HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

LECTURE 3
Mesopotamian
Euphrates river - Etymology Tigris river - Etymology

Ancient Greek Euphrátēs (Εὐφράτης) Ancient Greek Tigris (Τίγρις)

Old Persian Ufrātu Old Persian Tigrā
Elamite ú- Elamite Tigra Sumerian
ip-ra-tu-iš Idigna Akkadian Idiqlat
Sumerian Hebrew Ḥîddeqel
Buranuna Arabic Dijlah
Akkadian
Purattu
Arabic al-
Furrāt
Proto-
Sumerian
*burudu
"copper"
Mesopotamia was the center of copper
metallurgy during the period
 The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek
root words μέσος (meso) "middle" and ποταμός (potamos) "river" and
literally means "(Land) between rivers“.
The Fertile
Crescent
Earliest of all civilizations (although everyone knows it’s Indus Valley now) 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)

Lasted for approximately 3000 years

Its peoples were the first to irrigate fields, devised a system of writing,
developed mathematics, invented the wheel and learned to work with
metal.
“Governatorate
”
 Widely considered to be one of the foundation of civilization by the
Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the
Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires, all native to the territory
of modern-day Iraq. In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-
Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires.
The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens were descended
from the City of Gods, but, unlike the ancient Egyptians, they never
believed their kings were real gods.

Most kings named themselves “king of the universe” or “great king”.

Another common name was “shepherd”, as kings had to look after their
people.
Climactic
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

Religion
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)
Religion
• Position of King was enhanced and supported by religion

• Kingship believed to be created by gods and the king’s 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 do (ie. by examining the liver or lungs of a slain sheep)
 Sumerian
s economic and intellectual basis
• social,
• Irrigated fields and produced 3 main
crops (barley, dates and sesame seeds)
• built canals, dams and drainage systems
• develop cuneiform writing
• invented the wheel
• Large quantity of food led to steady increase of population (farm, towns, cities)
• first city of the world
• Developed a trade system with exchanging: mainly barley but also wool and cloth
for stone, metals, timber, copper, etc.
• Individuals could only rent land from priests (who controlled land on behalf of
gods); most of profits of trade went to temple

• However, the Sumerians were not successful in uniting lower Mesopotamia

 Akkadian
•sLeader: Sargon the Great
• Sargon unified lower Mesopotamia (after conquering Sumerians in 2331 BCE)
• Established capital at Akkad
• Spread Mesopotamian culture
• However, short-lived dynasty as Akkadians were conquered by the invading
barbarians by 2200 BCE
Babylonian KING HAMMURABI’S
BABLYON
s • (6th Amorite king) who conquered Akkad and Assyria
(north and south)
• He build new walls to protect the city and new canals
and dikes to improve crops
• Economy based on agriculture and wool / cloth
• individuals could own land around cities
• Artisans and merchants could keep most profits and
even formed guilds / associations
• Grain used as the medium of exchange > emergence of
measurement of currency: shekel = 180 grains of barley;
mina = 60 shekels
• Mina was eventually represented by metals which was
one of first uses of money (but it was still based on
grain)

• Hammurabi’s Legacy: law code

 Code of
• To enforce hisHammurabi
rule, Hammurabi collected all the laws of Babylon in a code that
would apply everywhere in the land

• Most extensive law code from the ancient world (c. 1800 BCE)

• Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar placed in the public hall for all to
see

• Hammurabi Stone depicts Hammurabi as receiving his authority from god

Shamash

• Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as societal laws

• Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as people must be responsible for
own actions

• Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye for an eye…” ie. If a
son struck his father, the son’s hand would be cut off

• Consequences for crimes depended on rank in society (ie. only fines for
nobility)
 • 10th century BCE, Assyria emerged as dominant force in the north
• City of Assur- became important trading and political centre
• After Hammurabi’s death, Babylon fell apart and kings of Assur controlled
more of surrounding area and came to dominate
Assyrian • Made conquered lands pay taxes (food, animals, metals or timber)
• Rule by fear as kings were first to have a permanent army made up of
s professional soldiers (estimated 200 000 men)
• Made superior weapons of bronze and iron
• iron changed lifestyles in Mesopotamia in weapons and in daily life ie.
replaced wooden wheels and applied to horse drawn chariots
Sumerian Akkadian Babylonia
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
“Architecture” of
Mesopotamia
“Tower of
Babylon”
Urban
Planning
The very first cities were
founded
in Mesopotamia after
the
Neolithic Revolution, around
7500 BCE. Mesopotamian
cities included Eridu, Uruk,
and Ur.
 A Sumerian City
Sumerian city streets
were so narrow that you
could hardly get a cart
through them.

