Mesopotamian Art and Architecture

V

Neo-Sumerian Period

After ruling for about a century and a half, the Akkadian Empire fell to the nomadic Guti, who did not centralize their power. This enabled the Sumerian cities of Uruk, Ur, and Lagash to re-establish themselves, leading to a Neo-Sumerian age, also known as the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-2004 bc). Imposing religious monuments made of baked and unbaked brick and incorporating ziggurats were built at Ur, Eridu, Nippur, and Uruk. Gudea, a ruler of Lagash, partly contemporary with Ur-Nammu, the founder of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur, is known from more than 20 statues of himself in hard black stone, dolomite and diorite. His hands are clasped in the old Sumerian style, but the rounded face and slight musculature in the arms and shoulders show the sculptor’s will to depict form in this difficult medium with more naturalism than had his predecessors. Other sculptures and reliefs are quite static, except those that depict anthropomorphic figures combining human and animal features. The most lively are small terracotta reliefs and figurines depicting worshippers making animal sacrifices, legendary heroes, musicians, and even a woman nursing a baby. With the decline of Sumerian civilization, Mesopotamia was once more united by Semitic rulers (c. 2000-1600 bc), the most important of whom was Hammurabi of Babylon. The relief figure of the king on the stele in which was inscribed the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1760 bc, Musée du Louvre, Paris) is not markedly different from the Gudea statues (even though his hands are unclasped), nor is he depicted with an intermediary before the Sun god Shamash. The most original art of the Babylonian period came from Mari and includes temples and a palace, sculptures, metalwork, and wall painting. As in much Mesopotamian art, the animals are more lifelike than the human figures. Small plaques from Mari and other sites depict musicians, boxers, a carpenter, and peasants in scenes from everyday life. These are far more realistic than formal royal and religious art.

VI

Kassite and Elamite Dynasties

The Kassites, a people of non-Mesopotamian origin, were present in Babylon shortly after Hammurabi’s death in 1750 bc, and replaced the Babylonian rulers in about 1600 bc. The Kassites adapted to their environment and to Mesopotamian art. The Elamites (see Elam), from western Iran, destroyed the Kassite kingdom in about 1150 bc; their art also displays a provincial imitation of earlier styles and iconography. Indeed, their admiration of Akkadian and Babylonian art inspired them to carry off the Stele of Naram-Sin and the Code of Hammurabi to their capital, Susa, in south-western Iran.

VII

Assyrian Empire

The early history of the art of Assyria, from the 18th to the 14th century bc, is still largely unknown. Middle Assyrian art (1350-1000 bc) shows some dependence on established Babylonian stylistic traditions: religious subjects are presented rigidly, but secular themes are depicted more naturalistically. The ziggurat was the principal form of Assyrian temple architecture. At this time the technique of glazing bricks in polychrome was used in Mesopotamia and later resulted in the typical Neo-Babylonian architectural decoration of entire structures faced with glazed bricks. The sacred tree and crested griffins, used in cylinder seals and palace wall paintings, are motifs that may have come from the art of Mitanni, a northern Mesopotamian Aryan kingdom. Unlike earlier Mesopotamian representations of vegetation, plant ornamentation is highly stylized and artificial. Symbols frequently replace depictions of gods. Much of the art and architecture was commissioned by Tukulti-Ninurta I (reigned 1244-1207 bc) at Assur and at Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, his own residence. In the art at both locations, the distance between gods and humans is emphasized. The narrative frieze, which was derived from scenes on steles and seals, became the most important aspect of Assyrian art.

The genius of Assyrian art flowered in the Neo-Assyrian period (1000-612 bc), a time of great builders. The first of the great late Assyrian kings was Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883-859 bc), who re-founded Nimrud (ancient Kalhu or Calah of the Bible) as a military capital. Within the walls of Nimrud, which encompass an area of about 360 hectares (890 acres), stood the citadel, and the main royal buildings like the King’s North-West Palace, which was decorated with relief sculptures. Sargon II (reigned 722-705 bc) ruled from the city of Dur Sharrukin (now Khorsabad), which covered 2.6 sq km (1 sq mi) and was surrounded by a wall with seven gates, three of them decorated with reliefs and glazed bricks. Within stood Sargon’s palace, with more than 200 rooms and courts, a large temple, and lesser temples and residences. Only part of the complex was completed when he died. His son and successor Sennacherib (reigned 705-681 bc) moved the capital to Nineveh, where he built his “Palace without Rival”, also known as the South-West Palace. The North Palace at Nineveh was built by Ashurbanipal (reigned 668-627 bc).

