Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian Society

• Location
  • Fertile, but unpredictable land
  • A crossroads to migrating tribes often leads to warfare
  • Implications of man and a wrathful unpredictable god
• Theocratic Socialism
  • A pantheon of gods
    • Shamash - God of the sun
    • Ishtar - Goddess of love and war
    • Abu - God of vegetation
  • The god-king
    • Part man, part god
    • Mediator between man and god's will
    • Most important function was to appease the gods
• Death
  • A dark place
  • A neutral place
• Sacred prostitution
  • A pantheon including female gods
  • Priestess in service at the temple
  • Kuzbu - the alluring capacity of woman

Mesopotamian Art

• Ziggurat
  • The temple as a man-made mountain to god
  • The temple complex
  • Ziggurat at Marduk (reconstruction)
  • 100 stairs - the perfict whole number
• Figure sculpture
  • Primitive features seen in pronounced eyes often of polished stone
  • Cylinder forms of diorite (hard durable stone)
  • Hand position of supplication
    • Gudea
    • Standing Male
• Stele
  • Stone markers and memorials
  • Hammurabi Stele
    • The Hammurabi Code (detail) (full)
    • Code of conduct given by god
    • Law transcends man placing even the god-kind beneath the law
    • Moses
• Animal motifs
  • Mesopotamia preference still cited in the Old Testament
  • Ishtar Gate
  • Bull Lyre

More extensive and full-sized art works may be seen in the art gallery

Humanities Resource of Mark Hunter