Module 3 ane

ARC 110
History of Architecture I

Module 3
Architecture of the Ancient Near East

Module Outline
• Lecture 6
– Historical Background
• Location and period
• Social characteristics and beliefs
– Architecture of the Civilization
• Sumerian Architecture
• Lecture 7
• Assyrian architecture
• Babylonian Architecture
• Persian architecture
• Lecture 8
– Architectural Characteristics
• Buildings and other architectural elements
• Building materials, construction and technologies
• Architectural Organizing principles

Learning Outcomes
• We should expect to learn the following about
the civilization
– Evolution of early human society and
civilization, including kingship and empires
– Architectural responses to geography and
the need for religious symbols
– Architecture of Power and Authority
– Temple and Palace architecture
– Architecture and construction in mud

Module 3 Lecture 6

Outline of Lecture
• Lecture 6
– Historical Background
• Location and period
• Social characteristics and beliefs
– Architecture of the Civilization
• Sumerian Architecture

Historical Background
Location
• Located in and around
the valley of Tigris and
Euphrates rivers in
modern Iraq
• Area is also known as
Mesopotamia or land
between two rivers
• The land had poorly
defined edges
• The land stretches from
Mediterranean to eastern
borders of present Iran

Location
• To the south and west, it
fades into the Arabian desert
• To the north and west, it fades
into the plains of Syria
• The Tigris and Euphrates
rivers sit in the land as
dominant physical feature
• The Rivers were
unpredictable, being subject
to alternating flood and
drought

Period
• The area witnessed the earliest rise of human civilization
around 4500 BC
• Transformation from prehistory, to villages and cities
occurred there
• Civilization there lasted for 5000 years
• Cultural development was not homogenous during the
period
• Different cultures established city states and empires at
different periods
• The cultures include Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian,
Babylonian, and Persian

Period
• It has not been possible to trace a neat order of
the history of the cultures
• An acceptable order is presented
• Sequence of Civilization
– 4500 to 2000 BC Sumerian culture, peaking in
3300 BC
– 2350 – 2200 BC Akkadian Period
– 2000- 1600 BC Babylonian Culture
– 1600 – 1717 BC Kessites and Hittites
– 1350 – 612 BC Assyrian Culture
– 612 – 539 BC Neo Babylonian culture
– 539 – 330 BC Persian culture

Social Characteristics & Beliefs
• Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization
• What do we mean by civilization?
– Civilization is usually associated with the cultural
practices of cities and urban living, the presence of
writing and written law
• In Mesopotamia, earliest cities were established
and urban culture took hold
• Between 4000 and 3000 BC, large number of
people began living in a small area creating first
cities
• Many people began to have jobs that is
unrelated to agriculture

• Once established, cities grew and increased power and
importance
• As cities grew in power and importance, rivalries
developed between them for military and economic
control
• The ANE was land without natural defenses
• Warfare was common throughout its history
• The Tigris and Euphrates also suffered from alternate
drought and floods
• Combination of warfare and frequent drought and flood
made a continuous homogenous civilization impossible
• The result is that several cultures flourished and died
out during the ANE period

• Cities in the ANE initially developed with
authority residing in an assembly of male
citizens
• Short term leaders were selected during wars
• When war leaders were retained during peace
time, kingship evolved
• It was initially elective and later hereditary
• As some cities became more powerful, they
defeated weaker ones to create empires and
kingdoms
• This led to collective rule of city states by a
sovereign king

• With kingship also came monumental palaces
as place of residence and administration for
the king
• Almost all ANE culture worshiped many gods
and goddesses
• ANE people did not believe in immortality or
eternal life
• They believed only gods were immortal
• Rather, they believed in divine rewards for
moral conduct

• The reward was enjoyed in this life
• The rewards include increased worldly goods,
numerous offspring and long life
• The most popular and earliest religious cults
related to fertility
• Fertility goddesses influenced the growth of
crops
• Aspects of life such as war, weather, disease,
were explained by the actions of gods
• The Sumerian had a religion based on the
elements- sky, earth, water, sun, moon, etc

