HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 01

MODULE 3. ANCIENT NEAR EAST

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization

Civilization - is usually associated with the cultural practices of cities and urban living,
the presence of writing and written law.

INFLUENCES
1. GEOGRAPHICAL
Started as villages on the flat land between Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Tigris and Euphrates

Greek
❏ Mesos - Middle
❏ Potamos - River

Mesopotamia
Land between two rivers

Ruled by:
❏ Sumerians
❏ Akkadian
❏ Babylon
❏ Assyria
❏ Persia

Each city-state surrounded by a wall and dominated by a large temple.

Unlike Egypt, Mesopotamia lacks natural defensive boundaries.

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2. GEOLOGICAL

a. Mesopotamia
❏ Stone and Timber
suitable for buildings were rare or unobtainable except by importation.
❏ Clay
abundance of clay which compressed in mould and either dried in the sun or kiln-fired,
provided bricks for every structure.
Chopped straw was mixed with the sun-dried bricks.

3. CLIMATE
Subject to extremes of temperature between winter and summer.

The prevalence of heat or cold being determined principally by altitude. In much of the
highland zone, winter is longer than summer.

4. SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL

Babylonians have the highest degree of civilization among the three.

Daily Life
a. Start of Sumerian Civilization
❏ People live in small villages
❏ Most of them hunted and gathered
❏ There wasn’t a lot of variety in jobs

b. Growth of Large Cities

There were all sorts of jobs and activities
❏ Priest
❏ Scribe
❏ Merchant
❏ Craftsman
❏ Soldier
❏ Civil Servant
❏ Laborer

Different Classes of People

a. Upper Class
King and His Family
b. Near the Upper Class
Priests
High Level Administrators and Scribes
c. Middle Class
Craftsman
Merchants
Civil Servants

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d. Lower Class
Laborers
Farmers
e. Bottom
Slaves
Slaves were owned by the king or bought and sold among the upper class. Slaves were
usually people who were captured in battle.

Entertainment
As the cities of Mesopotamia grew wealthy, there were more resources and free time for people
to enjoy entertainment.
a. Music at Festivals
Drums
Lyres
Flutes
Harps
b. Sports
Boxing
Wrestling
Board Games
Games of Chance using Dice
c. Art and Poetry

Clothing
Made from sheepskin or wool.
a. Men
Kilt-like Skirts
Long Hair and Breads
a. Women
Longer Dresses
Braided their Long Hair

Artisans and Craftsmen

Artisans played an important role in the culture of the Mesopotamian people. They made
everyday useful items like dishes, pots, clothing, baskets, boats, and weapons. They also
created works of art meant to glorify the gods and the king.
a. Potters
Most common material for Mesopotamian artists was clay.
Clay was used for:
❏ Pottery
❏ Monumental Buildings
❏ Tablets

b. Jewelers
Fine jewelry was status symbol in Ancient Mesopotamia.

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c. Metalsmiths
Around 3000 BC the metal workers of Mesopotamia learned how to make bronze by mixing tin
and copper. They would melt the metal at very high temperatures and then poor it into mould
to make all sorts of items including tools, weapons, and sculptures.

d. Carpenters
The most important items were made with imported wood such as cedar wood from Lebanon.
❏ They built palaces for the Kings using cedar.
❏ They also constructed chariots for war and ships to travel on the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers.

e. Stone Masons
Some of the best surviving work of Mesopotamian art and craftsmanship was carved by
stonemasons.

Facts about Mesopotamian Artisans and Arts

❏ Sumerian sculptures of men usually had long beards and wide open eyes.
❏ The Ancient Greeks were influenced by Assyrian art. One example is the Assyrian winged
genie which took the form of winged beasts such as the Griffin and the Chimera in Greek
art.
❏ In the wealthier cities, even the gates to the city became works of art. One example
of this is the Ishtar Gate of Babylon built by King Nebuchadnezzar II. It is covered
with colorful glazed bricks showing designs and pictures of animals.
❏ Pottery and sculptures were often painted.
❏ A lot of Sumerian jewelry was recovered from the Royal Tombs of Ur.
❏ Sumerian artisans also learned how to make glass about 3500 BC.

5. RELIGION AND GOD

The Ancient Sumerians worshipped many different gods and goddesses. They thought that the
gods influenced much of what happened to them in their lives. Babylonian and Assyrian religion
was heavily influenced by the Sumerians.

A God for Each City

Each city had its own god. At the center of the city was a large temple or ziggurat built
to that god. This was where the priests would live and make sacrifices. Some of the ziggurats
were huge and reached great heights. They looked like step pyramids with a flat top.

A. SUMERIAN GODS
Some of the Sumerian gods and goddesses included:

a. Anu
Sometimes called An, Anu was the god of the heavens and king of the gods. The city
associated with Anu was Uruk.

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b. Enlil
The god of air, wind, and storms, Enlil held the Tablets of Destiny. These tablets gave
him control over the fate of man and made him very powerful. He wore a crown with horns.
He was associated with the city of Nippur.
c. Enki
Enki was the shaper of the world as well as god of wisdom, intellect, and magic. He
invented the plough and was responsible for making plants grow. He is drawn holding
Zu, the storm bird. He was god of the city of Eridu.
d. Utu
The god of the sun as well as justice and the law, Utu is drawn holding a saw like instrument.
Mythology says that Utu travels across the world each day in a chariot.
e. Inanna
Inanna was the goddess of love and war. Her symbol is a star with eight points. Her
primary city was Uruk, but she was also prominent in the city of Babylon.
f. Nanna
Nanna was also called Sin. He was god of the moon. His home was the city of Ur.

