Presentation in the discipline "art" on the topic "ancient mesopotamia". Artistic culture of the interfluve Mesopotamia mhk
In IV - I millennium BC. e. in the lower reaches of the large rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates lived peoples of high culture, 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. In Mesopotamia, they knew how to build the highest towers, where they used brick as a building material, drained the swampy area, laid canals and irrigated fields, planted orchards, invented the wheel, the potter's wheel and built ships, knew how to spin and weave, made tools from copper and bronze and weapons. 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 holy book of the Bible.
Example of cuneiform
2200-2000 BC e.
Unlike architecture
Babylon. Reconstruction
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Review questions:
3. What are the outstanding achievements of the culture of the Nars of Ancient Asia? In the IV - I millennium BC. e. in the lower reaches of the large rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates lived peoples of high culture, 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. In Mesopotamia, they knew how to build the highest towers, where they used brick as a building material, drained the swampy area, laid canals and irrigated fields, planted orchards, invented the wheel, the potter's wheel and built ships, knew how to spin and weave, made tools from copper and bronze and weapons. 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 holy book of the Bible.
The Sumerians entered the history of world culture primarily thanks to the invention of writing, which arose here about 200-300 years earlier than in Egypt. It was originally a pictographic letter. They wrote on “tablets” on soft clay; for this purpose, reed or wooden sticks were used, sharpened in such a way that when they were pressed into wet clay, they left a mark in the form of a wedge. The tablets were then fired. At first they wrote from right to left, but this was inconvenient, since the right hand covered what was written. Gradually moved to a more rational writing - from left to right.
Soft glyph boards and reed sticks for writing
Example of cuneiform
Religion played an important role in public life. In Mesopotamia there was no developed funeral cult, there was no idea of resurrection and immortality. Death seemed inevitable and natural, only earthly life was real. In this struggle for life, the gods can come to the aid of man, they must be propitiated, they must be served. In Mesopotamia, heavenly bodies, water and other natural forces were deified.
The god Enlil (lord of wind and water) is one of the greatest deities who was the son of the sky god Anu and the earth goddess Ki. Enlil is the god of fertility. According to the mythology of the ancient Sumerians, Enlil divided heaven and earth, gave people agricultural tools and helped develop cattle breeding, agriculture, and introduced them to culture. But not only good things are attributed to him. Enlil, in order to teach people a lesson for their stupidity, sent natural disasters to them, and in the epic of Gilgamesh, it is mentioned that Enlil was the initiator of the flood in order to destroy all mankind. Enlil is often depicted as an insidious, evil, cruel deity. His wife, Ninlil, was a goddess of extraordinary beauty and intelligence. He also had sons - the god of the moon Nannu, the god of the underground elements Norgal, the warrior Ninurta and the ambassador of the gods Namtar.
Compared to Egypt, few monuments of art of the peoples of Mesopotamia have come down to us. There was no stone in the Tigris and Euphrates valley, and short-lived raw brick was used as a building material. Temples, houses and fortress walls were created from clay. Only mountains of clay and garbage have survived to this day, which were previously beautiful cities. However, based on the remains found, it can be concluded that here, as in Egypt, the leading role was played by monumental architecture.
The center of the city in Mesopotamia was the temple of the patron god, next to which stood a multi-stage tower, the so-called ziggurat. The ziggurat could have from three to seven terraces connected by wide gentle ramps. At the very top was the sanctuary of the god, the place of his rest. Only dedicated priests were allowed there. The lining of the ziggurat was made of baked bricks and painted, with each tier painted in its own color, black, red or white. Terrace areas were occupied by gardens with artificial irrigation. During solemn services, processions of the gods ascended the ramps of the temple to the sanctuary. The ziggurat was not only a religious building, but also a kind of observatory of antiquity. From the top of the ziggurats, the priests observed the planets and stars. Temples were the center of knowledge. A visual representation of the architecture of Mesopotamia is given by two-thirds of the preserved ziggurat of the moon god Nannu, built in 2200-2000. BC. in ancient Ur. Its three huge terraces tapering upwards with three flights of stairs still make a majestic impression.
