ID2241 - Mesopotamian (Test #1, video 2/2) - GaTech

Two Kinds of Narration:

Symbolic
- Symbolizes their power and rulership (metaphors)

• Realistic

  • Actually telling a story (Realistically...obv)

Anthropomorphized

gods and goddesses represented in the form of humans

White Temple, Uruk (3200BC) (Warka Iraq today)

Physical attributes:

• Mud Bricks

• faced w/ white plaster

• 40ft H, 60ft L

• Built on a Ziggurat

  • mound of earth w/ slopping sides

Non-Physical attributes:

• Dedicated to sky 'god' "Anu" (Anu district)

  • Temple placed off the ground to represent the sky "god"

Assyrian word for "high" "raised up"

• Stepped platforms

• Raised off the earth/ground

Ziggurat @ Ur:

• 2100BC (recontructed 1968 AD)

• Dedicated to Nanna (Sumerian "god" of the moon)

• 210ft L, 148ft W, 98ft H

• Exactly 100 steps

Prioritized access for priests and officials (stairs)
- Designating your status/class

• Maybe the stairs going straight up are supposed to symbolize the "god" descending down to earth

• Bent-axis approach (The 2 stairs going from the side then turning and going to the center)

Female Head (Inanna?) 3200-3000 BC (Uruk)

Inanna:

• Sumerian goddess of love, fertility, warfare "queen of heaven"

• Other name: Ishtar (Assyrian)

Anthropomorphized = in the form of a human
(Anthro = human form)
(Morphic = in the form of)

reciprocal:

• god/goddess = human like

• human = in the image of "god" (which is why we're made to look like those "gods" and the "gods" look like us)

Should've had inlaid eyes and eyebrows (coral, lapiz, and gemstones)
plus a headdress

Made sure to be "perfect" so that they don't look like ordinary humans.

• Symmetry

• Repetition (see below image)

Statuettes from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (2700BC) (Modern Tel Asmar Iraq):

The 12 statuettes found (1933): "the Tel Asmar Hoard"

Physical Attributes:

• Made of limestone(soft) inlaid w/ shell (stone) (eyes)

• 8 inches to 28inches

The above is the largest figure

• Has an eagle inscription on the base

• the "god" Abu = god of plants, vegetation

• Apparently the beard = the steps from the Ziggurat at Ur (that's not the connection bro but ok)

  • reciprocity of form of god to the form of the temple

god = anthropomorphized as human
temple= form of god
god = form of temple (human worship)

Standard of Ur, 2600 BC

Physical Attributes:

• double sided

• in the form of a standard

  • a message board carried on a pole

• Registers:

  • sections (synonym)

  • separate scenes = separate time, space

  • (The 3 horizontal "bands")

• inlaid w/ ivory, coral, lapis lazuli

• Meant to be read bottom to top (Battle trampling enemy -> herding prisoners -> prisoners judged)

• weapons, wheel w/ axels carriages

• multiples overlapping

• Composite view (see 1st below) (profile / frontal)

• The wedge shapes (1st below) matches the cuneiform system

“Scenes of War” and “Celebration of Victory”

Value Perspective:

• Some figures are bigger... assigning importance through size or scale

• gods or goddess to celebrate w/ humans

Bull-headed lyre (2600BC)

Physical Attributes:

• Made of wood (didn't survive this was re-constructed)

• possibly narrating story of "Gilgamesh"

Gilgamesh:

• 2750-2500BC (Hero-King Uruk)

• epic poem

  • 12 clay tablets

  • 1800BC

  • Cuneiform script

• Hero

  • Controls animals, nature, forces

Zoomorphism:

• transferring animal qualities to a human "scorpion man"

Head of Akkadian Ruler (but really it’s Sargon)

(2200BC)
Physical:

• mutilated (the eye) (totemic ritual of killing him by taking his eye)

• bronze; life size

  • bronze alloy

    • copper and tin: 3000BC

    • copper and zinc: 1000BC

  • stronger than copper alone

  • Lost-Wax Process of Bronze Casting (a)

• missing a headdress

• Symmetrical (perfect as he is a hero)

Lost-Wax Process of Bronze Casting

Start w/ carved wax sculpture

• Cover w/ sand, clay, or ash to form a mold

• Pour molten bronze inside the mold

  • melts the wax; drain the wax

• Break the mold to uncover the bronze form

Victory Stele of Naram Sin, 2254-2218 BC

Stele:

• flat slab of stone

• carved

• positioned upright

Physical Attributes:

• 6.5ft

• Sandstone

• Naram-Sin is near the mountain (he's separate from the others) value perspective

  • Zagros Mountains

• 3 stars: represent gods/divine

• Composite View (frontal eye, torso profile)

• Value Perspective

  • By himself

  • larger than others

Stele of Hammurabi, 1780BC

Physical Attributes:

• 7ft 4inch

• carved in basalt(harder stone)

• "Law Code of Hammurabi"

• "Hammurabi and Shamash" (see below)

Shamash: Sun god

• "horned helmet": Zoomorphism

• ring/staff: opposites (just how it's translated)

• Composite View

• Stepped platform: ziggurat

• Value Perspective (seated )

"Law Code"

• 282 Laws:

  • Contracts, wages, property, divorce, paternity, military service

  • "an eye for an eye"

• Discovered 1901: deciphered Akkadian language w/ cuneiform script

Hittite: Lion Gate, Bogazkoy, 1400 BC:

Guardian Figures: "Wards off evil spirits"

• propagandistic (don't mess with us)

Statue of Sargon II, 700 BC:

Physical Attributes:

• Symmetrical

• composite view

• hero: Controls animal (lion)

Citadel of Sargon II, Khorsabad, 720-705 BC; lamassu;

The guardian are in the Lamassu form
Zoomorphism
Composite form

• mixed forms

  • wings of eagle

  • body of lion

  • head of Sargon II

13ft 10inch tall

Banqueting Scene:

• Image above to the right

• Value Perspective

• Composite View

“Ashurnasirpal Hunting Lions,” 875 BC:

Profile view more consistant but still a frontal eye

Overlapping:

• implies multiple planes/spaces

• "realistic narration"

Neo(late)-Babylonian Art:  Ishtar Gates, 575 BC

(This is in a muesum)

• discovered 1899

• excavated by Koldewey

• relocated to museum in Berlin

• shipped by boat

Physical attributes:

• individually sculpted bricks

• glazed brick: fired with mineral "slip"

  • Lapis

• numbering system

• Lions are protecting the city

  • Lion walking on the brick (really realistic)

Palace of Darius I and Xerxes, Persepolis,521-465BC: apadana:

Apadana: Audience hall

• 200ft x 148ft

• 60ft columns

• audience of 1,000

(Alexander the Great destroyed it - to prevent any more wars)

"Offerings of the People" (Look like they're climbing the steps) (Peacefulness)

profile view but with frontal eye "Realistic narration"

Findings are from Persepolis (the above city):

• Stele of Naram Sin

• Stele of Hammurabi

• Clearly they plundered Babylon