B. BABYLONIAN GODS
a. Marduk
Marduk was the primary god of the Babylonians and had Babylon as his main city. He was
considered the supreme deity over all the other gods. He had as many as 50 different
titles. He was sometimes pictured with his pet dragon.
b. Nergal
God of the underworld, Nergal was an evil god who brought war and famine on the people.
His city was Kuthu.
c. Tiamat
Goddess of the sea, Tiamat is drawn as a huge dragon. Marduk defeated her in battle.
d. Shamash
The Babylonian version of Utu
e. Ea
Same as Enki

C. ASSYRIAN GODS
a. Ashur(Assur)
The primary god of the Assyrians. He was also the god of war and married to the goddess
Ishtar. His symbols are a winged disc and the bow and arrow.
b. Ishtar
Similar to Inanna, she was goddess of love and war.
c. Shamash
The Assyrian version of Utu
d. Elil
The Assyrian version of Enlil.
e. Ea
Same as Enki

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D. PERSIAN RELIGION
The main religion of the Persians was called Zoroastrianism. It was based on the teachings
of the prophet Zoroaster. In this religion there was only one god named Ahura Mazda. Ahura
Mazda created the world. He was all good and constantly fought against evil. The Persians
believed that good thoughts and actions would help to fight the evil.

Facts About Mesopotamian Religion

❏ The Sumerian gods often had human characteristics in that they were sometimes good and
sometimes bad.
❏ They also believed in genies, demons, and evil spirits.
❏ The god Shamash was served by scorpion people, a combination of man and scorpion.
❏ They believed that the Earth floated on an ocean of fresh water.
❏ Enlil was said to be so powerful that the other gods could not even look at him.
❏ Greek mythology likely borrowed many ideas from the Mesopotamian gods.

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CIVILIZATIONS
Ancient Mesopotamia Timeline
a. Sumer
b. Akkadians
c. Babylonian Empire
d. Assyrian Empire
e. Neo-Babylonian Period
f. Neo-Assyrians
g. Persian Empire

A. THE SUMER
The Sumerians are thought to have formed the first human civilization in world history.
They lived in southern Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle
East.

Sumer City-States
There were many city-states throughout Sumer.
Some of the Most Powerful City-States:
❏ Eridu
❏ Bad-tibura
❏ Shuruppak
❏ Uruk
❏ Sippar
❏ Ur

Eridu is thought to be the first major cities formed and one of the oldest cities in the
world.

Sumerian Rules and Government

❏ Each city-state had its own ruler.
❏ Various Titles:
1. Lugal
2. En
3. Ensi
❏ The ruler was like a king or governor.
❏ Most Famous King - Gilgamesh of Uruk
❏ The invention of government is often credited to the Sumerians.

Important Inventions and Technology

a. They invented the:
❏ First Form of Writing
❏ Number System
❏ First Wheeled Vehicles
❏ Sun-Dried Bricks
❏ Irrigation for Farming

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b. Interest in Science
❏ Astronomy

B. THE AKKADIAN EMPIRE

The Akkadians lived in northern Mesopotamia while the Sumerians lived in the south.
They had a similar government and culture as the Sumerians, but spoke a different language.

Sargon the Great

a. Around 2300 BC Sargon the Great rose to power.
b. He established his own city named Akkad.
c. When the powerful Sumerian city of Uruk attacked his city, he fought back and eventually
conquered Uruk.
d. He then went on to conquer all of the Sumerian city-states and united northern and southern
Mesopotamia under a single ruler.

The Empire Expands

a. Over the next two hundred years, the Akkadian Empire continued to expand.
b. They attacked and conquered the Elamites to the east. They moved south to Oman. They
even went as far west as the Mediterranean Sea and Syria

Naram-Sin
a. One of the great kings of Akkad.
b. He was the grandson of Sargon the Great.
c. Ruled for over 50 years. He crushed revolts and expanded the empire.
d. His reign is considered the peak of the Akkadian Empire.

Facts About the Akkadians

❏ Many people in Mesopotamia at the time spoke two languages, Akkadian and Sumerian.
❏ The Sumerians believed that the Akkadian Empire collapsed because of a curse placed
on them when Naram-Sin conquered the city of Nippur and destroyed the temple.
❏ Sargon installed the first dynasty. He came up with the idea that a man's sons should
inherit his kingdom.

C. BABYLONIAN EMPIRE
After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, two new empires rose to power. They were the Babylonians
in the south and the Assyrians to the north. The Babylonians were the first to form an empire
that would encompass all of Mesopotamia.

Rise of the Babylonians and King Hammurabi

a. The city began its rise to power in 1792 BC when King Hammurabi took the throne.
b. He was a powerful and capable leader who wanted to rule more than just the city of Babylon.

The City of Babylon

a. Under Hammurabi's rule, the city of Babylon became the most powerful city in the world.

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b. Located on the banks of the Euphrates River, the city was a major trade hub bringing
together new ideas and products.
c. Babylon also became the largest city in the world at the time with as many as 200,000
people living there at its peak.
d. At the center of the city was a large temple called a ziggurat. This temple looked
something like a pyramid with a flat top and archeologist think that it was 300 feet
tall.
e. The city was also famous for its gardens, palaces, towers, and artwork.