These Assyrian kings adorned their palaces with magnificent reliefs. Gypsum alabaster, a soft stone naturally occurring in the Assyrian region of the upper Tigris River, was more easily carved than the hard stones used by the Sumerians and Akkadians. To impress visitors, and magnify his power in the eyes of his subjects, chronicles of the king’s superiority in battle and in the hunt were recounted by cuneiform texts, carved in horizontal bands on both the exterior and interior walls of the palace. Arriving at the gates of Nimrud or Khorsabad, the viewer was confronted by huge guardian sculptures in the form of anthropomorphic genii, winged human-headed lions or bulls with five legs (for viewing both front and side). At times mythological figures are portrayed, a Gilgamesh-like figure with the lion cub, or a worshipper bringing a sacrificial animal, such as the idealized portrait from Khorsabad of Sargon II with an ibex (c. 710 bc, Musée du Louvre, Paris). The primary subject matter of these alabaster reliefs, however, is purely secular: the king hunting lions and other animals, the Assyrian triumph over the enemy, or the king feasting in his garden. In the scene (7th century bc, British Museum) of Ashurbanipal from Nineveh, the king’s harpist and birds in the trees make music for the reclining king and seated queen, who sip wine under a vine, while attendants with fly whisks keep the royal couple comfortable. Nearby is a sober reminder of Assyrian might—the head of the King of Elam, hanging from a tree.

Sculptors were at their best in depicting hunting scenes, real beasts being more keenly observed and sensitively rendered than imaginary anthropomorphic beings. The finest animal studies from the ancient world are the dying lion and lioness (c. 668 bc, British Museum, London), details of a hunt from Ashurbanipal’s palace at Nineveh. Other reliefs from this monument depict real events: battles, the siege and capture of cities, everyday life in the army camp, the taking of captives, and the harsh treatment meted out to those who resisted conquest.

The architectural reliefs on the palaces at Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Nineveh are important not only because they represent the climax of Mesopotamian artistic expression, but because they are valuable as historical documents. Even though cities, seascapes, and landscapes were not rendered with the realism and perspective of later Western art, fortified buildings, ships, chariots, horse trappings, hunting equipment, weapons, ritual libations, and costumes are depicted in such a way that the modern observer can form a very exact idea of their appearance. The various ethnic groups inhabiting Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine in the 1st millennium bc are depicted with great realism and can be identified by their dress, facial features, and hairstyles.

Stylistic differences are discernible between the 9th-century bc reliefs at Nimrud and the 7th-century bc reliefs at Nineveh. In the earlier scenes, armies are represented by a few soldiers only, without regard to the relative size of humans and architecture. To suggest depth, figures are depicted in bands, one above the other. In the Nineveh scenes, the figures, carved in lower relief, fill the entire picture plane. Not only is there more detail, but at times figures overlap, giving the viewer a sense of people and animals in three-dimensional space.

The art of the late Assyrian seal-cutter is a combination of realism and mythology. Even naturalistic scenes contain symbols of the gods. Beautiful ivory carvings, found especially at Nimrud but also at Khorsabad, were also made in this period. Thousands of ivory carvings displaying a variety of styles have been recovered at Nimrud. Many, such as the lioness plaques, were thrown down one of two wells in the North-West Palace when the city was sacked around 612 bc. Among the Nimrud ivories was a pair of plaques, each depicting a lioness attacking an Ethiopian (Iraq Museum and British Museum, London). They are about 10 cm (4 in) high and carved in ivory, partly gilded, and inlaid with lapis lazuli and red cornelian. These exquisite objects resemble Syro-Phoenician objects found at Arslan Tash on the upper Euphrates and at Samaria, capital of the Israelite kingdom. They were either imported from Phoenicia or, perhaps, made by Phoenician craftsmen at the Assyrian court. The lioness plaques incorporate Egyptian iconography and are examples of the best craftsmanship in the Phoenician tradition. The Nimrud ivory plaque in the British Museum has the Phoenician letter aleph on the base, presumably a fitter’s mark.

