BAHA3A1/ DAHA 1Y1

HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

DEPARTMENT of ARCHITECTURE - UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG

2016

LECTURE NO. 3
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is part of the dead cultures, the others being The Egyptian and the Indus
Valley from which came the Greek, Roman and Western European Christian civilizations.
Mesopotamia it is also important for its influence on the evolution of urban settlement in
the Arabian peninsular, the origins of the Islamic culture. The Sumerian civilization is
located in the Tigris/Euphrates floodplains in what is now known as Iraq.
Landscape
Mesopotamia began as small oases and farms on high ground which gradually moved
downwards by 5500 BC as irrigation improved. Mesopotamia (a name coined for a
Roman province) is a Greek word meaning the land between rivers Tigris and
Euphrates which the Sumerians irrigated by a complex means of dikes and canals. Its
landscape defines the lifestyle of the agricultural community and thereby its cities. The
mountains describe the barriers to communication and the plain enables it and the river
channels it.
Cities of Mesopotamia
By studying the city we gain insight into the aspects of the countryside because it details
the interaction f the city dweller with the countryside. It is difficult to describe a neat and
orderly development of Mesopotamian Cities, but certain critical periods can be
identified as having created unique environments that can be discussed. Thus four
segments in chronological order can be identified and these are:
1. Protoliterate Period. (3500- 3000 B. C.)
Towns that evolved from agricultural villages acquired the ring walls. The temple and
Ziggurat began to be developed. Written records also made an appearance. Political
authority was vested in an assembly of male citizens who chose war leaders. This is a
primitive democracy practiced to reach many political and military decisions. This was
done in the city assembly called the ukkin. This was the second system of Authority
since power moved to the palace.
2. Early Dynastic Period (3000-2350 B. C.)
Kingship was established firstly elective by the leaders and later hereditary. This lead to
the development of the monumental palace, administrative centers for bureaucrats and
entertainers and the army for the defense of the city. A dozen cities with between 10 000
to 50 000 people developed in Sumer, lower Mesopotamia and north in Babylonia.
3. Sumerian Period (2350- 1600 B. C.)

This saw the rise of the Mesopotamian Empire, the collective rule of the city-states by a
sovereign king. This period is dominated by the Third Dynasty of Ur with the Ziggurat of
Ur-Nammu as the highest building type. Bazaar structures were developed.
4. The Assyrian Period (1350 620 B. C.)
The Northern region of the two rivers now flourishes at the expense of the lower
Mesopotamia. Imposing state reliefs and palaces like at Khorsabad are developed.
City and its Layouts
Cities were enclosed with walls, which may have been several metres thick as an
expression of the political identity. Outside the wall were suburban villages and hamlets.
The effort in the wall construction symbolizes their collective importance. Each city
honored its deity by erecting a ziggurat, which mean mountain or pinnacle reaching
out to heaven (Gen. 1: 3-4). The god watched over the town from this tower. The
priesthood were the bureaucrats of the ziggurat who controlled and kept written record,
accounts and inventory of food and supplies. They developed a numerical system and a
wedge-shaped writing called cuneiform The ziggurat complex with its own wall and the
palace were the two monumental centers. Small shops were incorporated into residences
though exclusive structures devoted to commercial and industrial activities also existed
i.e. Tannery, small-scale iron works and textile weaving.
The Ward (Babtum)
Cities were divided into wards or neighbourhoods, which were headed by heads of
households (elders) and a mayor (rabinum). These divisions were related to the different
city gates (babum). Wards are named after the first man listed in each group.
Traffic
Mostly pedestrian and ass as the main carrier. A twisted network of unpaved streets about
3m wide on the principle thoroughfares led to public buildings bordered by houses of the
rich. Land within the city was precious and public space was minimum, squares or public
gardens being very rare.
Housing
Grouped into congested blocks. The basic unit was a single-family dwelling. Houses
were a collection of clusters that was forever responding to pressures of change. Building
lots were not uniform in size. As a rule ruins were never cleared and were used as the
foundation for the future dwelling. Houses were required to fit in a predetermined block.
Houses were one-storey structures of mud-brick, mud plaster, mud and poplar roofs,
wooden doors and doorframes all naturally available in the city. The technology is at a
craftsman quality with thick well-constructed walls and carefully laid out floor and
plaster. Bitumen and brick were used to stop rising damp. The front door was the only
opening to the outside with no windows. The houses were initially large and well planned
with a square courtyard. House also served as burial grounds. The wealthy classes had
two-storey structures.
Refuse material was damped outside the front door of the house thereby raising the level
of the street. Steps were added in the house to keep up with the level of the street. Once
the street was too high the house was demolished or it became a storeroom.

