Sumerian Art
Mesopotamia
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Paleolithic (old stone age) 2.6 million years ago to 10,000
BP from Australopithecus to Modern Man. This time period
covers 99% of human technological prehistory.
Mesolithic (middle stone age) 20,000 to 9,500 BP. Some
overlap with the Paleolithic.
Neolithic (new stone age) 10,200 to 2,000 BP
Bronze age 3,300 to 1,300 BP. The beginning of metal
use.
Terms and Dates to know
Map of Mesopotamia
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The art of Mesopotamia has survived in the archaeological record from
early hunter-gatherer societies (10th millennium BC) on to the Bronze
Age cultures of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian
empires. These empires were later replaced in the Iron Age by the NeoAssyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. Widely considered to be the
cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia brought significant cultural
developments, including the oldest examples of writing.
The art of Mesopotamia rivalled that of Ancient Egypt as the most
grand, sophisticated and elaborate in western Eurasia from the 4th
millennium BC until the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered the
region in the 6th century BC. The main emphasis was on various, very
durable, forms of sculpture in stone and clay; little painting has
survived, but what has suggests that painting was mainly used for
geometrical and plant-based decorative schemes, though most
sculptures were also painted.
Art of mesopotamia
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The art of the Sumerian civilization, as revealed by
excavations at Ur, Babylon, Uruk (Erech), Mari, Kish, and
Lagash, among other cities, was one of enormous power
and originality that influenced all of the major cultures of
ancient western Asia. Their techniques and motifs were
made widely available by means of cuneiform writing,
which they invented before 3000 B.C. Poor in the raw
materials of art, the Sumerians traded crops from their
fertile soil for the metal, stone, and wood that they
required. Clay was their most abundant native material,
and its qualities determined their style of baked-mud
building and the nature of their fine-textured pottery.
Sumerian art
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Sumerian
art
Sumerian craftsmanship was of marked excellence from
very early times. A vase in alabaster from Erech (c.3500
B.C.; Iraq Mus., Baghdad) shows a detailed ceremonial
procession of men and animals to the fertility goddess
Inanna, carved in four bands on an elegant vase shape. A
major peak of artistic achievement is represented by a
female head, called Lady of Warka (Erech) from about
3200 B.C. (Iraq Mus.). It is carved in white marble with
simplicity and subtlety.
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The vast royal cemetery at Ur has yielded many
masterpieces of Sumerian work. Outstanding among these
are a wooden harp detailed with gold and mosaic inlay
picturing mythological scenes on the soundbox,
surmounted by a black-bearded golden head of a bull
(c.2650 B.C.; Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia); a
gaming board of wood inlaid with bone, lapis lazuli, shell,
and stone, mounted in bitumen (c.2700 B.C.; British
Mus.); a ritual offering stand in the shape of a ram, made
of silver, lapis lazuli, and mussel shells, rearing on his hind
legs to eat from a tree of gold; and a splendid gold helmet
fashioned from a single sheet of metal and beaten into the
form of a head of wavy hair with a chignon at the back
(c.2500 B.C.; Baghdad).
Sumerian Art
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Warka Vase, carved stone, oldest ritual
vase found in Sumer
Sumerian Art
Sumerian art
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Inanna - Female Head from Uruk, c. 3500
- 3000 B.C., Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
Sumerian Art
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Sumerian Statuettes, from the Temple
of Abu, Tel Asmar, c. 2700 - 2600
B.C., Iraq Museum, Baghdad and
Oriental Institute, University of
Chicago.
Sumerian Art
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Sumerian Bull's Head, Lyre from Tomb of
Paubi, c. 2600 B.C.
Sumerian Art
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Ram (Billy Goat) and Tree, Offering Stand
from Ur (to male fertility god, Tammuz),
2600 B.C.
Sumerian Art
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Votive Statues, from the Temple of Abu,
Tell Asmara c.2500 BC, limestone, shell,
and gypsum
Sumerian Art
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The Sumerian temple was a small brick house that the god
was supposed to visit periodically. It was ornamented so as
to recall the reed houses built by the earliest Sumerians in
the valley. This house, however, was set on a brick
platform, which became larger and taller as time
progressed until the platform at Ur (built around 2100 BC)
was 150 by 200 feet (45 by 60 meters) and 75 feet (23
meters) high.
These Mesopotamian temple platforms are called ziggurats,
a word derived from the Assyrian ziqquratu, meaning
"high." They were symbols in themselves; the ziggurat at
Ur was planted with trees to make it represent a mountain.
There the god visited Earth, and the priests climbed to its
top to worship. Most cities were simple in structure, the
ziggurat was one of the world's first great architectural
structures.
Sumerian architecture
Sumerian architecture
White Temple and Ziggurat, Uruk
(Warka), 3200 -3000 B.C.
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Sumerian architecture
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Sumerian rulers were to represent their people to the
gods. Unlike in Egypt, the Sumerian kings were not
considered divine. For this reason, the king was
responsible for building and improving temples, holy
places, and canals.
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The most famous of all Sumerian rulers was Gilgamesh of
Uruk, around 2700 BC. Around his name grew up one of
the first great masterpieces of poetic expression, The Epic
of Gilgamesh.
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The Gilgamesh epic struggles with three things: 1) The
power of the gods and goddesses. 2) The inevitability of
death 3) The purpose of human life
(Compare to the book of Job)
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Sumerian rulers
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Near the end of the epic (tablet 11), Utnapishtim tells
Gilgamesh the story of the flood. This story bears a
striking resemblance to that of the biblical story
found in Genesis.
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Both accounts have parallel stories of the building of
boats, the coming of the torrential rain, and the
sending out of birds. However, the tone is very
different. The God of the Hebrews acts out of moral
disapproval, while the divinities in the epic, were
disturbed in their sleep by noisy mortals.
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Mesopotamians saw life as a continual struggle whose
only alternative was the bleak darkness of death.
Sumerian Rulers
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The epic touches on universal questions:
Is all human achievement futile in the
face of death? Is there a purpose to
human existence? If so, how can it be
discovered?
Sumerian rulers