A ziggurat is a stepped temple. Reconstruction
Ziggurat of the moon god Nanna in Ur
2200-2000 BC e.
Unlike architecture
the fine art of Mesopotamia looks relatively poor and primitive. Beautiful examples of Sumerian sculpture, created at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, have survived to our time. e. A very common type of sculpture was the so-called adorant - a statue of a praying man with arms folded on his chest, sitting or standing. The character's legs are very strong and are depicted in parallel on a round base. The body is not given too much attention, it serves only as a pedestal for the head. The face was usually made more carefully than the body, although it had to comply with certain conventions, which deprived the sculpture of individual features: the nose, eyes, and ears were emphasized. Large ears (for the Sumerians - receptacles of wisdom), wide-open eyes, in which a pleading expression is combined with the surprise of magical insight, hands folded in a prayerful gesture. This created the image of an all-hearing and all-seeing human figure. An inscription was usually stamped on the shoulder of the adorant, indicating who was its owner. Finds are known when the first inscription was erased and later replaced by another.
During the rise of Assyria, the cities were powerful fortresses surrounded by high walls with numerous towers. The whole city was dominated by a formidable citadel - the palace of the king. The palace of King Sargon II in Dur-Sharrukin (VIII century BC) can give an idea of it. With a total area of the city of 18 hectares, the palace occupied 10 hectares. It towered on an artificially erected platform 14 m high, wide ramps led to it, along which chariots could pass. There were more than 200 rooms in the palace: residential and utility rooms, ceremonial halls and religious buildings. On the sides of the entrances to the palace stood five-meter-high statues of winged bulls "shedu" with human heads and eagle wings. These were the guardian geniuses of the king and his house. It is interesting that these statues had five legs - thus the illusion of movement towards the viewer was achieved. Favorite subjects are wars and victorious feasts, hunting for wild animals and solemn processions of kings and nobles.
Palace of King Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukin Shedu
During the period of the new rise of Babylon, the capital of the state turns into a flourishing fortress city. According to Herodotus, two chariots could move freely on the Babylonian walls. From the Ishtar gate to the city center there was a wide road made of white and red tiles. The double gates themselves were an outstanding work of architecture. High jagged towers with an arched passage were decorated with mosaics of multi-colored tiled slabs. The magnificent friezes depicted a procession of fantastic lions and griffins - the guardians of the city. There were 53 temples in Babylon, the most majestic of which was the temple of the patron god of the city Marduk. came under the name of the Tower of Babel.
Babylon. Reconstruction
The Greeks considered the famous "Hanging Gardens" of Queen Semiramis to be one of the wonders of the world. In architectural terms, they were a pyramid, consisting of 4 tiers-platforms. They were supported by columns up to 25 meters high. To prevent seepage of irrigation water, the surface of each platform was first covered with a layer of reeds mixed with asphalt, then with two layers of bricks, with lead slabs laid on top of everything. Fertile land lay on them with a thick carpet, where seeds of various herbs, flowers, shrubs and trees were planted. The pyramid looked like an ever-blooming green hill. Pipes were placed in the cavity of one of the columns, through which water from the Euphrates was constantly supplied by pumps to the upper tier of gardens, from where it, flowing down in streams and small waterfalls, irrigated the plants of the lower tiers.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The culture of Mesopotamia, one of the oldest cultures on earth, amazes everyone who gets acquainted with it with its originality. The original writing system, the high level of development of law, the epic tradition of Mesopotamia had a significant impact on the subsequent development of world culture.
Review questions:
1. What are the architectural features of Ancient Mesopotamia? Tell us about the most important achievements of temple and urban architecture?
2. Identify the leading themes of Mesopotamian visual arts. What are the circumstances and reasons for them?
3. What are the outstanding achievements of the culture of the Nars of Ancient Asia?
Art of the countries of Mesopotamia. Sumer. Assyria. Babylon. Persia
Grade 2
Presentation prepared
Fine arts teacher
MBU TO DSHI a. Takhtamukay
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.