• This reflected the agrarian nature of their
society
• As ANE people came together to live in cities,
they needed a means of communication and
record keeping
• Around 3500, the Sumerians invented a system
of writing based on pictograph
• This was later developed into a simpler writing
called the cuneiform
• Development of written language enabled them
to produce historical records

• Written records also led to the development
of written law as in the code of King
Hummurabi
• Cities in ancient Mesopotamia were enclosed
by wall fortifications
• The fabric of the cities are a blend of
residential, commercial and industrial
buildings
• Houses were one story high and mostly of
mud brick
• Rooms were arranged around courtyards

• Houses looked inward
• Rooms were narrow with thick walls and flat,
vault or dome roofs
• Timber and stone were scarce, clay was
abundant and mud brick was most common
building material
• Buildings were usually raised on platforms to
protect them from the floods
• Clay was also used for pottery
• Mesopotamians invented astrology, wheeled
vehicle & made advances in science & math

Architecture of the Civilization

Architecture of the Civilization

• Sequence of Treatment
– Sumerian Architecture
– Assyrian Architecture
– Babylonian Architecture
– Persian Architecture

Sumerian Architecture
Introduction
• The transition from prehistory
was made around 4500 BC
with the rise of the Sumerian
civilization
• Sumerians established an
irrigation system that made the
capable of food production to
support urban living
• They were also skilled in metal
craft
• The Sumerians invented the
cuneiform system of writing

Introduction
• The Sumerians invented the
cuneiform system of writing
• The major cities of the
Sumerian civilization were
Kish, Uruk and Ur
• The Sumerian were the first
civilization to make a
conscious attempt of
designing public buildings
• Mud was their building
material
• Mud was formed into brick,
sun dried and built into
massive walls

Introduction
• Mud was their main building material
• Mud was formed into brick, sun dried and built
into massive walls
• Walls were thick to compensate the weakness of
mud
• They were reinforce with buttresses
• Spaces were narrow because of the walling
material

Introduction
• Spaces were narrow because of the walling
material
• Façade of buildings were whitewashed and
painted to disguise the lack of attraction of the
material
• Buttresses and recesses also relieve the
monotony of the plastered wall surfaces
• Temples was their major building type
• We will examine Sumerian house organization
and their temple forms

Introduction
• The clearest example of
the cities of the ancient
Near East is found in the
Sumerian city of Ur
• Cities were enclosed in
walls with Ziggurat
temples and palace as
centers of the city
• Fabric of the city is made
up of residences mixed
with commercial and
industrial buildings

Introduction
• The houses are densely
packed with narrow
streets between them.
• Streets were fronted by
courtyard houses of one
story high
• The houses streets were
usually punctuated by
narrow openings that
serve as entrance to
houses

Architectural Monument- Temples
• Temples were the principal architectural
monuments of Sumerian cities
• Temples consist of chief and city temples
• We will examine two examples of chief
temples- the white temple at Uruk and the
Great Ziggurat at Ur
• And we will examine on city temple, the
Oval temple at Khafaje

White Temple Uruk
• Uruk was a major Sumerian
city by 3300 BC
• Uruk is also known as warka
in arabic
• The name Iraq is derived
from Uruk
• The city covered an area of 2
square kilometer
• Had a population of 40,000
people
• White temple was located at
Uruk

White Temple Uruk
• The white temple was built
around 3000 BC
• The white temple is an
example of earliest
development of Sumerian
temples and Ziggurat

White Temple Uruk
• The temple is place on a
great mound of earth called
Ziggurat, rising more than
12 meters above ground
• The ziggurat and temple are
built with mud bricks
• The temple is rectangular in
shape
• Temple walls were thick and
supported by buttresses
• In the inner part of the
temple was a long
sanctuary, that contains an
alter and offering table

White Temple Uruk
• Rooms oblong and in
shape and vaulted
surrounded the long side of
the sanctuary
• The temple had imposing
doorways located at its
either end
• Worshippers to the temple
however enter through a
side room

White Temple Uruk
• Series of staircases and
stepped levels lead
worships to the entrance of
the temple
• The temple was plastered
white externally, making it
visible for miles in the
landscape

