Mesopotamian Art And Arquitecture
Mesopotamian Art and Architecture
The arts and buildings of the ancient Middle Eastern
civilizations developed in the area (now Iraq) between the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers from prehistory to the 6th
century BC. Their art reflects both their love and fear of
natural forces, as well as their military conquests.
The soil of Mesopotamia yielded the civilization's
major building material, mud brick. This clay also was used
by the Mesopotamians for their pottery, terra-cotta
sculpture, and writing tablets. Few wooden artifacts have
been preserved. Stone was rare, and certain types had to
be imported; basalt, sandstone, diorite, and alabaster were
used for sculpture. Metals such as ...
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and artistic remains known
to date come from northern Mesopotamia from the
proto-Neolithic site of Qermez Dere in the foothills of the
Jebel Sinjar. Levels dating to the 9th millennium BC have
revealed round sunken huts outfitted with one or two
plastered pillars with stone cores. When the buildings were
abandoned, human skulls were placed on the floors,
indicating some sort of ritual.
Artifacts from the late Uruk and Jamdat Nasr periods,
also (about 3500-2900 BC), have been found at several
sites, but the major site was the city of Uruk. The major
building from level five at Uruk (about 3500 BC) is the
Limestone Temple; its superstructure is not preserved, but
limestone slabs on a layer of stamped earth show that it
was niched and monumental in size, measuring 250 x 99ft.
Some buildings at Uruk of level four were decorated with
colorful cones inset into the walls to form geometric
patterns. Another technique that was used was
whitewashing, as in the White Temple, ...
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at such cities as Ur, Umma, Lagash, Kish, and Eshnunna
were headed by governors or kings who were not
considered divine. Much of the art is commemorative;
plaques, frequently depicting banquet scenes, celebrate
victories or the completion of a temple. These were often
used as boundary stones, as was the limestone stele
(Louvre, Paris) of King Eannatum from Lagash. In two
registers on one side of the stele the king is depicted
leading his army into battle; on the other side the god
Ningirsu, symbolically represented as much larger than a
human, holds the net containing the defeated enemy. The
Standard of Ur (about 2700 BC) a wooden plaque inlaid
with shell, ...
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Mesopotamian Art And Arquitecture. (2004, November 20). Retrieved November 18, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Mesopotamian-Art-And-Arquitecture/17784
"Mesopotamian Art And Arquitecture." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 20 Nov. 2004. Web. 18 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Mesopotamian-Art-And-Arquitecture/17784>
"Mesopotamian Art And Arquitecture." Essayworld.com. November 20, 2004. Accessed November 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Mesopotamian-Art-And-Arquitecture/17784.
"Mesopotamian Art And Arquitecture." Essayworld.com. November 20, 2004. Accessed November 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Mesopotamian-Art-And-Arquitecture/17784.
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