Mesopotamian Art and Architecture
Mesopotamian Art and Architecture, the arts and buildings of the ancient Middle Eastern civilizations that developed in the area (now Iraq) between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from prehistory to the 6th century BC. The lower parts of the Mesopotamian region encompassed a fertile plain, but its inhabitants perpetually faced the dangers of outside invaders, extremes in temperature, drought, violent thunderstorms and rainstorms, floods, and attacks by wild beasts. Their art reflects both their love and fear of these natural forces, as well as their military conquests. Dotting the plains were urban centers; each was dominated by a temple, which was both a commercial and a religious center, but gradually the palace took over as the more important structure. The soil of Mesopotamia yielded the civilization’s major building material—mud brick. This clay also was used by the Mesopotamians for their pottery, terra-cotta sculpture, and writing tablets. Few wooden artifacts have been preserved. Stone was rare, and certain types had to be imported; basalt, sandstone, diorite, and alabaster were used for sculpture. Metals such as bronze, copper, gold, and silver, as well as shells and precious stones, were used for the finest sculpture and inlays. Stones of all kinds—including lapis lazuli, jasper, carnelian, alabaster, hematite, serpentine, and steatite—were used for cylinder seals.
The art of Mesopotamia reveals a 4000-year tradition that appears, on the surface, homogeneous in style and iconography. It was created and sustained, however, by waves of invading peoples who differed ethnically and linguistically. Each of these groups made its own contribution to art until the Persian conquest of the 6th century BC. The first dominant people to control the region and shape its art were the non-Semitic Sumerians, followed by the Semitic Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Control and artistic influences at times extended to the Syro-Palestinian coast, and techniques and motifs from outlying areas had an impact on Mesopotamian centers. As other peoples invaded the region, their art was shaped by native Mesopotamian traditions.PREHISTORIC PERIOD
The earliest architectural and artistic remains known to date come from northern Mesopotamia from the proto-Neolithic site of Qermez Dere in the foothills of the Jebel Sinjar. Levels dating to the 9th millennium BC have revealed round sunken huts outfitted with one or two plastered pillars with stone cores. When the buildings were abandoned, human skulls were placed on the floors, indicating some sort of ritual.
Mesopotamian art of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (7000?-3500? BC), before writing was fully developed, is designated by the names of archaeological sites: Hassuna, in the north, where houses and painted pottery were excavated; Sāmarrā’, where figurative and abstract designs on pottery may have had religious significance; and Tell Halaf, where seated female figures (presumed to be mother goddesses) and painted pottery were made. In the south, the early ages are called Ubaid (5500?-4000? BC) and early and middle Uruk (4000?-3500? BC). Ubaid culture is also represented by dark-painted light pottery found first at Ubaid as well as at Ur, Uruk, Eridu, and Uqair. Early in the long sequence of archaeological levels excavated at Eridu a small square sanctuary was uncovered (5500? BC); it had been rebuilt with a niche with a platform, which could have supported a cult statue, and an offering table nearby. Subsequent temple structures built on top of it are more complex, with a central cella (sacred chamber) surrounded by small rooms with doorways; the exterior was decorated with elaborate niches and buttresses, typical features of Mesopotamian temples. Clay figures from the Ubaid period include a man from Eridu and, from Ur, a woman holding a child.
