Mesopotamian art

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c. 3500 BC – 539 BC · Middle East · architecture, sculpture, decorative arts, literature · origin: Uruk, southern Mesopotamia

Clay, brick and relief serving king and god: ziggurats, victory steles, winged guardians

How to recognise it

• Stepped mud-brick ziggurat towers
• Registers of processions and battles
• The king drawn larger than everyone
• Human-headed winged bulls
• Glazed brick: blue ground, yellow beasts

Why it emerged

In a valley with no stone or timber, the first cities built in clay and glorified their patron god and king. Writing and temple economies called for monuments that proclaimed law, victory and order.

Examples

Warka Vasec. 3200 BCEarly narrative relief: registers rising from water and crops to the goddess InannaStandard of Urc. 2600 BCShell-and-lapis mosaic of 'War' and 'Peace' — the oldest image of a chariot armyZiggurat of Urc. 2100 BCThe best-preserved ziggurat, raised under Ur-Nammu for the moon god NannaLion Hunt of Ashurbanipalc. 645 BCAssyrian palace reliefs; the dying lioness became art's emblem of animal agonyIshtar Gatec. 575 BCNebuchadnezzar II's blue-glazed gate with bulls and Marduk's dragons

More in this style

• c. 2280 BC The Exaltation of Inanna — Enheduanna
• c. 2250 BC Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
• c. 1800 BC Epic of Gilgamesh

Meanwhile elsewhere

• Megaliths Europe
• Ancient Egyptian art Africa
• Aegean art Europe
• Shang and Zhou bronzes Asia
• Olmec art Americas
• Nok terracottas Africa
• Ancient Greek art: Archaic and Classical Europe
• Scythian animal style Eastern Europe & Russia

Wikipedia (English)

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