Craft and labour

Mesopotamia provides a social context for the exploitation of the concept of
specialization. A complex system of specialized crafts developed that produced extra
ordinary craftsmanship. The clay sickle evolved over time into a metal sickle. Metal was
regularly recalled to the temples to be melted down and reformed.
High quality works include the soundbox of a harp from Ur (2685-2550 BC). Music was
also well developed which is close to our modern major mode.
Temples and Ziggurats
The temple constituted the heart of the Mesopotamian City. The temple expressed the
citys religious identity. Among their many gods, one was higher. This one was thought
to be the owner of the city. All the towns people devoted their lives to his/her service.
The rulers were thought of as exercising administration over the divine estate.
The fields and their produce belonged to the deity. The seeds, the draught animals, tools
for tilling were supplied by the temple. The grain was stored on the temple grounds.
Craftsmen, fishermen, builders all offered their services and output to the temple. The
temple complex was the hub of the economic systems (Theocratic socialism). It needed a
wall for protection against enemies. When it fell, all was over for the deity and the city.
The ziggurat was a conceived as a substitute mountain. It contains an impressive array of
Theocratic socialism- storeroom, workshops, offices and priestly quarters and a temple
with the statue of the deity. The Ziggurat is the ladder for the deity. Also thought of as a
marriage bed. The Tower of Babylon to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia was a way to
come into contact with the superhuman power that held the secrets of their destiny.
Its commission to construct came from above. Precise measurements were spoken to the
king in secret. A new house of god in the cities was required when cities were established
to continue the traditional practice by nomads and framers to consecrate a forest,
mountain or cavern. The king led the ceremonial ritual in laying out of the temple.
Man was at the mercy of the elements: drought, floods, disease. These elements were
seen as entities, which should be kept happy. These were: Anu- Creator god, ShamashSun god, Ianna- Goddess of love and Fertility, Enlil- God of wind, wind storm and city
gods, Nanar- Moon
Warka -White Temple (3500- 3000 B C)
Positioned on an artificial mountain or ziggurat raising 12 metres above the flat plain
The walls of the ziggurat were sloped and access was by stairs or ramp on the northeast
face. Its corners pointed to towards the main directions of the compass. It was
whitewashed which made it visible for miles above the city wall from the fields and
marshes. The temple had openings on three sides. God hovered between the heavens
above the city and the sea. Reverential climbing was the experience.
Khafaje- Oval Temple (2650-2350 B C)
Illustrates the result of a crowded city condition. Demolition of houses was necessary.
The temple is the innermost of a series of enclosed spaces with a single entrance on in
one of its sides. Activities, which were done in the open at Warka, were now performed in
the courtyard. God resided in the remote guarded sanctum at the end of a planned

sanctum. The worshipper was led axially through the outer and inner courts towards the
elevated sanctuary.
Ur-Nammu. (2100 B C)
A stepped pyramid in three stages. The core was mud brick, and the thick facing of baked
brick was set in bitumen mortar. None of the lines of the Ziggurat is straight. the sloping
walls a slightly convex. These were calculated diversions to correct the look of stiffness
and enervation that strict rectilinearity tend to induce in structure of this size. The upper
terraces were planted with trees- the hanging gardens.
Palaces
At Ur the, the famous ziggurat of the third dynasty had within its walls two residential
buildings: one for the priest and the other a royal palace for the king. In the Assyrian
period the ziggurat loses its importance to the palace and becomes a mere attachment to
the kings palace, which now dominates the cityscape. An examples is the palace at Mari
(1750 BC) which is arranged around three main courts. The palace behaves as the
microcosm of the city with its walls, the barracks, schools, offices, temples, workshops
etc without the citys dynamism.
The ziggurat multiplied and access became difficult. The stairs and ladder are no longer a
part of the construction.
CITADEL OF SARGON II Khorsabad (706 BC)
Here the king had his back to the city wall. The citadel became the last point of defense
against the outside enemy as the ziggurat had previously been. The ziggurat has been
reduced to a small fancy reliquary. The king supervised the grain distribution,
maintenance of dikes and canals and preventive rites against floods and outside attacks.
The palace grew at the expense of the ziggurat. It developed into a theater of absolute
power and intimidation the symbol of a city whose devotion existed in the shadow of a
fierce war machine.
Rule of Law
Hammurabi (1791-1750 BC) instituted the retaliatory principle of an eye for an eye. His
laws were designed to protect mainly women and orphans. Women were free to own, buy
or sell land. But adulterous wives and their lovers were sentenced to drowning. Find out
the story of Gilgamesh.
Ending
Mesopotamia ceased to exist after the Akkadians and Assyrians conquered it. In the east
Saul (1025-1000 BC) established Israel and built a noted temple and palace in Jerusalem
.In 722 BC Israel fell to the Assyrians, while Judah fell in 587 to Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon, Psalm 137.