Great Ziggurat Ur
• Ur was a Sumerian city
located near the mouth of
the Euphrates river
• The city was a thriving
place by 2600 BC
• It was considered sacred to
Nnanna, the moon god
• The white temple was built
around 2113 to 2048 BC by
the ruler Urnammu
• It was built on the ruins of
previous temples and
incorporated their remains

Great Ziggurat Ur
• It was constructed of mud
bricks reinforced with thin
layers of matting and cables
of twisted reeds
• The Great Ziggurat was
located as part of a temple
complex
• The complex comprised of
the ziggurat and its court
and a secondary court
attached to it called the
court of Nannar
• The king was the chief
priest of the temple and
lived close to it

Great Ziggurat Ur
• The temple sits on a three
multi-tiered Ziggurat
mountain
• Access to the temple is
through triple stairways that
converge at the summit of
the first platform
• From this stage, one
passed through a portal
with dome roof to fourth
staircase

Great Ziggurat Ur
• The fourth staircase gave
access to the second and
third stages of the ziggurat
and to the temple
• The temple is usually
access only by the priest,
where gods are believed to
come down and give
instructions

Great Ziggurat Ur
• The ziggurat is believed by
the Sumerians to unit the
heavens and the earth
• The people believed that
climbing the staircase of the
ziggurat gives a holy
experience
• The chief temple was also
used as a last line of
defense during times of war
• Most of what is known
about what exist on top of
the ziggurat is projection

Oval Temple- Khafaje
• Oval temple is an example
of second type of Sumerian
temples
• It was constructed around
2600 BC
• The temple is named oval
because of its massive oval
walls surrounding the temple
• Located in the city,
emphasis in its organization
is on enclosing space within
courtyards

Oval Temple Khafaje
• Space is enclosed to create
island of peace from a busy
city
• The temple is raised on a
simple platform enclosed
within the oval walls
• It had subsidiary chambers
at the ground level
• The outer wall was extended
to protect a priestly
residence with its own chapel

Oval Temple Khafaje
• The inner court had an
offering table and showed
evidence of animal sacrifices
• The inner court also had
basins for ablution as well as
workshops and storage
rooms

Outline of Lecture 7
• Assyrian architecture
– Introduction
– City of Khorsabad
– Palace of Sargon at Khorsabad
• Babylonian Architecture
– Introduction
– City of Babylon
– Architecture in the city of Babylon
• Persian architecture
– Introduction
– Palace at Parsepolis

Assyrian Architecture
Introduction
• Assyria is the name for a part
of ancient Mesopotamia
located on the upper Tigris
• The principal cities of Assyria
were Nineveh, Dun,
Khorsabad, Nimrud and Assur
• The Assyrians were great
warriors and hunters, and this
was reflected in their art
• They produced violent
sculptures and relief carving in
stone that was used to
ornament their houses

Introduction
• During the Assyrian periods,
temples lost their importance to
palaces
• Assyrian kings built walled cities,
in which palaces took precedent
over religious buildings
• Palaces were raised on brick
platforms, and their principal
entrance ways were flanked by
guardian figures of human
headed bulls or lions of stone
• Their halls and corridors were
lined with pictures and
inscriptions carved in relief on
stone slabs up to 9 feet high

Introduction
• The interiors were richly
decorated and luxurious.
• The walls of cities were
usually strengthened by
many towers serving as
defensive positions
• The city of Khorsabad
demonstrate the might and
authority of the Assyrian
kings
• It is also at this place that the
remains of Assyrian
architecture can be found

City of Khorsabad
• Khorsabad was designed as
the royal capital of Assyria
• The city was built on a flat land
with an area of about a square
mile and was enclosed by a
double wall with seven city
gates
• Only a part of the city including
palaces, temples and
administrative headquarters
was built
• The palace was located on the
north west side of the city

Palace of Sargon
• The palace is approached at
ground level through a
walled citadel
• Within the citadel is found
the main palace, two minor
palaces and a temple
dedicated to Nabu
• The main palace was set on
a platform located on the
northern side of the citadel
• All the buildings within the
citadel were arranged around
courtyards