Hmmurabi’s Code
King Hammurabi established firm laws called Hammurabi's Code. This was the first time in
history that the law was written down. It was recorded on clay tablets and tall pillars
of stones called steles.

Fall of Babylon
a. After Hammurabi died, his sons took over. However, they were not strong leaders and
soon Babylon grew weak.
b. In 1595 the Kassites conquered Babylon. They would rule for 400 years.
c. Later, the Assyrians would take over. It wasn't until 612 BC that Babylonia once again
rose to power as the ruler of the empire over Mesopotamia. This second Babylonian Empire
is called the neo-Babylonian Empire.

Neo-Babylonian Empire
a. Around 616 BC King Nabopolassar took advantage of the fall of the Assyrian Empire to
bring the seat of the empire back to Babylon.
b. It was his son Nebuchadnezzar II who led Babylon back to its former glory.

Nebuchadnezzar II
a. Nebuchadnezzar II ruled for 43 years.
b. He was a great military leader and expanded the empire to include much of the Middle
East all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
c. This included the conquering of the Hebrews and taking them into slavery for 70 years
as told in the Bible.
d. Under Nebuchadnezzar's rule, the city of Babylon and its temples were restored. It also
became the cultural center of the world, just like during Hammurabi's rule.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

a. Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
b. This was a large series of terraces that rose to around 75 feet high.
c. They were covered with all sorts of trees, flowers, and plants.
d. The gardens is considered one of the great wonders of the ancient world.

Fall of Neo-Babylonian
After Nebuchadnezzar II died, the empire began to fall apart once again. In 529 BC, the
Persians conquered Babylon and made it part of the Persian Empire.

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Facts About the Babylonians

❏ Nebuchadnezzar had a moat built around the city of Babylon for defense.
❏ All that remains of the city of Babylon is a mound of broken mud buildings about 55
miles south of Baghdad, Iraq
❏ Alexander the Great captured Babylon as part of his conquests. He was staying in the
city when he got sick and died.
❏ The city has been rebuilt or reconstructed in Iraq. The actual ruins and artifacts are
likely buried under the reconstruction.

D. ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
The Assyrians were one of the major peoples to live in Mesopotamia during ancient times.
They lived in northern Mesopotamia near the start of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The
Assyrian Empire rose and fell several times throughout history.

First Rise
a. The Assyrians first rose to power when the Akkadian Empire fell.
b. The Babylonians had control of southern Mesopotamia and the Assyrians had the north.
c. One of their strongest leaders during this time was King Shamshi-Adad.
d. Under Shamshi-Adad the empire expanded to control much of the north and the Assyrians
grew wealthy.
e. However, after Shamshi-Adad's death in 1781 BC, the Assyrians grew weak and soon fell
under control of the Babylonian Empire.

Second Rise
a. The Assyrians once again rose to power from 1360 BC to 1074 BC.
b. This time they conquered all of Mesopotamia and expanded the empire to include much
of the Middle East including Egypt, Babylonia, Israel, and Cyprus.
c. They reached their peak under the rule of King Tiglath-Pileser I.

Neo-Assyrian Empire
a. The final, and perhaps strongest, of the Assyrian Empires ruled from 744 BC to 612 BC.
b. During this time Assyria had a string of powerful and capable rulers such as
Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, and Ashurbanipal.
c. These leaders built the empire into one of the most powerful empires in the world.
d. They conquered much of the Middle East and Egypt.
e. Once again, it was the Babylonians who brought down the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC.

Great Warriors
a. The Assyrians were perhaps most famous for their fearsome army.
b. They were a warrior society where fighting was a part of life. It was how they survived.
c. They were known throughout the land as cruel and ruthless warriors.
d. Two things that made the Assyrians great warriors were their deadly chariots and their
iron weapons.
e. They made iron weapons that were stronger than the copper or tin weapons of some of
their enemies.

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f. They were also skilled with their chariots which could strike fear in the hearts of
their enemies.

The Library at Nineveh

a. The last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, constructed a great library at the city
of Nineveh.
b. Ashurbanipal collected clay tablets from all over Mesopotamia. These included the
stories of Gilgamesh, the Code of Hammurabi, and more.
c. Much of our knowledge of the Ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia comes from the remains
of this library.
d. According to the British Museum in London, just over 30,000 tablets have been recovered.
These tablets make up around 10,000 different texts.

Facts About the Assyrian Empire

❏ The great cities of the Assyrian Empire included Ashur, Nimrud, and Nineveh. Ashur was
the capital of the original empire and also their main god.
❏ Tiglath-Pileser III built roads throughout the empire to enable his armies and messengers
to travel quickly.
❏ The Assyrians were experts at siege warfare. They used battering rams, siege towers,
and other tactics such as diverting water supplies in order to take a city.
❏ Their cities were strong and impressive. They had huge walls built to withstand a siege,
many canals and aqueducts for water, and extravagant palaces for their kings.

E. PERSIAN EMPIRE
The first Persian Empire took control of the Middle East after the fall of the Babylonian
Empire. It is also called the Achaemenid Empire.

Cyrus the Great

a. The empire was founded by Cyrus the Great.
b. Cyrus first conquered the Median Empire in 550 BC and then went on to conquer the Lydians
and the Babylonians.
c. Under later kings, the empire would grow to where it ruled Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel,
and Turkey. Its borders would eventually stretch over 3,000 miles from east to west
making it the largest empire on Earth at the time.