The art of the peoples who lived on the fringes of the Assyrian Empire at times lacks the aesthetic appeal of that of the capital. In Tell Halaf, a local ruler’s palace was decorated with weird reliefs and sculpture in the round; among the anthropomorphic figures is a scorpion man. At the site of Tell Ahmar, in northern Syria (ancient Til Barsip, the Assyrian city of Kar Shalmaneser), a palace decorated extensively with Assyrian wall paintings was uncovered. Some of the paintings have been dated to the mid-8th century bc and others to a rebuilding by Ashurbanipal in the 7th century bc. From the earlier building are scenes with winged genii, the defeat of the enemy and their merciless execution, audiences granted to officials, and scribes recording booty from subjugated nations. The paintings in Khorsabad were more formal, consisting of repeat patterns in bands topped by two figures paying homage to a deity. Excavations in Lorestān, the mountainous region of western Iran, yielded fine bronzes of fantastic creatures, probably made in the middle or late Assyrian period and used as ornaments for horses, weapons, and utensils.

VIII

Syrian, Phoenician, and Palestinian Art

Because Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine were on the land route between Asia Minor and Africa, the ancient art of this area shows the influence of those who conquered, passed through, or traded with its inhabitants. Mesopotamian-style cylinder seals from the Jamdat Nasr period were found at Megiddo, in Israel, and at Byblos, the capital of Phoenicia; in a later period the Hurrians of northern Syria specialized in seal-cutting. From the 29th century bc pottery, works in stone, and scarabs were influenced by dynastic Egypt. Bronze figurines from Byblos of the early 2nd millennium are more distinctly Phoenician, as are daggers and other ceremonial weapons found there. Although the motifs used by local artisans came from beyond the immediate region—Crete, Egypt, the Hittite Empire, and Mesopotamia—the technique embodied in crafted objects found at Byblos and Ugarit (with its Hurrian and Mitanni cultural strains) is distinctly Phoenician. Phoenician goldsmiths and silversmiths were skilled artisans, but the quality of their work depended on their clientele. Ivory work was always of the highest standards, probably because of Egyptian competition. Phoenicians sold their wares all over the Middle East, and the spread of Middle Eastern style and iconography, like the alphabet, can be attributed to these great traders of antiquity.

IX

Neo-Babylonian Period

The Babylonians, in coalition with the Medes and Scythians, defeated the Assyrians in 612 bc, sacking Nimrud and Nineveh. They did not establish a new style or iconography; boundary stones, for example, depict old presentation scenes or the images of kings with symbols of the gods. Neo-Babylonian creativity manifested itself architecturally at Babylon, the capital, which reached its greatest size and highest point of development in the period 626 to 539 bc. This huge city, destroyed (689 bc) by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, was restored by Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II. Divided by the Euphrates, it took 88 years to build and was surrounded by outer and inner walls. Its central feature was Esagila, the temple of Marduk, with its associated seven-storey ziggurat Etemenanki, later to be popularly known as the Tower of Babel. The ziggurat reached a height of 91 m (300 ft); on the uppermost stage stood a temple (a shrine) built of sun-dried bricks and faced with baked bricks. Northward from the temple of Marduk ran the processional way, its wall decorated with enamelled lions. Passing through the Ishtar Gate, it led to a small temple outside the city, where ceremonies marking the New Year Festival were held. West of the Ishtar Gate were two palace complexes; east of the processional way lay, since the times of Hammurabi, a residential area. Like its famous Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, little of the city remains. The Ishtar Gate (c. 575 bc) is one of the few surviving structures. The glazed-brick façade of the gate and the processional way that led up to it were excavated by German archaeologists and the large complex, some 30 m (100 ft) long, was taken to Berlin, where it was reconstructed. It is on display in the city’s Vorderasiatische Museum. On the site of ancient Babylon, restoration of an earlier version of the Ishtar Gate, the processional way, and the palace complex, all constructed of unglazed brick, has been undertaken by Iraq’s Department of Antiquities.

Nabonidus (reigned 556-539 bc), the last Babylonian king, rebuilt the old Sumerian capital of Ur, including the ziggurat of Nanna, rival to the ziggurat Etemenanki at Babylon. It survived well and its facing of brick has recently been restored.

In 539 bc the Neo-Babylonian kingdom fell to Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid king of the Persians. Mesopotamia became part of the Persian Empire, and a royal palace was built at Babylon, which was made one of the empire’s administrative capitals. Among the remains of Babylon from the time of Alexander the Great, conqueror of the Persian Empire, is a theatre he built at the site now known as Humra. The brilliance of Babylon ended about 250 bc, when the city’s inhabitants moved to Seleucia, built by Alexander’s successors.