Palace of Sargon
• The palace was arranged
around two major
courtyards about which
were grouped smaller
courtyards
• The palace consisted of
large and smaller rooms
with the throne room being
the largest
• The building was decorated
with relief sculpture and
glazed brick

Babylonian Architecture
Introduction
• After the fall of Nineveh in
612 BC and the end of the
Assyrian civilization, focus
of Mesopotamian civilization
shifted to old Babylon
• A new dynasty of kings,
including Nebuchadnezzar,
revived old Babylonian
culture to create a Neo-
Babylonian civilization
• Old Sumerian cities were
rebuilt

Introduction
• The capital old Babylon was
enlarged and heavily fortified
• It was also adorned with
magnificent new buildings
• The traditional style of
Mesopotamian building
reached its peak during the
period
• Traditional building was
enhanced by a new form of
façade ornament consisting
of figures designed in
colored glazed brick work

City of Babylon
• The city of Babylon is
shaped in the form of a
quadrangle sitting
across and pierced by
the Euphrates[64]
• The city was
surrounded by a
fortification of double
walls
• These had defensive
towers that project well
above the walls

City of Babylon
• The walls also had a
large moat in front, which
was also used for
navigation
• The length of the wall and
moat is about five and a
quarter miles
• The city had a palace,
Nebuchadnezzar’s
palace, located on its
northern side on the outer
wall

Ishtar Gate
• From the palace originated a
procession street that cuts
through the city raised above
the ground to the tower of
Babel
• The procession street enters
the city through the famous
Ishtar gate
• The Ishtar gate is built across
the double walls of the city
fortification
• The gate had a pair of
projecting towers on each
wall

Ishtar Gate
• All the facades of gates
and adjoining streets
were faced with blue
glazed bricks and
ornamented with figures
of heraldic animals- lions,
bulls, and dragons
• These were modeled in
relief and glazed in other
colors
• None of the buildings of
old Babylon has survived
to the present age

Architecture in the city of Babylon
• Nebuchadnezzar’s palace
covered a land area of 900 feet
by 600 feet
• It had administrative offices,
barracks, the king’s harem,
private apartment all arranged
around five courtyards
• The palace is also praised for its
legendary hanging garden
• This is recorded as one of the
seven wonders of the ancient
world, but exact knowledge of
the nature of this garden is not
known

Architecture in the city of Babylon
• Temples and towers were
also prominent
architectural elements of
Babylon
• The legendary tower of
Babel located at the end of
procession street is
mentioned in the Christian
bible
• There is also no
information about the
design and construction of
the tower
• Most of what is available
on the tower is hypothetical

Persian Architecture
Introduction
• The Persian empire started in about 560 BC when
Cyrus the great from the province of Fars swept over
the region with his powerful cavalry
• By the end of the century, Cyrus and his successors,
Darius 1 and Xerxes had conquered the entire civilized
world from Indus to Danube River with the exception of
Greece
• It was the wish of the Persians to construct great
buildings
• They were to achieve greatness with their architectural
solutions
• The architectural solutions were a synthesis of ideas
gathered from almost all parts of their empire and from
the Greeks an Egyptians

Introduction
• Their materials of construction was also from
different locations
• Material included mud-brick from Babylon,
wooden roof beams from Lebanon, precious
material from India and Egypt, Stone columns
quarried and carved by Ionic Greeks
• Despite sourcing materials and ideas from
different areas, their architecture was original
and distinctive in style

Palace at Perspolis
• Persian architecture achieved
its greatest monumentality at
Parsepolis
• It was constructed as a new
capital for the Persian Empire
• The city was started 510 BC
and finished in 460 BC
• It is set along the face of a
mountain leveled to create a
large platform 1800 feet by 900
feet
• It was surrounded by a
fortification wall
• The site was more than half
covered by buildings

Palace at Perspolis
• The palace consisted of
three parts:
• An approach of
monumental staircases,
gate ways and avenues
• Two great state halls
towards the center of the
platform
• The palace of Xerxes, the
harem, and other living
quarters at the south end
of the site