Different Cultures
a. Under Cyrus the Great, the Persians allowed the peoples they conquered to continue their
lives and cultures.
b. They could keep their customs and religion as long as they paid their taxes and obeyed
the Persian rulers.
c. This was different from how earlier conquerors such as the Assyrians had ruled.

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Government
a. In order to maintain control of the large empire, each area had a ruler called a satrap.
b. The satrap was like a governor of the area. He enforced the king's laws and taxes. There
were around 20 to 30 satraps in the empire.
c. The empire was connected by many roads and a postal system. The most famous road was
the Royal Road built by King Darius the Great. This road stretched around 1,700 miles
all the way from Sardis in Turkey to Suza in Elam.

Religion
Persians followed the teaching of the prophet Zoroaster. This religion was called
Zoroastrianism and believed in one main god called Ahura Mazda.

Fighting the Greeks

a. Under King Darius the Persians wanted to conquer the Greeks who he felt were causing
rebellions within his empire.
b. In 490 BC Darius attacked Greece. He captured some Greek city-states, but when he
attempted to take the city of Athens, he was soundly defeated by the Athenians at the
Battle of Marathon.
c. In 480 BC Darius' son, Xerxes I, attempted to finish what his father started and conquer
all of Greece. He amassed a great army of hundreds of thousands of warriors. This was
one of the largest armies assembled during ancient times. He initially won the Battle
of Thermopylae against a much smaller army from Sparta. However, the Greek fleet defeated
his navy at the Battle of Salamis and he was eventually forced to retreat.

Fall of the Persian Empire

The Persian Empire was conquered by the Greeks led by Alexander the Great. Starting in the
year 334 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire from Egypt all the way to
the borders of India.

Facts About the Persian Empire

❏ The name "Persian" comes from the people's original tribal name Parsua. This was also
the name they gave the land they originally settled which was bounded by the Tigris
River to the west and the Persian Gulf to the south.
❏ The longest reigning Persian King was Artaxerxes II who ruled 45 years from 404-358
BC. His reign was a time of peace and prosperity for the empire.
❏ The Persian culture held the truth in high esteem. Telling a lie was one of the most
disgraceful things a person could do.
❏ The capital of the empire was the great city of Persepolis. This name is Greek for "Persian
City".
❏ After Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, he allowed the Jewish people to return to Israel
and to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem.

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GREAT CITIES OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

A. URUK
Uruk was one of the first major cities in the history of the world. It reached its peak
around 2900 BC when it had an estimated population of nearly 80,000 people making it the
largest city in the world.

Uruk was located in southern Mesopotamia along the banks of the Euphrates River. It was
the center of the Sumerian civilization. It was able to grow so large because of advanced
farming and irrigation techniques. The abundance of food made the city rich.

The most famous king of Uruk was Gilgamesh. He was later turned into a mythical hero through
the tales of his exploits and superhuman strength in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

B. AKKAD
The city of Akkad was the center of the world's first empire, the Akkadian Empire. The people
of Akkad, under the leadership of Sargon the Great, conquered many of the Sumerian city-states
and took control of Mesopotamia. The Akkadian language took the place of Sumerian and
continued to be the primary language of the region into the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires.

Archeologists still haven't found the city of Akkad and are unsure where it is located.
It was likely located in southern Mesopotamia just east of the Tigris River.

C. ASSUR
Located in northern Mesopotamia on the western bank of the river Tigris, Assur became the
first capital city of the Assyrian Empire. Although other cities would later take over as
capital of the Assyrian Empire, Assur was always recognized as the religious center of the
empire.

Assur was named after the primary god of the Assyrians. The city and the god are sometimes
called Ashur.

D. BABYLON
Babylon was the capital city and center of the Babylonian Empire. During its peak, Babylon
was the largest city in the world with populations exceeding 200,000 people. It was home
to kings such as Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar as well as the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon
which are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Babylon is located in central Mesopotamia along the banks of the Euphrates River. Today
the ruins of the city can be found around 50 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. Babylon is mentioned
several times in the Bible.

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E. NIMRUD
Nimrud became the capital city of the Assyrian Empire in the 13th Century BC. Although the
city later fell into ruins, the great King Ashurnasirpal II rebuilt the city and made it
the Assyrian capital once again in 880 BC.

Nimrud was home to some of the most magnificent palaces built in ancient history. The palace
of Shalmaneser III covered over 12 acres and had more than 200 rooms.

F. NINEVEH
The greatest city of the Assyrian Empire was Nineveh. It became the largest city in the
world at the height of the Assyrian Empire. The city was largely built under the rule of
King Sennacherib around 700 BC. The great walls of Nineveh enclosed an area of 7 square
kilometers and had 15 gates. There were 18 canals that brought water to different areas
of the city.

Nineveh was home to King Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire. Under
his rule a great library was built that housed over 20,000 clay tablets. Much of what we
know about Mesopotamia is from these tablets.

Nineveh is also famous from the story of Jonah and the Whale from the Bible. In the story,
God tells Jonah to travel to Nineveh, but Jonah refuses. Jonah then tries to run from God,
but is swallowed by a great fish and spit out on the shore. Jonah then travels to Nineveh
in obedience to God.

G. PERSEPOLIS
Persepolis was the capital of the Persian Empire. The name is actually Greek for "Persian
City". The city was originally built by Cyrus the Great around 515 BC. Other kings such
as Darius I and Xerxes completed the palace and other buildings. The city was located in
southeast Iran.

Much of the city is currently being reconstructed by archeologists. Some of the structures
include the Gate of Nations, the Throne Hall, and the Apadana Palace.