On hot nights, people Narrow Streets

slept outdoors on the top
of their house’s flat roof.

Sumerian houses faced

away from crowded
streets. Instead, they
faced onto courtyards
where families ate and
children played. Courtyard Area
 CITY
CHARACTERISTICS

Wide roads crossed city, lined by

Each city surrounded by walls houses of the wealthy
◦ Permanent military base of soldiers ◦ Rest of city made up of narrow, twisting
stationed in towers and at each gate alleys surrounded by small, flat-roofed huts
◦ Homes of farmers, and small craftsmen
(Uruk)city of
warka
The Sumerians were the first society to construct the city itself as a
built form.

They were proud of this achievement as attested in the Epic of

Gilgamesh which opens with a description of Uruk its walls, streets,
markets, temples, and gardens.

Uruk itself is significant as the center of an urban culture which both

colonized and urbanized western Asia.
Gilgames
h
• Gilgamesh is an ancient story or epic written in
Mesopotamia more than 4000 thousand years
ago

• Gilgamesh is the first known work of great

literature and epic poem

• Epic mentions a great flood

• Gilgamesh parallels the Nippur Tablet, a six-

columned tablet telling the story of the creation
of humans and animals, the cities and their
rulers, and the great flood

ANALYSIS
• Gilgamesh and the Nippur tablet both parallel
the story of Noah and the Ark (great flood) in the
Old Testament of the Jewish and Christian holy
books
C i t y o f Wa r k a ( a n c i e n t U r u k )

• The city of Uruk (present day Warka in Iraq) was a large city with a
possible population of 50 thousand
• Dependent on a single economy of agriculture
• Wheel was used and a system of weights was developed
• Dedicated to God Anu – The God of sky

• Surrounded by walls on all sides – 6 miles length and 50ft. high

in places
• At the centre of the city was a pyramid built of mud bricks with a
platform on top for the temple of the City God
• There are 17 layers of temples at Warka – constant elaboration
• Earlies temples were simple boxes with an altar at the back and
an oven at the front
• Evolved and became larger
 • The temple of God Anu – White Temple
• It rested on top of a broad terrace on top of a tall

artificial mountain rising 13m above the plain

• Access was by a stairway on the North Eastern face
• It was a flight of narrow steps leading to the shrine
• The shrine (18 m long) had an offering table and a hearth

for fire
C i t y o f Wa r k a – T h e W h i t e Te m p l e
City of Ur F e a t u r e s o f C i t y a n d B u i l d i n g M a t e r i a l s

• Development of Urban Planning

• Courtyard houses
• Ziggurats
• Mud plaster, adobe construction (Earth, Water, dung), glazed bricks, asphalt
• Buildings were regularly destroyed, levelled and rebuilt on the same spot; level raised (Tel – Arabic word for hillock)

Materials:
• Earth plaster used to seal and finish exterior and interior spaces of common residences
• Lime plaster used to seal and finish exterior and interior spaces of wealthy residences, places, and temples
• A type of terrazzo used as flooring (Burnt lime + clay + natural colour pigment)
• Terracotta panels used for decoration
• Bitumen used to seal plumbing
CityofUr

SURROUNDING
FIELDS AND
VILLAGES

•Ur, the capital city of ancient region of Sumer (now

south- eastern Iraq) stood on the Euphrates river near

the Persian gulf.
• It was the commercial centre and port, from about

3500- 1850 BCE

•Between 3000- 2000 BCE, Ur served as the capital of

the 3 major ruling families.