Palace at Perspolis
• Structurally, the buildings
relied on a hypostyle
scheme throughout
• They used it to achieve
spaces of varying scale
• Some of the spaces were
very big and generally
square in plan
• The spaces were enclosed
by mud brick walls
• The most impressive aspect
of the palace was the royal
audience hall

Palace at Perspolis
• The Royal audience hall was a
square 250 feet in length
• It contained 36 slender columns
widely space & 67 feet high
• The columns had a lower diameter
of only 5 feet
• The centers of the columns were
spaced 20 feet or 4 diameters apart
• The column was the greatest
invention of the Persians
• The columns were fluted and stand
on inverted bell shaped bases
• Their capital combine Greek motifs
with Egyptian palm leaf topped by
an impost of paired beast

Palace at Perspolis
• Another famous aspect of the
palace at parsepolis was the
throne room
• This was also known as hall
of a 100 columns
• The columns in the room
were 37 feet high, with a
diameter of only 3 feet
• They were spaced 20 feet
apart or seven diameters
from axis to axis
• The slim nature of the column
created room and spacious
feeling in the room when
compared to the audience
hall

Palace at Perspolis
• The monumental
entrance to Parsepolis is
also one of the unique
aspects of the Palace
• The monumental
gateway ensure a
dramatic entry to the
Palace
• It was heavily adorned
with relief sculpture
ornamenting its stairway

Palace at Perspolis
• The relief structure
addresses different
themes relating to the
role of Parsepolis as
the capital of the
Persian Empire

Palace at Perspolis
• In some places, the
sculpture shows delegates
from the different parts of
the Persian bringing gifts
and rare animals to the
king during celebrations
• In some places, royal
guards and nobles of the
imperial court are shown
• Elsewhere, the king is seen
in conflict with animals or
seated beneath a
ceremonial umbrella

Palace at Perspolis
• The ruins of Parsepolis
have survived to the
present day
• Existing ruins however
give a faulty expression
of the city’s original
appearance
• Some columns
supporting the halls of the
great halls have survived
• The mud brick fabric of
the palace and its
enclosing walls have
perished completely

Palace at Perspolis
• Only the sculptures
which adorn
doorways or windows
and openings and the
relief ornamenting its
entrance way remain

Module 3 Lecture 8

Outline of Lecture
• Lecture 8
– Architectural Characteristics
• Buildings and other architectural elements
• Building materials, construction and
technologies
• Architectural Organizing principles

Buildings & Other Arch
Elements

Buildings & Other Arch. Elements

•
Building Types Cities and
3 building types examined in ANE;
houses, temples and palaces
• Temples and palaces were the most
outstanding buildings types in ANE
• Significant development in house organization
and city fortification was also witnessed
• In Sumerian civilization, development in house
organization led to the evolution of the inward
looking courtyard house
• Houses formed the dominant buildings of the
city with narrow passages to distribute people


Building Types
• Across all the civilizations, cities were usually
walled
• The walls were of massive brick material, with
evenly distributed towers serving as buttresses.
• Examples of city wall or fortification examined
include City of Khorsabad and Babylon
• The chief’s house at precinct of the Great
Ziggurat and the Palace at Parsepolis were
also fortified with brick walls.


Temples and Palaces
• Importance of temples and palaces varied
during the different periods of the ANE
• Temples started during the Sumerian period
and were also common during the Babylonian
period.
• The Sumerian temples were raised on
Ziggurats, while the character of the Babylonian
temples is not certain because there is no trace
of them
• The Sumerian temples had chief temples
located outside the city and the city temple
located within the fabric of the city


Temples and Palaces
• Neo-Babylonians also built great palaces. The
legendary palace of Nebuchadnezzar with its
hanging garden is widely reported in history
• Temple building declined during the Assyrian
period, when palaces took over as the
prominent building type
• The Palaces at Khorsabad and Parsepolis
shows the rise of the palace as the focus of
architectural development over the temple

