and we'll start off looking at the Neo-Sumerian

period, then move on to the Babylonian period, and

then the Assyrian, and finally Achaemenid Persian period --

looking at a few examples of art from each period. So beginning with the Neo-Sumerian

period -- we're returning to the area of Sumer. The cities of Sumer become a resurgent.

The Akkadian dynasty has fallen and around 2100 BC

we see the King of Ur, or also known as the Third Dynasty since they're

resurgent for the third time, and so this is how we call it The "Neo-Sumerian"

period,

that's how it's referred to in your textbook, so beginning by looking at

a ziggurat/temple complex. This is how it survives today. It's

called the ziggurat at Ur, or it's known as the "Great Ziggurat". It has been extensively restored

especially in the 1980s under Saddam Hussein.

A lot of it was faced with modern brick, so a lot of what you see there

is modern-day restoration. Unfortunately, the temple on top no longer survives, but

you can see in this reconstruction

that there would have been four levels with a temple on top where

offering could have been received and perhaps sculptures could have been placed in

perpetual worship

of the gods. You can see that there's a form of buttressing all along the outside

both in the reconstruction and in the photograph here. This would have

supported the walls.

The ziggurats are becoming taller and taller over time, and we'll see this

continue into the

Assyrian period where the ziggurats become

even taller, so just a reminder that there would probably be

very much a need to create more support as the structures are becoming

taller, and it also provides a nice visual effect on these wide areas at

brick,

and presumably there would have been processions that could

go up these wide stairways; these stairways that go in three directions - 1,2,3,

and you can get a sense of the scale, and the growth the growth of these ziggurats by looking at

this

one that has been heavily restored and is currently in

modern-day Iraq. Another work of art that indicates

importance of donating or patronizing or

commissioning these ziggurat/temple complexes

is the "Seated Statue of Gudea", which also dates to about 2100 BCE,

It's made of diorite -- a very rare stone. There's not a lot of stone

that can be found in the ancient Near East, so it needed to be imported.

This demonstrates Gudea's ability

to commission sculptures of this status with

this type of stone; remember that we saw diorite

with the sculpture of Khafre, previously in the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt.

So this sculpture demonstrates his power and his ability to

create sculptures of this type. It also demonstrates that he

is donating a temple to the god Ningirsu.

You can see that there are little ridges that stick out indicating this is

basically a blueprint

for the temple that he's commissioning for the god,

and actually, it's recorded that he had dreams that he was too

make these offerings -- that the gods wanted him to --

and this sculpture is one of many where we see

Gudea in this perpetually

praying position or he's making an offering in other sculptures.

He would have originally had a head. It has come off,

but in other versions we do see him with his head with his

special headpiece on, and Gudea

seems to have created a lot of these to put in a variety of temples.

The temples on top of ziggurats were known as waiting rooms, where you were

waiting for the gods to appear.

So even if you couldn't stay in the temple waiting for the god, you could put

a sculpture there,

so that you could have a proxy -- someone in your place --

to be there if the gods were to appear. Moving on to Babylon, so the dynasty of

Ur falls, and the most powerful ruler of Babylon is

Hammurabi, and Hammurabi is known for his law code -- his stele that presents a law

code --

and a lot of order. You have a system of crime and punishment outlined on his

law code, as well as a representation of Hammurabi. His empire begins as quite small

so Babylon begins as this

relatively small area here, and then begins to expand

quite dramatically around Euphrates by 1750 BCE, so by the

end of his rule. If we look at his

stele, you can see it's another one of these works of art that could be placed in a

public location -- just like

the "Stele of Naram-Sin" or the "Stele of Eannatum" that could present someone

in a very positive light, so this one

you could that Hammurabi has a close connection with Shamash, the sun god,

and so you can see him -- this is Hammurabi here,

this is Shamash right here -- and we'll zoom in in just a second.

And then the law code is down below, which tells us about

out what the crime and punishment would be, so this one example: an eye for an eye, so if

you put out someone's eye

your eye will be put out. If you steal from a temple -- remember people are making

extensive offerings to these

temple complexes -- and so if you steal something from a temple

you will be put to death. There are crimes for adultery.

There are laws for how a woman dowry would be handled,

so all of this is outlined in the laws down below,

which are written in cuneiform script, but in the Akkadian language.

If we zoom-in, we can see Hammurabi right here. You can see his extensive

beard, which we often see very stylized in Near Eastern art,

and possibly a gesture of greeting or speaking, and you can see

that Shamash is offering him the tools of an architect, which were tools

of leadership so

tools for building, tools for developing cities,

and Shamash is clearly much larger, a bit more muscular

If Shamash were to stand, he would really tower over Hammurabi.

He is seated though on a type of throne. His

feet are raised on a footrest, and he's wearing a much more

elaborate headpiece -- almost similar to Naram-Sin with all the horns that

are

incorporated, but even more elaborate than Naram-Sin --

a larger beard -- a stylized beard -- and also we can tell it's Shamash.