•Third of these families, founded by King Ur-Nammu

(2100 BCE) controlled a large empire that extended from

Assyria in the north-west to the Elam in the south- east.
• The city of Ur was oval in shape, with Euphrates
flowing along its side
• Partly planned, partly organic
• Harbours on north and west sides – Temple
complex was between them and formed the focal
point in the city
• The sacred complex had a rectilinear layout and
was in the north- west to catch the breeze
• Surrounding walls to protect and impress
• The city was surrounded by cultivated fields and
villages outside the walls
• Gates to enter within the city walls had huge Late Babylonian
Quarter

towers and decoration

Ur(Iraq):
Ur, the capital city of
• The two monumental centers
were the Ziggurat complex
Mesopotami
a
with its own defensive wall,
overseen by a powerful
priesthood, and Palace of the
king.
• Minor temples were sprinkled
here and there within the rest of
the urban fabric, which was a
unrestrained blend of residential
and commercial architecture.
• Small shops were at times
incorporated into the houses.
• In the later Sumerian period at Ur,
an example of a bazaar was
found.
ResidentialQuarters of Ur - DomesticArchitecture

• Hierarchy of Streets - Main wide boulevards ; narrow, twisting alleys

• Streets varied from narrow lanes to 2-3 m wide
• Streets were used as passageways and also to dump garbage

• Houses were built of sun-baked mud bricks

• Windows were rare
• Accumulation of garbage led to an increase in the
elevation of the street – door threshold had to be
raised
• Roofs were made of mud layered on mats which
were placed on wooden rafters
• The processional road leading to the temple zone
was the only planned passageway
• House quality depended upon the wealth of the occupant
• Houses had rooms organized around small courtyards
• Better houses – baked brick foundation walls
• The principal room was opposite to the entrance - used for meals and reception
Traffic along the twisted network of unpaved streets was mostly
pedestrian. At Ur, one sees on occasion a low flight of steps against a
building from which riders could mount, and the street corners were
regularly rounded to facilitate passage.

Street width at the very most , would be 3 meters (9 feet) or so, and that
only for the few principal thoroughfares that led to the public buildings.
These would be bordered with the houses of the rich.

 Poorer folk lived at the back ,along narrow lanes and alleys.

Once walled the land became precious, and the high value of private
property kept public space to a minimum. Ample squares or public gardens
were very rare.

The houses were grouped into congested blocks, where partition walls
were common.
 Ur, residential area southeast
of the royal mausolea in the
twentieth century B.C.;Plan

The houses were , for the most part, one-

storey structures of mud-brick, with
several rooms wrapped around a central
court. There were usually no outside
windows, no attempt to contribute to a street
architecture.

The wealthier classes of Ur lived in

ample hoses of dozen or so rooms,
arranged on two storeys, and
whitewashed inside and out.
ResidentialQuarters of Ur - DomesticArchitecture

• Courtyard – Need for privacy, climate

• If there were any windows facing the street, they were in the
upper storey
• There was a step sown from the entry to the central court
• The central court was brick paved and slopes toward a central
drain
• The stairs and the toilet were opposite to the guest room across
the courtyard
• The first flight of this stair leading to the second floor is very high
• The family lived on the second level in a layout essentially duplicating
the ground floor
 R e l i g i o u s B e l i e f s - Z i g g u ra t s

Through daily rituals, attention to the immortals, proper funeral practices and simple civic duty, the
people of Mesopotamia felt they helped maintain balance in the world and kept the forces of chaos
and destruction at bay

• The Mesopotamian thinking - instruction for the layout and design of temple areas

came directly from the gods – in the form of a mysterious dream

• The belief that gods lived on the distant mountaintops gave rise to Ziggurats

•The word ziggurat comes from the Assyrian for ‘raised up’ or ‘high’. Ziggurats were

built in the centre of the city

• Connection between heaven and earth
• Stepped pyramid – Temple complex
R e l i g i o u s B e l i e f s - Z i g g u ra t s

• One practical function of the ziggurats was a high place on which

the priests could escape rising water that annually inundated

lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of miles.

• Another practical function of the ziggurat was for security.

 R e l i g i o u s B e l i e f s - Z i g g u ra t s

• Each ziggurat was part of a temple

complex that included a courtyard,

storage rooms, bathrooms, and living
quarters, around which a city was built.
 R e l i g i o u s B e l i e f s - Z i g g u ra t s

• The king was the chief priest of the temple and lived close to

it.

• The temple sits on a three multi-tiered Ziggurat mountain.

• Access to the temple is through triple stairways that converge

at the peak of the first platform.

• From this stage, one passed through a portal with dome roof

• to fourth staircase.
Sumerian masonry was usually mortarless although
asphalt was sometimes used.
Brick styles, which varied greatly over time, are categorized by period;

Patzen 80×40×15 cm: Late Uruk period (3600–3200 BC)

Riemchen 16×16 cm: Late Uruk period (3600–3200 BC)
Plano-convex 10x19x34 cm: Early Dynastic Period
(3100–2300 BC)