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Description of the presentation on individual slides:
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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 through community-irrigated 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 (6th century BC) The powerful rectangular volume of 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 Rus'.
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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?
On a modern map, this is the territory of Iraq. The territory of Mesopotamia, open and accessible from all sides, was at the crossroads and was the arena of the struggle of many tribes, peoples and states. These states - Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria, Urartu, etc., either rose, then fell into decline, or even completely disappeared. The peoples who inhabited this vast region were among the first to invent the wheel, coins and writing, and created wonderful works of art.
Cuneiform The writing system of the Near East region is associated with the so-called cuneiform, which gradually developed from pictorial writing. Cuneiform was not an alphabet, that is, a sound letter, but contained ideograms that denoted either whole words, or vowels, or syllables. The complex Sumerian texts resembled puzzles and were difficult to read. In total, Sumerian cuneiform, developed further by the Akkadians, had about 600 characters. Cuneiform texts on clay tablets: educational, cult, state - became the eternal monuments of this culture.
Thanks to the "clay books", scientists managed to draw up a brief periodization scheme for the history of Ancient Mesopotamia. IV millennium BC - the time of the collapse of the primitive communal system. III millennium BC - the formation of the Sumero-Akkadian kingdom. XXVII-XXV centuries BC. - the rise of the Sumerian cities - states. XXIV-XXIII centuries BC. - power passes to the Semitic city of Mesopotamia - Akkad. XXIII-XXI centuries BC. new strengthening of the Sumerian cities of Ur and Agasha. II millennium BC - Rise of Babylon. XIX-XII centuries BC. Unification of Mesopotamia under Babylon. I millennium BC: IX-VII centuries BC. - strengthening the power of Assyria, who defeated Babylon. 7th-6th centuries BC. - a new rise of Babylon, the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. 536 BC - The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus - the king of Iran. IV-II centuries. BC. - Domination of the Greco-Macedonian conquerors in Mesopotamia.
Art of Sumer and Akkad. The Sumerians and Akkadians are two ancient peoples who created a unique historical and cultural image of Mesopotamia IV-III millennium BC. 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 city was a separate state with its own ruler and army. Very few architectural monuments of the Sumerian era have survived. Beautiful examples of Sumerian sculpture have survived to our time.
Statue of the dignitary Ebih-Il from Mari. Middle of III millennium BC The most common type of sculpture was the adorant (from the Latin "adore" - "worship"), which was a statue of a praying person - a figure of a person standing with arms folded on his chest, which was presented to the temple. The huge eyes of the adorants were especially carefully executed; they were often inlaid. The main feature of Sumerian sculpture is the convention of the image.
Items found at the Temple of Til Barsib and held at the Iraqi Museum and the University of Chicago emphasize volumes inscribed in cylinders and triangles, such as skirts that are flat cones, or triangle-like torsos with forearms also having a conical shape. Even the details of the head (nose, mouth, ears and hair) are reduced to triangular shapes.
"Standard" from the "royal" tomb in Ur. Fragment. Around 2600 BC. A mosaic of shells and carnelian forms a colorful ornament. The plate is divided into tiers, which depict scenes of "war and peace". Samples of mosaic art were found in the tombs of Ur - two rectangular wooden plates, reinforced in the form of a steep gable roof, the so-called "standard" from Ur.
"Standard" from the "royal" tomb in Ur. "Standard of Ur" consists of two inclined panels connected by rails. Its purpose is unknown. There is an assumption that this item was worn on a pole (as a standard), hence its name. According to another theory, the "Standart of Ur" was part of a musical instrument. On one panel of the standard are depicted scenes of civilian life, on the other - military operations.
"Standard" from the "royal" tomb in Ur. The War Panel is one of the earliest depictions of the Sumerian army. War chariots, drawn by four onagers each, pave the way, trampling on the bodies of enemies; cloaked foot soldiers armed with spears; enemies are killed with axes, captives are led naked to the king, who also holds a spear in his hands. The "panel of the world" depicts a ritual feast. Processions bring animals, fish and other food to the feast. Seated figures, dressed in fringed skirts, drink wine to the accompaniment of a musician playing the lyre. Such scenes are very typical for cylinder seals of that time.