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FAMOUS RULERS OF MESOPOTAMIA

A. SUMERIANS
Gilgamesh
2650 BC
Gilgamesh was the fifth king of the Sumerian city of Uruk. He became known as a demigod
with superhuman strength in later legends and tales such as the Epic of Gilgamesh.

B. AKKADIAN EMPIRE
Sargon the Great
2334 - 2279 BC
Sargon the Great, or Sargon of Akkad, founded the world's first empire, the Akkadian
Empire. He conquered many of the Sumerian city-states and united them under one rule.

Naram-Sin
2254 - 2218 BC
The Akkadian Empire reached its peak under the kingship of Naram-Sin. He was the first
Mesopotamian ruler to claim to be a god. He was also the grandson of Sargon.

C. BABYLONIAN EMPIRE
Hammurabi
1792 - 1752 BC
Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon and founded the first Babylonian Empire. He is most
famous for establishing a written code of laws called the Hammurabi Code.

Nabopolassar
658 - 605 BC
Nabopolassar allied with the Medes to overthrow the Assyrian Empire and conquer the city
of Nineveh. He then established the second Babylonian Empire and ruled for twenty
years.

Nebuchadnezzar II
634 - 562 BC
Nebuchadnezzar II expanded the Babylonian Empire conquering Judah and Jerusalem. He also
built the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned several times in
the Bible as he sent the Jews into exile after conquering them.

D. ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Shamshi-Adad I
1813 -1791 BC
Shamshi-Adad conquered many surrounding city-states in northern Mesopotamia. He was an e
xcellent leader and organizer. He established the first Assyrian Empire.

Tiglath-Pileser III
745 - 727 BC

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Tiglath-Pileser III introduced many advances to the Assyrian Empire including military and
political systems. He established the world's first professional standing army and greatly
expanded the Assyrian Empire.

Sennacherib
705 - 681 BC
Sennacherib conquered the city of Babylon. He also rebuilt much of the Assyrian city of
Nineveh turning it into one of the great cities of ancient history.

Ashurbanipal
668 - 627 BC
Ashurbanipal was the last strong king of the Assyrian Empire. He built a massive library
in the capital city of Nineveh that contained over 30,000 clay tablets. He ruled Assyria
for 42 years, but the empire began to decline after he died.

E. PERSIAN EMPIRE
Cyrus the Great
580 - 530 BC
Cyrus rose to power and established the Persian Empire (also known as the Achaemenid Empire)
when he overthrew the Medes and conquered Babylonia. He believed in human rights and allowed
the nations he conquered to worship their own religion. He allowed the exiled Jews to return
home to Jerusalem.

Darius I
550 - 486 BC
Darius I ruled the Persian Empire at its peak. He divided the land into provinces that were
ruled by satraps. Darius invaded Greece in the First Persian War where his army was defeated
by the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon.

Xerxes I
519 - 465 BC
Xerxes I was the fourth king of Persia. He returned to Greece in the Second Persian War.
He defeated the Spartans at the famous Battle of Thermopylae and then took control of the
city of Athens. However, his navy was defeated at the Battle of Salamis and he retreated
back to Persia.

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SCIENCE, INVENTIONS, AND TECHNOLOGY

The civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia brought many important advances in the areas of science
and technology.

1. WRITING
Perhaps the most important advance made by the Mesopotamians was the invention of writing
by the Sumerians.
With the invention of writing came the first recorded laws called Hammurabi's Code as well
as the first major piece of literature called the Epic Tale of Gilgamesh.

Cuneiform - is the earliest known writing system and was originally developed to write
the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia

Interesting Facts About Sumerian Writing

❏ People signed items with personal seals made of stone, metal, or wood.
❏ Cuneiform writing was around for thousands of years until it was replaced by the
Phoenician alphabet near the end of the neo-Assyrian Empire.
❏ Hieroglyphics was invented in Ancient Egypt about the same time as cuneiform in
Mesopotamia, but scientists believe that cuneiform came first
❏ As far as archeologists can tell, the Sumerian language is not related to any other
language on Earth.
❏ Cuneiform refers to the way a language is written, not necessarily a particular language.
It was initially used in Mesopotamia to write Sumerian, but later was used for Akkadian
which the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians all spoke.

2. THE WHEEL
The Mesopotamians used a number system with the base 60 (like we use base 10).

They divided time up by 60s including a 60 second minute and a 60 minute hour, which we
still use today. They also divided up the circle into 360 degrees.

They had a wide knowledge of mathematics including:

❏ Addition
❏ Subtraction
❏ Multiplication
❏ Division
❏ Quadratic and Cubic Equations
❏ Fractions

This was important in keeping track of records as well as in some of their large building
projects.

The Mesopotamians had formulas for figuring out the circumference and area for different
geometric shapes like rectangles, circles, and triangles. Some evidence suggests that they

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even knew the Pythagorean Theorem long before Pythagoras wrote it down. They may have even
discovered the number for pi in figuring the circumference of a circle.

3. ASTRONOMY
The Mesopotamian astronomers were able to follow the movements of the stars, planets, and
the Moon. One major achievement was the ability to predict the movements of several planets.
This took logic, mathematics, and a scientific process.

By studying the phases of the Moon, the Mesopotamians created the first calendar. It had
12 lunar months and was the predecessor for both the Jewish and Greek calendars.

4. MEDICINE
The Babylonians made several advances in medicine. They used logic and recorded medical
history to be able to diagnose and treat illnesses with various creams and pills.

