decorated not only with a relief, but also with a round sculpture. In the niches of the walls there were copper figurines of walking gobies, and on the friezes there were high reliefs of lying gobies. At the entrance to the temple there are two statues of lions made of wood. All this made the temple festive and elegant.
Head of Sargon the Ancient, Nineveh
Relief of Urnansh, ruler of the city of Lagash
- Since the initial material for the development of art was clay, not stone, the plasticity and softness of clay determined the smoothness of the lines, and not the angularity and flatness. Mesopotamian relief and sculpture are not carved, but molded by hand, so there is no frontality in the image, but there is volume, whether it be sculpture or bas-relief. The plots of the reliefs and sculptures are cult processions, kings and priests in communion with the gods, battles and victories over the enemy, the laying of the temple by the kings and the royal hunt.
- Sumerian sculpture was cult, initiatory. There was no single pictorial canon. The person was depicted conditionally, schematically, without exact proportions and portrait resemblance, great importance was attached to the expressiveness of postures, gestures and eyes. For example, a female sculpture from Lagash or a sculpture of a husband and wife.
- More often, the sculpture was ordered in order to put them in temples, where they had to pray to the gods for their real owners (such sculptures were called adorers) their large ears symbolized wisdom, as well as the fact that prayer would be heard by God.
- Most of all, the eyes were striking, which were large, deep-set and encrusted with colored stones, which gave expressiveness to the look. The arms are usually folded across the chest. The sculptures were small - 15-20 cm.
Heraldic motif of the Entemena silver vase.
- In Sumerian art, there are many images of animals. For example, one plot is present on a copper relief obtained from excavations in Ur and on a silver vase of Entemena, the king of Lagash. On the first, a three-dimensional image emphasizes the majesty of the drawing - this is an image of an eagle and two deer, and not in profile, but in front. On the second, the composition is repeated four times, with the addition of two lions, two goats. Despite the symbolic image of the struggle, the pose of the animals is completely calm.
Vase Entemenes from Lagash: housing from silver, copper bottom.
- In animal sculpture, a clear emphasis is placed on power and intimidation. As a rule, it is either a bull or the king of beasts - a lion. In order to give the image anger and a sparkling look, they were depicted with a protruding tongue and eyes made of colored bright stones.
- The artists of that time were very realistic in depicting animals and their movement.
What did the Sumerians do first on Earth:
- opened the wheel
- invented the potter's wheel
- they learned how to cast bronze (because this requires tin, but it was not mined on their lands and in neighboring countries, the Sumerians established trade relations with the peoples of the Indus Valley and brought tin from there),
- learned how to make colored glass,
- contributed to the development of astronomy (the oldest calendars and observations of the planets - hence the precise conduct of agricultural and irrigation works),
- discovered practical mathematics (calculated the duration of the year, month, day, began to use numbers in writing numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, a table of squares and cubes, a table of reciprocals),
- discovered geometry (calculated the areas of geometric shapes, found the number "pi"),
- created library catalogs,
- Created recipe guides
- drafted legal codes
- created a professional army,
- created the world's first art books (in the form of a series of clay tablets) and much more.
At the same time, one must understand that in those days life passed under a series of continuous wars. There were no peace-loving kings. City-states constantly competed with each other.
School history teacher 229 Korableva N.L.Exercise:
EXERCISE:Highlight features as the presentation progresses
cultures of Mesopotamia
Determine its difference from the culture of Egypt Fundamentals of the culture of Mesopotamia
are laid in Sumer - the area
lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates.
The first settlements appeared on
south of this geographical area
in the fertile lowlands
at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
the Persian Gulf, which
times went into much
deeper into dry land.
CITY OF UR
Founded at the mouthEuphrates in 5 thousand BC
The city is known as
home of Abraham.
Became famous for
excavations, which
produced in 1922-1934. under the direction of
English archaeologist
L. Woolley.
City of Ur
CITY OF URIt was a city built in the Sumerian
traditions, oval in plan with the main axis,
oriented from southeast to northwest.
There were 5,250 residential buildings in Ur, which
corresponded to the population, taking into account
domestic slaves, 40-50 thousand inhabitants. Plan of Ur
Powerful walls made of raw
bricks, reached a thickness of 25-32 m.
In the northwestern part of the city on a hill,
artificially extended in the form of a terrace,
housed the palace and temple complex
Hooray dedicated to the cult
god
the moons of Nannar.
ZIGKURAT of the city of UR (reconstruction)
ZIGKURAT OF THE CITY OF UR (RECONSTRUCTION) The ziggurat is a steppedpyramid, on top of which was placed
small sanctuary. lower tiers
ziggurat was usually painted in
black color,
medium - in
red, upper - in white
ZIGKURAT
It was made of raw blocks, and onlythe outer layer, 2.5 m thick, was built from
baked bricks bonded with bituminous
solution.