Ziggurat at Ur During the Akkadian period, a new form of ziggurat temple appears. A ziggurat is a stepped pyramid, on top of which there was a small sanctuary. The lower tiers of the ziggurat, as a rule, were painted black, the middle ones red, and the upper ones white. The shape of the ziggurat obviously symbolizes the stairway to Heaven. During the III Dynasty, the first ziggurat of colossal dimensions was built in Ur, consisting of three tiers (with a base of 56 x 52 m and a height of 21 m). Rising above a rectangular foundation, it was directed to all four cardinal points.
The ziggurat at Ur Only two of its three terraces remain today. The platform walls are tilted. From the base of this structure, at a sufficient distance from the walls, a monumental staircase begins with two side branches at the level of the first terrace. At the top of the platforms was a temple dedicated to the moon god Sin. The staircase reached the very top of the temple, connecting the floors to each other. This monumental staircase responded to the desire for the gods to take an active part in worldly life.
Harp in the form of a bull's head from Ur. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia have achieved amazing skill in the manufacture of household items. Many similar objects were found at the royal burial in Ur. These are the “royal tombs”, where items made of precious metals and stones, weapons, animal figurines, and a harp were found. The inlaid bull's head, which adorns the soundboard of the harp, is beautifully executed.
The lyre was found in one of the royal tombs of Ur. The lyre was made of wood, which had decayed in places from time to time and was replaced by plastic. The front panel of the instrument was decorated with lapis lazuli, shells and red limestone. The resonance chamber of the lyre was decorated with a golden bull mask, which was also partially restored (horns). The beard, wool and eyes of the bull are original, made of lapis lazuli. A similar lyre is depicted on the World Panel of the Standard of Ur.
Cylindrical seal from Uruk. A special place in the Sumerian pictorial heritage belongs to glyptics - carving on precious or semi-precious stone. Many Sumerian carved seals in the form of a cylinder have survived to our time. The seals were rolled over a clay surface and received an impression - a miniature relief with a large number of characters and a clear, carefully built composition. For the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, the seal was not just a sign of property, but an object with magical powers. The seals were kept as talismans, given to temples, and placed in burial places.
In Sumerian engravings, the most frequent motifs were ritual feasts with figures sitting down to eat and drink. Other motifs were the legendary heroes Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu fighting monsters, as well as anthropomorphic figures of a bull-man. Over time, this style gave way to a continuous frieze depicting fighting animals, plants or flowers.
Statue of Gudea, ruler of Lagash. After the death of King Naramsin, the fallen kingdom of Sumer and Akkad was captured by the nomadic tribes of the Gutians. But some cities in the south of Sumer managed to maintain their independence, including Lagash. Gudea, the ruler of Lagash, became famous for the construction and restoration of temples. His statue is an outstanding work of Sumero-Akkadian sculpture.
Victory stele of King Naramsin. A new type of memorial relief. Stone slabs of different sizes, with a rounded top and images with historical and religious themes. The relief of the stele of the king of Akkad Naramsin tells about his victorious campaign against the mountain tribe of the Lullubeys. The master managed to convey space and movement, the volume of figures and show not only warriors, but also a mountain landscape. The relief shows the signs of the sun and the moon, symbolizing the deities - the patrons of royal power.
"Head of Sargon the Great" from Nineveh. During the Akkadian period, there is a change of orientation in art, as interest is concentrated more on the exaltation of the monarchy than on the manifestation of reverence for the gods. Nevertheless, the Sumerian traditions survived. The bronze head from Nineveh embodies the new achievements of Akkadian goldsmiths.
"Head of Sargon the Great" from Nineveh. The monument depicts a monarch with characteristic Semitic features (a long curly beard and hair gathered in a bun). This is a real portrait, in which Sumerian geometric forms are rejected and facial features are carefully depicted: an aquiline nose, beautifully defined lips and eyes inserted into orbits. The beard is also carefully chiselled in each of its short and long curls, as is the weave of the hair.