Materials, Construction & Tech.
Materials
• Stone and timber suitable for building was rare
in the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates.
• Clay was however in abundance
• This was compressed in moulds and dried in
the sun to provide bricks for all buildings
• Sun dried brick became the standard building
material
• It was used across all the cultures of the
ancient Near East

Materials
• Wood was scarce but was imported from
Lebanon
• Wood was probably applied mainly for roofing
or for producing tools and ornaments
• Stone was used by the Assyrians but only for
relieve carving and for columnar support
• It was in ancient Persia that extensive use of
stone witnessed
• The Babylonians introduce glazed brick, which
was used in the façade of their gates and
prominent buildings

Construction
• The abundance of mud brick led to the
development of construction methods
appropriate to its physical properties.
• Structurally Mud brick is weak when compared
to stone
• To compensate, walls were very thick and
reinforced with buttresses.
• This construction system is evident in the
Sumerian temples.
• Vaulting was known and used during the
Mesopotamian period

Construction
• Rooms were usually roofed with domes or
vaults.
• Tunnel vaults were used to cover long narrow
oblong spaces.
• Columnar construction was not very popular in
the ANE
• It was used in few instances in the late Assyrian
and Neo-babylonian periods.
• It was however extensively used by the Persians
• Persian architecture, was an architecture that
borrowed from other cultures in the region,
including Egypt and Greek sources

Technology
• Two technologies appear to have been
commonly used in the Ancient Near East;
passive cooling and water supply.
• The evolution of courtyard in Mesopotamia was
probably a product of its desert environment
and the need for climate modification.
• Courtyards were used for cooling to create
livable environments in houses
• The thick walls of houses may also have served
as a thermal storage
• They help to mitigate against the wide
fluctuations of temperature

Technology
• People of the ancient Near East also mastered
the earth of water supply
• Channels were used to move water and supply
it to agricultural fields and houses.
• Ancient Babylon was said to have an aqueduct
that supplied water to the city.
• The hanging garden in Nebuchadnezzar’s
palace would also be impossible without a
means of transporting water from the ground to
the garden

Principles of Arch.
Organization

Principles of Arch. Organization
Principles
• Three principles appear to predominant in
the organization of architectural form and
space
– Courtyard organization
– Lifting of buildings on artificial mountains
– Organic organization of city fabric

Forces Shaping Arch. Organ.
Forces
• Three forces account for the prevailing
architectural organizing principles
observed
• Geography,
• Symbolism and meaning to the people
• Social factors
• Combination of the factors account for
the architectural forms that are witnessed
in all the cultures of the ANE

Geography
• A strong factor in shaping spatial organization
and built form
• Limited the availability of construction material
and constrained the development of
construction technology
• Desert environment also meant t hash climatic
conditions which lead to the evolution of the
courtyard form of building
• Prevalence of mud bricks coupled with the use
of courtyard fixed the form of buildings as a
regional solution.
• Most buildings- whether house or palace, were
of one story multi-courtyard form

Symbolism and Meaning
• Organizing principles may also be a factor of
symbolisms and meaning
• The role of symbolism is evident in the Ziggurat
• Sumerians think of ziggurat as a ladder to the
sky and to god
• They believed that God came down to the
Ziggurat to communicating with the chief priest
• Climbing the ziggurat is also associated with a
holy experience.
• Symbolic meaning of ziggurat provides
motivation for the construction of larger and
more impressive mountains

Symbolism and Meaning
• Palaces also symbolize power and authority
• In Assyria, architecture expressed the authority
and power of the king
• The palace at Khorsabad also shows the decline
in the symbolic importance of the temple
compared to the palace of the king, which is the
center of authority.
• At Parsepolis, the palace also expresses the
authority and power of the emperor of the
Persian empire
• This power is evident in the ability to
commandeer resources from as far as Egypt and
Lebanon to create a unique palace

Social Concerns

• Social concerns contributed to the evolution of
design principles
• There was need for defense due to warfare
• Led to construction of wall fortifications for cities
• Also to ziggurat as a place of refuge from attack
• Concerns for privacy
• Courtyard house may have evolved because of
privacy needs

Module 3 ane

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