Kingship: Its Effects on Urban Formand Architectural Monumentality in Mesopotamia

Neolithic:• extra-terrestrial powers • signs of social hierarchies• sedentary living; first signs of urbanism

Kingship (most Bronze-Age cultures):

• urbanism (pop. 10,000-50,000)• marked social hierarchy• designation and appropriation of the center by the king/priest • marking of the center through design and architecture• polytheism incl. extraterrestial powers

Bronze head of an Akkadian king, 2200 B.C.

I. Historical context for most Bronze Age cultures

II. Kingship and Mesopotamian urbanism

City plan of Ur, Iraq, state in c. 2000 B.C.

reconstructive rendering

II. A. City walls as boundary: What are two different purposes of city walls?

Ur, IraqJericho, Israel, c. 7000 BC (Neolithic), pop. 3000

II. B. How is the ideology of kingship embodied within the walls of Mesopotamian cities?

Ur, Iraq

temenos – a precinct severed from its surroundings and reserved , from the Greek word meaning to cut

center – where the extraordinary intersects the ordinary

Ur, Iraq

II. B. 1. What are the formal characteristics of the temenos under Mesopotamian kingship?

The temenos (royal precincet) at Ur, Iraq

intercardinal – northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest

II. B. 1.

Ur, Iraqresidential: organic, metabolic

street patternoverall city plan

II. B. 1.

Ur, Iraq: residential neighborhood

dwellings

II. B. 1.

Ur, Iraq

On top of the ziggurat at Ur, Iraq

II. B. 1.

III. Monumentality in architecture comes hand in hand with kingship: the example of the artificial mountain

Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu, Ur, Iraq, c. 2113-2006 B.C.

III. A. Basics: What is a ziggurat? What stood on top of a ziggurat?

ziggurat – towered temple platform in the form of a stepped pyramid

Ziggurat at Ur, 2000Ziggurat at Warka (“White Temple”)

3500-3000

estimated 21m high (65‘)

estimated 12m high (40‘)

Temple temenos at Tepe Gawra, Iraq, 3000

no ziggurat

III. A.

Ziggurat at Ur

Ziggurat at Warka (“White Temple”)

house (deity’s dwelling)

Ur’s 3rd platform and temple on top are

entirely conjectural

Tepe Gawra temple

III. A. 1. Temple orientation, typology, materials, and furnishings.

Buttresses where beams and rafters rested

Mud-brick masonry plastered, painted, or whitewashed

bricks = uniform units = proof of human control aesthetic of the artificial

Tepe Gawra temple

Temple on top of ziggurat at Warka

mudbrick

temple = house

III. A. 1.

offering table

niche or platform for god’s appearance

Temple on top of ziggurat at Warka

Tepe Gawra temple

III. A. 1. a. Precedents: what paleolithic monument privileged the interior space?

Lascaux Cave

III. B. Formal Analysis of the Ziggurat at Ur – a. orientation and building materials

Ur, Iraq2.

Stele of King Ur-Nammu Seated Statue of King Gudea w/ Architectural Plan

To be discussed in lecture on Friday

III. B. a.

Ziggurat at Ur

+ bitumen mortar

III. B. b. massing (effects of bulk, density, and weight)

decorative buttresses

batter – the receding slope of the wall

superimposed, battered platformsZiggurat at Ur3.

III. B. c. optical refinements

Ziggurat at Ur

III. C. Ritual and architecture: how does the design consolidate the king’s relationship with the gods?

Ziggurat at Ur

Ziggurat at UrStele of Naram Sim

III. C. 1. Religion/Politics: Who mounts the ziggurat/why?

symmetric composition

Ziggurat at Ur, c. 2100 B.C.Ziggurat at Warka, c. 3500-3000 B.C.

III. C. 2. What formal qualities help the stair ritualize the action of climbing (i.e., transform climbing into ascent)?

III. C. 2.

symmetric composition

Ziggurat at Ur

steps eat into the solid mass

steps eat into the solid mass

symmetric composition

primacy of the center staircase

III. C. 3. Conclusion: Formal properties all focus on a single point

Ziggurat at Ur

III. C. 2.

III. D. Power: Monumentality and coercion1. Monumental space welds the members of society into a “consensus”

Ziggurat at Ur on June 28, 2004Ziggurat at Ur, reconconstruction c. 2000 BC

II. D. 2. Religious and political realms exchange attributes

Ziggurat at Ur Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563

F.L.Wright, design for a planetarium, 1924 F.L.Wright, drwg for Guggenheim Museum

New York City, 1943, “an inverted ziggurat”