The ziggurat had a main platform 15
m and dimensions 62.5 x 43m; its edges,
lined with baked bricks, were
slightly tilted inward - for greater
sustainability; three stairs led up
united at the stone terrace
ZIGKURAT URA (modern view)
ZIGKURAT OF URA (MODERN VIEW)Sumerian heptogram
SUMERIAN HEPTOGRAMBABYLON
Babylon ("Babilu" - "gate of God") is first mentioned in IIImillennium BC Prior to this, on the left bank of the Euphrates, apparently, there was a small settlement that did not have a special
political significance.
During the I Babylonian dynasty (1894-1595 BC)
Babylon has become major city, and he reached a special flowering in
reign of King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC). Almost to us
constructions of this period did not reach, since the city
repeatedly subjected to severe destruction.
Until the end of the XIX century. Babylon was unknown, and only thanks to excavations,
conducted under the guidance of the German scientist and architect R. Koldewey,
this city has again become the property of mankind.
Excavations were carried out from 1899 to 1914 and the results of these excavations gave
amazing material, related mainly to the 7th-6th centuries. BC. The city of Babylon occupied a vast territory,
numbering 20 sq. km and external serfs
walls 18 km long.
The city itself was located within this territory,
occupying both banks of the Euphrates River, and in turn
fortified with fortified walls. Territory
the inner city totaled 410 hectares, and the length
fortress walls 8360m.
The fortifications consisted of a deep ditch filled with
water, connected with the Euphrates, and fortress walls,
built of raw and baked bricks
about 30 m thick.
Every 20 m there were fortress towers. City
was divided into two parts. Eight gates led to the city and all the gates were called
the names of various gods.
The main ones were the northwestern ones - the gates of the goddess Ishtar.
This entrance was protected by a citadel with four
massive towers and arched passages between
them. The towers were lined with glazed ceramics
with ornaments and frightening images of lions,
bulls, fantastic monsters. Apart from these gates,
there was also the gate of the moon god Sin, the gate
chief Babylonian deity Marduk, gate god
the land of Enlil, the gate of the sun god Shamash, the gate of the god
the thunderstorms and storms of Adad, and the gates of Lugalgirr and Urash.
All these gates were interconnected by streets,
cutting the city into almost equal parts.
ISHTAR GATE
The main streets of the city were intended for religious processions.So, for example, the meeting of the New Year was considered a special holiday in Babylon.
The New Year's holiday began in the month of March, since the Babylonians
followed the lunar calendar, and lasted more than 10 days. Its beginning was marked
religious rites on the tower-ziggurat Etemenennaki, from where the priests led
stargazing; then the statue of Marduk was taken out of the temple, immersed
on a ship and carried up the Euphrates outside the inner city.
There, in a special temple, called the "House of the New Year", they served
prayer service, and on the tenth day a solemn procession was heading to the gate
goddess Ishtar. In front the priests carried the statue of Marduk, followed by
close associates of the king and the people. This whole procession entered the Rue des Processions,
which began between the protrusions of the city walls and had a width in front of
Ishtar Gate 16 m. This section of the street was especially decorated with images
lions and griffins of golden color on a bright blue background of the fortress walls and gates
Ishtar. The images were made of glazed brick, which were
surfaces of walls and gates are lined. Next, the procession passed the gate
goddess Ishtar and was heading down the Procession Street towards the city center.
The “Procession Road” 7.5 meters wide, paved with stone slabs, went to
south of the Ishtar Gate.
Tiles along the Processional Road
TILES ALONG THE "ROAD OF PROCESSIONS" The main population of Babylon were merchants, artisans,landowners. Among them were wealthy residents who occupied their houses
entire neighborhoods, and there were poor people who huddled in reed houses smeared with clay
huts located on the outskirts of the city. The lower, powerless layer
the urban population was made up of slaves, mostly prisoners of war,
who performed all types of work from handicraft production to heavy
labor of unskilled workers.
Crafts in Babylon flourished in a variety of ways. Representatives
individual crafts settled on certain streets. Yes, in Babylon
there were streets of jewelers, weavers, potters, etc.
The residential part of the city was divided into regular squares, divided
narrow, 4 meters wide, streets. Residential buildings, both large and small,
were built according to the same scheme: the rooms were grouped around the inner
courtyard, often paved with burnt bricks; sometimes in the center of the yard
there was a hearth. The main premises of a residential building have always been located on
south side of the courtyard and were facing north with their openings. antique
historians point to the existence of 3-4 storey houses in Babylon, but
ordinary buildings were one and two-storey houses with flat roofs and
with terraces above. For the ancient world, Babylon personified
city of fabulous wealth, huge, populated
countless inhabitants.
