Transcript Chapter 2 - HCC Learning Web

Power and Social Order in the Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent
• Mesopotamia—the land between the Tigris and the
Euphrates rivers
• Irrigation transformed the original hunter-gatherers into
small farming communities
• ca. 4000 BCE the peoples of Mesopotamia began to
replace stone and bone tools and weapons with metal,
thus marking the end of the Stone Age and the beginning
of the Bronze Age
Eastern Mediterranean Basin and Major
Mesopotamian Capitals,
ca. 2600-2500 BCE
Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia
• Polytheistic—multiple gods and goddesses
connected to the forces of nature (sun and sky, water
and storm, earth and its fertility
• Mesopotamian ruler often represented as a “priestking” and believed to possess divine attributes
• Ziggurats, pyramidal temples consisting of successive
platforms with outside staircases and shrines at the
top, functioned as sacred places
Remains of the City of Ur (modern Muqaiyir, Iraq),
ca. 2100 BCE
The Ziggurat at Ur
ca. 2100 BCE
Reconstructed Drawing of the Ziggurat at Ur
• The best preserved and most
fully restored of the ancient
Sumerian temples
• Platforms might have been
covered with soil and planted
with trees
• Weeper holes, venting ducts
loosely filled with broken
pottery, in the side of the
ziggurat would have drained
rainwater
• Bridge between heaven and
earth
Tell Asmar Statues
• Discovered in shrine room of the Abu Temple
ziggurat in Tell Asmar, near modern Baghdad
• Ten men and two women, the tallest being approx.
30”
• Huge eyes and clasped hands, suggestive of
worshippers gazing in perpetual awe at the deity
Tell Asmar Statues
Marble, Alabaster, and Gypsum
ca. 2590-2500 BCE
Mesopotamian Music
• Two lyres discovered at Ur in the royal tombs of
either King Meskalamdug or Queen Puabi
• Bodies of two women (the singers or musicians?)
found under the lyres
• Decorations related to the Epic of Gilgamesh
• Indicate that music was important in Mesopotamian
society
Lyre from Tomb at Ur
Soundbox front panel of the lyre
Gold leaf and lapis lazuli over wood core,
ca. 2600 BCE
Wood with inlaid gold, lapis lazuli, and shell
ca. 2600 BCE
Royal Standard of Ur
• Rectangular box of unknown function
• Main panels called “War” and “Peace” because they
illustrate on one side a military victory and on the
other a banquet with musicians
• Social perspective, or hierarchy of scale—most
important figures (king) represented as larger than
the others
Royal Standard of Ur
Shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone, 8’ x 19’
ca. 2600 BCE
Cuneiform Writing
• Writing first appeared in the middle
of the 4th millennium BCE as
pictograms—pictures that represent
a thing or concept—etched into clay
tablets
• Beginning about 2900 BCE, scribes
adopted a straight-line script made
with a triangular-tipped stylus, or
writing tool, cut from reeds
• The resulting impressions looked like
wedges. Cuneiform writing is named
from the Latin cuneus, wedge
Pictograms
Sumerian Tablet from Lagash, modern
Tello, Iraq
Clay, ca. 2360 BCE
Fragment of Tablet 11 of the Epic of
Gilgamesh
Second millennium BCE
The Akkadians
• A people from the north who settled in the area
around modern Baghdad
• Under Sargon I (r. ca. 2332-2249 BCE) conquered
virtually all other cities in Mesopotamia
• Akkadian language, Semitic in origin, became
common language throughout the second
millennium and well into the first
Akkadian Sculpture
• Few artifacts survive
• What ones do show more realism and finer detail
than the works of the earlier Mesopotamian artists
Head of an Akkadian Man
• All that survives of a life-size statue
• Once thought to be Sargon I, many modern scholars
believe it depicts his grandson, Naramsin
• The first existing monumental work made by the lostwax casting technique
Head of an Akkadian Man
Copper Alloy, 14 1/8”
ca. 2300-2200 BCE
Stele of Naramsin
• Stele—upright stone slab carved with a
commemorative design or inscription
• Celebrates victory of Naramsin, Sargon’s grandson,
over the Lullubi sometime between 2252 and 2181
BCE
• For centuries one of the most influential of all
artworks, it was copied by many rulers to celebrate
their own military feats
Stele of Naramsin
Pink Sandstone, approx. 6’6”
ca. 2254-2218 BCE
Babylon
• After the fall of the Akkadians ca. 2200 BCE,
Mesopotamia consisted of various city-states
• Hammurabi of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 BCE) united
these city-states and imposed order on the region
• The Law Code of Hammurabi contains 282 “articles”
to govern the Mesopotamian peoples in conflicts
great and small
The Law Code of Hammurabi
Basalt, approx. 7’
ca. 1760 BCE
• Not the first but the most
complete set of laws found
to date
• Atop the stele, Hammurabi
receives the blessing of
Shamash, the sun god
• Phallic design of the stele
asserts the masculine
prowess of the king
195. If a son has struck his father, his hands
shall be cut off.
196. If a man has destroyed the eye of a free
man, his own eye shall be destroyed.
197. If he has broken the bone of a free
man, his bone shall be broken.
--from the Law Code of Hammurabi
(ca. 1792-1750 BCE)
The Assyrian Empire
• After the fall of Babylon in 1595 BCE, only the
Assyrians in the north maintained a continuing
cultural identity
• Beginning with the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883859 BCE), they dominated the entire region
• The Assyrian kings represented their might and
power through the immense size of their palaces and
the interior decorations and exterior gateways
Ashurnasirpal II Killing Lions
Alabaster, 39”
ca. 850 BCE
This scene is a synoptic view, that is, it depicts consecutive actions at once—the
soldiers drive the lion towards the king, the king shoots the lion, and the lion lies
dying beneath the horses’ hooves
Human-Headed Winged Bull
Limestone, 13’10”
ca. 720 BCE
• One of a pair from the
entrance palace of Sargon II
• Composites—part man, part
bull, part eagle, the bull
signifying the king’s
strength and the eagle his
vigilance
• Seen from this view, the
beast has five legs—from
the front view he stands
firmly, and from the side
view seems to stride by
Neo-Babylonia
• Nebuchadnezzar (r. 604-562 BCE) defeated Assyrians in
the late 7th century BCE
• Remade Babylon to be the most remarkable and
beautiful city in the world
• The Processional Way ran from the Euphrates bridge past
the Marduk ziggurat and ended at the Ishtar Gate
• Hanging Gardens once considered among the Seven
Wonders of the World
Ishtar Gate (restored)
Glazed brick, ca. 575 BCE
The Hebrews
• The Hebrews (from Habiru, “outcast” or “nomad”) were
forced out of their homeland in the Mesopotamian basin
in about 2000 BCE
• Differed from other Fertile Crescent cultures in that their
religion was monotheistic—they worshipped a single
god: YHWH (Yahweh)
• According to the Hebrew bible, their law—the Ten
Commandments—was delivered to Moses on stone
tablets and carried in a sacred chest, called the Ark of the
Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant and Sanctuary
Implements
Mosaic floor decorations
4th c. CE
King David and Solomon
• David—reigned the Israelites (the Hebrews had
renamed themselves this) until 961 BCE and made
Jerusalem the capital of Israel
• His son, Solomon, succeeded him and reigned until
933 BCE
• Solomon undertook the building campaign begun by
his father, transforming Jerusalem into one of the
most beautiful cities in the Middle East
The United Monarchy of Israel under David and
Solomon
ca. 1100 BCE
Reconstruction Drawing of the Temple of
Solomon
Jerusalem, ca. 457-450 BCE