5. TECHNOLOGY
The Mesopotamians made many technological discoveries.

❏ they were the first to use the potter's wheel to make better pottery
❏ they used irrigation to get water to their crops
❏ they used bronze metal ( and later iron metal ) to make strong tools and weapons
❏ used looms to weave cloth from wool.

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ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN WRITING

Sumerians developed the first form of writing.

As Sumerian towns grew into cities, the people needed a way to keep track of business transactions,
ownership rights, and government records. Around 3300 BC the Sumerians began to use picture
symbols marked into clay tablets to keep their records.

Sumerian Writing by Unknown

Symbols were made with wedge shaped marks on clay tablets

1. Clay Tablets
Writing was inscribed on clay tablets.

Scribes would take a stylus, a stick made from a reed, and press the lines and symbols into
soft, moist clay. Once they were done, they would let the clay harden and they had a
permanent record.

2. Cuneiform
The initial writing of the Sumerians utilized simple pictures or pictograms. For example,
a drawing of a person's head, meant the word "head".

Over time, however, the writing of the Sumerians further developed to include sounds and
meanings. Scribes would use the stylus to make wedge shaped marks in the clay.

Cuneiform writing means ‘wedge-shaped’.

3. Translating
Translating Mesopotamian writing is difficult for archaeologists today. This is because
there were over 700 different symbols and the symbols' meaning and shapes could change between
different cities and regions. The symbols often changed over time as well. However, many
Sumerian tablets have been deciphered. This is how we know so much about Mesopotamian culture,
government, and history.

4. Literature
While most of the tablets discovered have been government and financial records, some of
the writings are literature. This literature includes mythology of the Mesopotamian gods,
tales of their heroes, poetry, and songs. Some of the writings include sayings of wisdom.
The most famous and epic of all the Mesopotamian literature is the story Gilgamesh.

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EPIC OF GILGAMESH

The most important and famous example of Sumerian literature is the Epic Tale of Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh was likely an actual Sumerian king who ruled over the city of Uruk, but the tale
tells the story of an epic hero along the lines of Hercules from Greek Mythology.

Who was the Author?

The story was first recorded by a Babylonian scribe around 2000 BC, but the tale itself
tells of Sumerian people and myths. Likely the story was created much earlier and the scribe
was just telling his version of it.

The Story
There are a few different versions and poems about Gilgamesh. Here is an overview of the
main plot from the stories:

The story begins telling about the strongest and most powerful man in the world, King Gilgamesh
of Uruk. Gilgamesh is part god, part human. He could defeat any enemy in battle and even
lift mountains.

After a while, Gilgamesh gets bored and starts to mistreat the people of Uruk. The gods
see this and decide that Gilgamesh needs a challenge. They send him a challenger in a wild
man named Enkidu. Enkidu and Gilgamesh battle, but neither can beat the other. Eventually
they stop fighting and realize that they respect each other. They become best friends.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu decide to go on an adventure together. They travel to the Cedar Forest
in hopes of doing battle with the fearsome monster Humbaba. At first they did not see Humbaba,
but when they started chopping down cedar trees, Humbaba appeared. Gilgamesh summoned the
great winds to trap Humbaba and then killed him. They then cut down a number of cedar trees
and brought the valuable logs back to Uruk.

Later in the story, the two heroes kill another monster, the Bull of Heaven. However, the
gods become angry and decide that one of them must die. They choose Enkidu and soon Enkidu
dies.

After Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh is very sad. He is also worried about dying someday himself
and decides to search for the secret to eternal life. He goes on a number of adventures.
He meets with Utnapishtim who had earlier saved the world from a great flood. Gilgamesh
eventually learns that no human can escape death.

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Interesting Facts About the Epic of Gilgamesh

❏ It was written in Akkadian, the language of the Babylonians at the time it was recorded.
❏ The story was first translated by archeologist George Smith in 1872.
❏ Many tablets telling the story of Gilgamesh have been recovered from the famous Assyrian
library in the ancient city of Nineveh.
❏ Gilgamesh's mother was the goddess Ninsun. He was said to have gotten his beauty from
the sun god Shamash and his courage from the storm god Adad.

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CODE OF HAMMURABI

The first great king of Babylon was King Hammurabi. He conquered all of Mesopotamia and
established the first Babylonian Empire. Hammurabi also established a set of laws that is
today called the Code of Hammurabi.

HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CODE OF HAMMURABI?

The Code of Hammurabi was written down on clay tablets and etched into stone.

It is one of the oldest recorded codes of laws in the world. One of the best surviving examples
of the code is written on the "diorite stele".

Diorite Stele
The diorite stele is a large stone shaped like a giant finger. It is about seven feet tall
and two feet wide. It contains around 4000 lines of text describing 282 different laws.
At the top, or "fingertip", of the stele is a carved picture of King Hammurabi being given
the laws from the Babylonian sun god Shamash.

WHAT MAKES THE CODE IMPORTANT?

The code itself tells archeologists a lot about the lives of the people of Babylon. It also
contains some important ideas like having people provide evidence of a crime, innocent until
proven guilty, and protection for the weak.

Facts about the Code of Hammurabi

❏ Shamash, who is featured at the top of the diorite stele, was the Babylonian god of
law, justice, and salvation.
❏ The diorite stele is called "diorite" because it is made from a type of black rock called
diorite.
❏ The diorite stele was originally found by archeologists in the ancient city of Susa.
Today it can be found in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
❏ The Code of Hammurabi is one of the oldest and longest deciphered writings in existence.
❏ The code was written using cuneiform script and the Akkadian language.