He has little flames flickering out from his shoulders, so we get a sense

and that he is indeed the sun god, and one final thing to note

is just that there is no intercessor between the two -- there's no figure in

between them.

Hammurabi is suggesting with this stele that he doesn't need an intercessor --

that he and

Shamash are close enough -- that he has close enough connections to the divine

that he is able to communicate with them in a one-on-one

type of interaction, so that definitely

speaks highly of Hammurabi. Moving on to the Assyrian

period. The Assyrian Empire becomes much larger than the Babylonian

and the Neo-Sumerian areas of dominance. You can see that

up by the end it -- it's really dominating this whole area around the

Mesopotamian region, but also moving into Egypt,

so moving into areas that previous Near Eastern

dynasties or empires had never reached.

After defeating the warring factions, including the Babylonians,

the Assyrians take their name from Ashur, which is their city named after

the god,

so right around here, and then you can just see how it begins to spread and

spread

in moving both east and west.

The Assyrians were known for their extensive citadels. A number of rulers

built citadels that had extensive fortifications -- they were often raised so that you would

have a view, and also you would know if anyone was coming,

extensive gateways, so those who would visit the citadels

would move through these gateways. This area out here

is where more of the bureaucratic offices for managing the empire would be located

and then up here would be more of the area for audience halls, for throne

areas for

at the ruler -- in this case, it's Sargon II, so this is the citadel of Sargon II

in modern-day Khorsbod, or

or previously called Dur Sharrukin, and you can also see there's a

ziggurat included, so the essential features are

these bureaucratic office, the fortifications

the courtyard where people to gather and wait, and then the audience halls, which were

within this area

and then the ziggurat, which you can see has developed from

the single tier to the four tiers that we saw

at Ur, and then now we these multiple tiers

moving up to much taller ziggurat complex.

One of the things that was discovered at the citadel of Sargon

were these "Lamassu" -- these figures that essentially guarded the gates,

and you would have to walk past as you moved into the structure,

presumably they're meant to be intimidating -- you can tell they have

these extensive

stylized beards, human faces, wings,

and then also the bull's body. They have five legs, so they look like they're moving

forward from the side, but

very strong and stoic if you look at them from the front.

There's some additional views, so you can see how they would work as gateway

figures, and also the scale of the figures.

In these citadels, you would have extensive decoration

in quite low relief that would indicate how powerful these rulers were,

and one of these propagandistic messages or storylines comes from

a low-relief sculpture that represents Ashurbanipal

hunting lions, and this dates all the way to 645-640 BCE,

and you can see him here -- he's fighting these lions -- and these lions have been

left behind -- they are fishing one off right here. Ashurbanipal looks very

determined,

and this comes from a history of

rulers killing animals to protect their people, but in this case

these are lions that have all been gathered together in an organized hunt,

and hunting was also a prerogative of the elite and the

wealthy, and so Ashurbanipal is demonstrating his power by the fact that

he can

gather all these lions together, and kill

all of them. There are many parts to this relief. They would have been picked out

in some color, so it would have be much easier to see. I know it's hard to see some of

the detail,

but here you can see Ashurbanipal, the chariot, and in then this lion

gripping onto his wheel. Another one where you can see

how the lions were caged up, and then released, and then you can see this

one's

stalking out -- looking quite ferocious,

and then here's one that has an arrow in it and

presumably losing some blood there,

so quite violent in its overall appearance but gives us a sense of the power

of Ashurbanipal, his ability as a hunter and a

fighter. And also the fact that he is able to

presumably protect his people. Finally, moving to the Achaemenid

Persian period, which was a dominant empire up until the point of

when Alexander the Great comes in. This empire is really

unprecedented up until this point in the class, where you can see that

it's extending into the area of India all the way over to Greece and

the Achaemenid Persians will be vilified by the Greeks for the fact that they come

in and try to invade

their territory, which we'll see in few weeks

in class. So the Achaemenid Persians are dominant for a few hundred years.

It starts off with Cyrus the Great, then moving into Darius I

and Xerxes, and Darius and Xerxes are very famous

again for the ancient Greek for the fact that they were coming in and invading,

so you can see just right up to the border there. We're going to focus in on

the palace at Persepolis -- this ceremonial palace

that's in the area of modern day Iran, and Persepolis survives

in pretty rough shape. You can see it here -- it was sacked by

Alexander the Great either purposefully or it may have been accidentally burned

down.

There's a number of different ideas, but there were large audience halls --

especially the Apadana was a large audience hall.

There are gateways that mimic the type of Lamassu gateways that we saw

in the Assyrian citadels. There are relief sculptures that show us

how everyone in the empire is getting along.

The Achaemenid Persians were taking over a vast area,

and so they controlled a lot of different people and

here in the reliefs, you can see that everyone's talking, getting along, holding

hands,

bringing offerings to the rulers, and we see

this from a lot of different areas [or regions], and these also would have been picked out in color