Indeed, during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II
in Babylon there were about 360 thousand inhabitants, of which
80,000 people lived in the inner city. Scale
its structures, the power of the fortress walls - all this
struck the eyes of strangers.
Later, Babylon fell into complete desolation and
soon forgot not only about its existence, but also
even about its location.
ASSYRIA
The capital of Assyria was Nineveh, a city that rivaledBabylon with wealth and luxury of palaces and temples.
Unfortunately, one cannot judge the layout of the largest
capital of Assyria IX-VII centuries. BC. - Nineveh, because in
612 BC she was wiped off the face of the earth by the king
Nabopolassar of Babylon.
Known only decorated with bas-reliefs of the northern
Ashurbanipal's palace, which has been excavated
expedition P.E. Botta in 1842. Remains found
The southern palace of Assarhaddon, the archive and the library are not
allow to judge with certainty the outlines of the city
and the location of its main streets.
Gates of Shamash (reconstruction)
SHAMASH GATE (RECONSTRUCTION) The Assyrians adopted religion, culture andBabylonian art.
They established in the restless Mesopotamia their
sovereign order, created a single powerful
state.
Assyrian art from the beginning of the 1st millennium
BC e. and until the collapse of the Assyrian power in
end of the 7th century BC e. was completely fulfilled
pathos of strength, glorified power, victory and
Assyrian conquests
SHEDU
Majestic and fantastic once towering at the entrance tothe famous palace of King Sargon II, near Nineveh, grandiose
winged bulls in tiaras, with arrogant human
faces, sparkling eyes, with huge, rectangular,
beards completely twisted in a small curl; every bull -
with five heavy, trampling hooves all under them.
These monsters - "shedu" of cuneiform texts were considered
patrons of palace buildings. The figures are made in
technique of very high relief, turning into a round
sculpture. Modeling them, the sculptor used wealth
chiaroscuro effects.
It is characteristic that the sculptor wanted to show the monster at the same time
both at rest and in motion. To do this, he had to add
extra leg, and thus it turned out that looking at
a figure in the front saw her standing, and surveying her in profile walking.
Winged bulls from the palace of Sargon II
WINGED BULLS FROM THE PALACE OF SARGONS IIOriginal – Louvre, Paris
Copy - Museum. Pushkin,
Moscow Long ribbons of reliefs stretched along the level
human stature through the halls of the Assyrian
palaces. In the Khorsabad Palace in relief
6000 sq. m.
Researchers believe that there
cardboards on which artists applied common
outlines of images, while
countless helpers and
students copied individual scenes and
performed the details of the compositions. The plots of the compositions were mainly war,
hunting, scenes of everyday life and court life, and, finally,
religious scenes.
The main focus was on those
images where the king was the central figure.
All work was directed to his glorification.
Assyrian artists.
Their task was also to emphasize the physical
the strength of the king, his soldiers and retinue: we see in the reliefs
huge people with powerful muscles, although their bodies
often constrained by a conventional canonical pose and
heavy, lush clothes. Tsar! He is not a celestial, not an incarnate god, as in
Egypt, but the almighty earthly ruler, whose sword is
the highest law. Everywhere the face of the king is majestic, despotic
severely, without individual traits.
He is equally formidable and impersonal both in hunting and in battle, and
when he walks accompanied by fat, beardless
eunuchs holding luxurious fans over his head, and
when feasting with the queen, celebrating the victory over the enemy, whose
head hung nearby
The most famous reliefs from the Assyrian royal
palaces are now in London British
museum and the Louvre in Paris. Leningrad Hermitage
also has characteristic patterns of this
monumental sculpture.
Image Features
PICTURE FEATURESFigures of people, with rare exceptions,
depicted with the characteristic of the Ancient
Oriental convention: shoulders and eyes - straight, legs
and head in profile.
The models of the masters of this time seem like
be reduced to a single type. Saved
as well as multi-scale in the image
people of different social status.
The figure of the king is always completely motionless. Relief "King and God" Top left - fantastic winged
creatures (from the Assyrian relief);
on the right is the Babylonian god Marduk,
killing the monster Tiamat.
In the center is the golden head of the sacred
a bull with a blue beard of lapis lazuli;
decoration of a harp found in the royal
tomb in the Sumerian city of Ur (III
millennium BC. e.); gate of the goddess Ishtar
in Babylon. (VI century BC. Reconstruction.)
Bottom left - Phoenician ships (with
Assyrian relief of the 6th century. BC e.).
Bottom right - Assyrian king hunting
on lions (from the Assyrian relief of the 7th century to http://sascha-lange.livejournal.com/1568.html
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