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ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
1. Besides massive, towered fortifications, the outstanding constructions were temple-
complexes or palaces, temples being typical of Babylonian Architecture and palaces of
Assyrian.
Babylonian - Temples
Assyrian - Palaces

2. Buildings
Were raised on mud-brick platforms, and the chief temples had sacred Ziggurat.

Ziggurat
Artificial mountains made up of tiered, rectangular stages which rose in number from
one to seven in the course of Mesopotamian History.

3. Apart from the fortifications and the ziggurat, building of all types were arranged round
large and small courts, the rooms narrow and thick-walled, carrying brick barrel vaults
and sometimes domes.

Barrel Vault. A vault having a semicircular cross section. Also called cradle vault,
tunnel vault, wagon vault.

4. Roof
Were usually flat outside, except were domes protruded.

5. In early or common place buildings, palm logs supported rushes and packed clay served for
coverings, or, for the best work, cedar and other fine timber was laboriously imported.

6. Burnt brick was used sparingly for facings or where special stress was expected.

7. Walls
Were whitewashed or, as with the developed Ziggurat, painted in color.

8. Architecture was arcuated, the true arch with radiating voussoirs having been known by the
third millennium BC.

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Voussoirs. Any of the wedge-shaped units in a masonry arch or vault, having side cuts
converging at one of the arch centers.

9. For want of stone, columns were not used, except in a few instances in Assyrian and
Neo-Babylonian work.

10. Towers or flat buttress strips were commonly vertically panelled and finished in stepped
battlements above and stone plinths below, with colossal winged bulls guarding the chief
portals.

11. Facing the polychrome glazed bricks, introduced by the Assyrians, was another mode of
decoration, especially favoured by the Neo-Babylonians in lieu of sculptured stone slabs,
since in Babylonia stone was scarcer than in Assyria.

12. The architecture of the Persians was columnar, and thus vastly different from the massive
arcuated architecture of the Mesopotamian people they conquered.

13. Flat timber roofs rather than vaults served for coverings, which allowed columns to be slender
and graceful, while with their help rooms could be large where necessary, and of square
proportions rather than elongated as the Mesopotamian brick vaults demanded.

14. Ceilings
Wooden brackets and beams carried by the column supported a covering of clay on a bedding
of reeds on logs or planks.

15. The use of double mud brick walls for stability, as at Persopolis may have allowed small
windows just below ceiling level without their appearing on the severe external facades.

16. Stone was plentiful on the upland sites, but used sparingly for such purposes as fire temples
and palace platforms, door and window surrounds, and for richly ornate columns and relief
sculpture, often with figures on a modest scale.

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THE ZIGGURAT
“Holy Mountains”
At the center of each major city in Mesopotamia was a large structure called a Ziggurat. The
ziggurat was built to honor the main god of the city. The tradition of building a ziggurat was
started by the Sumerians, but other civilizations of Mesopotamia such as the Akkadians, the
Babylonians, and the Assyrians also built ziggurats.

Concept of the Ziggurat:

a. Religious - recreation of the sacred mountain in the flat alluvial plain
b. Secular - to provide a permanent reminder to the populace of the political, social,
and economic pre-eminence of the temple.

Ziggurats looked like Step Pyramid

WHY DID THEY BUILD THEM?

The ziggurat was a temple to the main god of the city.
Each city in Mesopotamia had a primary god.

For example,
❏ Babylon - Murdock
❏ Eridu - Enki
❏ Nineveh - Ishtar

At the top of the Ziggurat was a shrine to god. The priests would perform sacrifices and
other rituals here.
They built them high because they wanted the shrine to be as close to the heavens as possible.

FACTS ABOUT ZIGGURATS

❏ The ziggurat at Babylon was named Etemenanki.
In Sumerian,
"Foundation of Heaven and Earth"
❏ The tall height of the ziggurat may have also been useful during the seasonal flooding.
❏ There were generally only a few ramps leading up to the top of the ziggurat. This made
the top easy to guard and helped keep the priest's rituals private, if they wanted.
❏ The early Egyptian pyramids were step pyramids similar to the ziggurat.

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A. EARLY MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHITECTURE

1. Eridu
Is the first significant example of the initial association of the Mesopotamian tradition
in architecture with that of Sumerian.

2. Warka
Uruk: The Biblical Erech
Was by far the largest of the Sumerian cities which eventually, in the Early Dynastic
Period (c. 2900- 2340 BC), had a perimeter of over 9 km ( 6 miles ).
About 1/3 of this great area was occupied by temples and other public buildings.

Two Major Areas of the City with Important Buildings:

a. Eanna Precincts - Mother Goddess
b. Anu Precincts - Sky God

3. White Temple

a. The best preserved in the Anu series

b. May be said to illustrate the origin of the Ziggurat, or temple-tower.
c. Dating to the late 4th millennium B.C.E. (the Late Uruk Period, or Uruk III) and dedicated
to the sky god Anu, this temple would have towered well above the flat plain of Uruk,and
been visible from a great distance—even over the defensive walls of the city.
d. The temple, originally whitewashed, had an end-to-end hall with span of 4.50 m., flanked
on both sides by a series of smaller rooms, three of which contained stairways leading
to the roof.