Fragment of the scenery of the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh Illustrates the military campaign of the Assyrians against Elam, which ended with the capture and sack of Susa. In the lower part of the fragment, on a triumphal chariot under an umbrella stands the powerful king Ashurbanipal (ruled in BC). Traditionally, the figure of the king is larger than all other characters.
Assyrian Art The lion taming motif was part of a complex architectural and decorative system. It symbolized divine and royal power; the power emanating from the image protected the palace and extended the reign of the monarch. The colossal sculpture depicts a man strangling a lion. The hero (or spirit) is depicted from the front, which is a rarity in Assyrian art and is found only in the depiction of creatures with magical powers. In his right hand, the hero holds a royal ceremonial weapon with a curved blade. He wears a short tunic and over it a fringed shawl that hides one leg and leaves the other exposed. The magical effect of the image is that the hero looks directly into the eyes of the viewer. The hero's eyes, once brightly colored, were supposed to hypnotize the viewer
Statue of a fantastic winged bull - shedu Winged bulls with human heads were guardian geniuses, who were called shedu. Sheda was installed on the sides of the city gates or passages to the palace. Shedu were symbols that combined the properties of a person, animal and bird and, therefore, were a powerful means of protection from enemies.
Relief "Wounded Lioness" This small panel was part of an extensive composition depicting the royal hunt for lions. The realism with which the artist depicted the wounded animal is striking. From the mouth of a lion pierced by a royal arrow, blood gushing. The veins were clearly visible on the muzzle of the beast. At first glance, it seems that the artist sympathizes with the dying beast.
Art of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. Gate of the Goddess Ishtar The ruins of the gate of the goddess Ishtar have survived to this day; these gates had a special meaning for the Babylonians; At the end of XIX beginning of XX centuries. German archaeologists dug up a large number of fragments of the city wall, using which they managed to completely restore the historical appearance of the Ishtar Gate, which was reconstructed (life-size) and is now on display in the Berlin State Museums.
Art of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. Gate of the Goddess Ishtar The Ishtar Gate is a huge arch, on four sides of which there are high massive jagged towers. The entire structure is covered with glazed bricks with relief images of the sacred animals of the god Marduk the bull and the fantastic creature sirrush. This last character (also called the Babylonian dragon) combines the features of four representatives of the fauna: an eagle, a snake, an unidentified quadruped and a scorpion.
A lion. Tiled cladding of the Procession Road from Babylon. Thanks to the gentle and refined color scheme (yellow figures on a blue background), the monument looked light and festive. Strictly maintained intervals between animals tuned the viewer to the rhythm of the solemn procession. Gate of all peoples in Persepolis BC. The original element of Achaemenid art is the column, which was widely used in all types of buildings. Initially, the columns were made of wood, and then covered with plaster and painted.
Palace in Persepolis Subsequently, in Persepolis, a stone column with a grooved trunk was used. The most original part of the Achaemenid column is the capital; the carved bodies of two animals, usually bulls, dragons or bull-men, protrude halfway from it.
Art of the Achaemenid Empire. The love for everything grandiose and magnificent, characteristic of Achaemenid architecture, is absent in the funerary structures, which were erected with the utmost modesty. In Pasargadae, the tomb of Cyrus II has been preserved, a strict structure eleven meters high, which vaguely resembles a Mesopotamian ziggurat. The tomb looks like a simple stone dwelling with a gable roof, set on a platform consisting of seven steps. There was no decoration on the walls of the tomb, only a symbol of the supreme god Ahura Mazda was placed above the entrance, a large complex rosette (a flower-shaped ornament) with gold and bronze inserts.
Sphinx relief of the palace in Persepolis The sphinx depicted on the relief was a deity guarding the supreme Persian god Ahura Mazda, whom Darius I “erected to the rank” of the royal god. About the divine essence of the sphinx says its headdress, decorated with horns.