4. Ziggurat and Precinct of Ur

a. Was built for Su’en, the moon god.
b. Already very old, were extensively remodeled by Urnammu and his successors.
c. The complexed comprised the Ziggurat and its court, a secondary court attached to it,
and three great temples.
d. All of these stood on a great rectangular platform at the heart of an oval-shaped walled
city, itself about 6.10 m above the surrounding plain.
e. 62.00 m by 43.00 m at its base, and about 21.00 meter high, carried the usual temple
on its summit and had the normal orientation.
f. Trees were planted on the stages of the Ziggurat as the sacred mountain and required
regular watering.
g. The Ziggurat of Ur had a solid core of mud brick, covered with a skin of burnt brickwork
2.40 m thick, laid in bitumen and with layers of matting at intervals to improve cohesion.

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Mausoleum of the Kings of the Powerful Third Dynasty of Ur

a. Close to the Ziggurat Precinct of Ur stood a building with rooms corbel-vaulted in
kiln-fired brick and approached down long flights of steps. The floors had to be raised
hurriedly, to avoid the Euphrates flood water.
b. Although there is no proof that they were buried in the city.

5. Temple Complex, Ischali

Terrace type, without a ziggurat.
It was a rectangular in plan, with a large main terrace court and an upper one in which
the temple lay at right angles to the chief axis.

6. Temple Oval at Khafaje

Northeast of Baghdad
The layout was rectilinear, the corners oriented to the four cardinal points.

7. Tepe Gawra
Ancient Mesopotamian settlement east of the Tigris River near Nineveh and the modern city
of Mosul, northwestern Iraq.

8. Royal Cemetery at Ur
Displays at its best the engineering skills of Sumerian architects.
The stone used in the royal tombs, at a time when brickwork was more and more superseding
stone, was limestone, never dressed and only roughly split after quarrying.

9. The Ziggurat of Tchoga Zanbil Elam

Built by Untash-Gal

B. ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE
❏ Polychrome ornamental brickwork
❏ Palaces were much more numerous and important, emphasizing the central role of the
monarchy.
❏ Temples both with or without Ziggurat were built in Assyrian.
❏ The use of high plinths or dadoes of great stone slabs placed on edge and usually carved
with low relief sculpture appeared.

1. City of Ashur
Was the ancient religious and national center of the Assyrian state, always important
wherever the administrative capital might be.

2. City of Khorsabad
Contains the important buildings in Assyria
It was built by Sargon II and abandoned at his death.

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❏ Palace of Sargon
A complex of large and small courts, corridors and rooms, covering 23 acres.
Each buildings was raised upon a terrace, that of the palace of Sargon reaching to level
of the town walls, which the palace site bestrode, and was approached by broad ramps.

3. City of Nineveh
Was made the capital of Assyrian empire by Sargon’s son Sennacherib who spent the first
two years of his reign on the work of raising walls and, on the citadel now called Kuyunjik,
building his “Palace without Rival” ( The South-West Palace ).

4. Winged Bull

Lamassu. A lamassu is a mythological figure in the religion of a creature made up of the

body of a bull and the head of a human. It also had the wings of an eagle. Lamassu guardians
are mostly associated with the power and influence of royalty of ancient Mesopotamia. Their
main role was that of guardian spirits for humans.

C. NEO-BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE
Neo-Babylonian architecture was naturally descended from that one of the earlier centuries
in Mesopotamia, but it derived much also from the architecture of the Assyrians.

1. City of Babylon
Ancient Middle Eastern city. The city's ruins are located about 55 mi (89 km) south of Baghdad,
near the modern city of Al-Ḥillah, Iraq. Babylon was one of the most famous cities in
antiquity.

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2. Ishtar Gate

The Ishtar Gate was constructed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II circa 575 BCE.
It was the eighth gate of the city of Babylon (in present-day Iraq) and was the main entrance
into the city.

D. PERSIAN
1. Persepolis
Founded by Darius I in 518 B.C., Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. It
was built on an immense half-artificial, half-natural terrace, where the king of kings
created an impressive palace complex inspired by Mesopotamian models. The importance and
quality of the monumental ruins make it a unique archaeological site.

Persepolis Bas Reliefs

The bas-reliefs of Persepolis were carved when the Persian Empire, under the Achaemenid
Dynasty, was at the height of its power. The awe-inspiring reliefs continue to fascinate
the visitors of the ancient city to this day.

Double Bull Capital

Double-bull capital where, resting on double volutes, the forequarters of two kneeling bulls,
placed back-to-back, extend their coupled necks and their twin heads directly under the
intersections of the beams of the ceiling.

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E. EARLY ANATOLIAN AND HITTITE ARCHITECTURE

In contrast to Mesopotamia, both stone and timber were available in abundance, and in the
most densely forest-covered areas timber-frame construction must have been normal.

Megaron - a rectangular room with central hearth and door at one end, set in a deep porch
formed by the prolongation of the side walls to make ‘antae’.

1. Palace of Beycesultan
Is an outstanding example of the use of timber as reinforcement for walls constructed of
mud brick with footings of limestone.

F. CANAANITE, PHOENICIAN, AND ISRAELITE

1. Samaria
Founded by Omri and captured be the Assyrians, when the kingdom of Israel was absorbed into
the Assyrian empire, excavations have given the most coherent record of the material
civilization of Israel, of which it was the capital.

Six architectural phases have been distinguished for this period, the first two being marked
by the used of finely jointed and dressed masonry, the course even and horizontal.

2. Jerusalem
Nothing has survived of the Temple of Solomon, built by Phoenician craftsmen, with cedar
beams imported from the Lebanon.

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