• 3400-3200 BCE: pictographs: simplified pictures standing for words on clay using stylus (sharp tool)
• 3000-2900 BCE: cuneiform: wedgeshaped signs
• 2600 BCE: complex cuneiform text expressing grammatical construction
• great literature: Epic of Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey

Female head (Inanna?)

Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq

3200-3000 BCE

Marble, approx 8" high

marble imported at high cost

face w/ flat back w/ drilled holes for attachment to a head & body (maybe wood)

Assumed goddess Inanna or priestess

Original would have been more vibrant: colored shell/stone eyes & eyebrows + wig of gold leaf. Missing body w/ expensive fabrics & jewels

Presentation of offerings to Inanna (Warka vase)

Uruk, Iraq 3200-3000 BCE

Alabaster, 3' 1/4" high

Sumerians first to use complex narratives. Warka vase first great work of narrative relief sculpture known

Depicts religious festival in honor of Inanna goddess.

Three bands (registers/friezes) w/ figures on ground line (much like comic books)

Lowest band: male & female ewes, rams, crops & water (wavy line) = economy + fertility

central band: naked men w/ baskets & jars = earth's abundance + gifts of gratitude to goddess (votive offering)

top band: female w/ horned headdress (priestess? goddess?), nude male w/ vessel offering, & clothed male ("priest-king" - similar in Sumerian art)

height of priest-king & goddess = hierarchy of scale = leadership & position in society

Statuettes of worshippers

Square Temple at Eshunna (modern Tell Asmar), Iraq 2700 BCE

Gypsum inlaid w/ shell and black limestone, male approx 2' 6" high

represent mortals w/ hands folded in front of their chest = prayer gesture.

Men wear belts, most w/ beards & shoulder length hair.

Women w/ skirts, long robes, right shoulder bare.

Exaggerated open-eyes: eternal wakefulness to fulfill duty

Seated statuette of Urnanshe

Temple of Ishtar at Mari, Syria 2600-2500 BCE

Gypsum inlaid w/ shell and lapis lazuli 10 1/4" high

eyes: shell & lapis lazuli (azure-blue stone imported from Afghanistan)

beardless w/ long straight hair = eununch (castrated male)

Urnanshe: official singer at Mari court

Fragment of the victory stele of Eannatum

(Stele of the Vultures)

Girsu (modern Telloh), Syria 2600-2500 BCE

Limestone, full stele, approx. 5'11" high

Eannatum (large fearless general figure) leading infantry battalion into battle (top)

attacking from a war chariot (below)

foot soldiers behind wall of shields, trampling naked enemies

vultures devouring corpses

War side (top) & peace side (bottom) of the Standard of Ur

Tomb 779, Royal Cemetery, Ur, Iraq

2600 BCE.

Wood inlaid w/ shell, lapis lazuli and red limestone

approx. 8" x 1' 7"

leading families were buried in vaulted chambers beneath the earth: found riches = gold helmets, dagers, bowls, jewelry, lapis, instruments, chariots, etc.

Standard of Ur: box w/ narrative story. 

war side top: chariots, foot soldiers w/ captives, stripped naked and degraded - brought to king (larger figure standing)

peace side: provisions, war booty, animals, banquet/festival stuff lyre player, entertainment, again the king but sitting.

Bull-headed lyre (restored) from Tomb 789 ("King's Grave")

Royal Cemetary, Ur, Iraq 2600 BCE

Gold leaf and lapis lazuli over a wooden core, approx. 5' 5" high

• resembles instrument in feast scene on Standard of Ur.
• shows importance of animals by portraying them in story & on instruments

Soundbox of the lyre from Tomb of 789 ("King's Grave")

Royal Cemetery, Ur, Iraq 2600 BCE

Wood with inlaid gold, lapis lazuli and shell, approx. 1' 7" high

• top: heroic figure embraces two man-bull in heraldic composition (symmetrical on either side of central figure.
• heroic figure and scorpion man (lowest panel) are in composite view (convention of representation where part of figure is in profile & another part of same figure is shown frontally). 
• animals in profile & almost burlesque - acting as people (Aesop's fables, Disney cartoons)

Banquet scene, cylinder seal (left) and its modern impression (right), 

Tomb of Pu-abi (Tomb 800),

Royal Cemetery, Ur, Iraq, 2600 BCE

Lapis lazuli, approx. 2" high

• cylinder seal: inscribed w/ "Queen" Pu-abi's name. 
• cylinder seals were bling blingin' - but used to identify documents & protect storage jars/doors against unauthorized opening (like insurance mailing- hah or passwords & keys). Later seals had cuneiform w/ names of rulers, bureaucrats & deities.
• typical type of seal for the period: stone engraved for raised impression when rolled over clay.
• top: man & woman (Pu-abi) sit & drink from beakers served by attendants
• below: male attendants serve more men.
• same style/rules as Standard of Ur

Head of Akkadian ruler,

Nineveh, Iraq 2250-2200 BCE

Copper 1' 2 3/8" high

• head: deliberately mutilated (gouged out eyes - once inlaid w/ precious stones + broken beard)
• mastery of sculpting: natural/abstract patterning
• detail & distinctive features: profile nose, curly beard, texture of skin & hair, mustache, overlapping disks, arching eyebrows
• life-size, hollow cast, metal sculpture - earliest known

Victory stele of Naram-sin, 

Susa, Iran 2254-2218 BCE

Pink sandstone, approx 6' 7" high

• Naram-Sin, godlike king leads victorious army up slopes of wooded mountain, treading on fallen Lullubi (enemies in defeat)
• stars shine from above in their victory, like climbing ladder to the heavens
• discipline and order of soldiers in organized profile vs. enemy in variety of postures 
• narrative story of innovation: did not follow horizontal rule

Ziggurat (northeastern facade w/ restored stairs), Ur

Iraq 2100 BCE

• One of the largest ziggurat (mountain temples) in Mesopotamia
• base 50 ft high
• baked bricks
• 3 ramplike stairways of 100 steps each (omg) + another flight of steps (wtf) to temple

Seated statue of Gudea holding temple plan

Girsu, Iraq 2100 BCE

approx 2' 5" high

• Gueda of Lagash: "Piety of Gueda": temple plan drawn on a tablet on his lap - ruler buried accounts of his building enterprises in the temple foundations: Gueda presents Ningirsu w/ plan for god's new temple = his piety + wealth & pride
• record Gudea's dreams of gods to erect temples in their honor
• many Gueda figures: often seated, standing, hands clasped, dressed in long garments w/ one shoulder exposed

Stele with law code of Hammurabi

Susa, Iran 1780 BCE

Basalt, approx. 7' 4" high

• Hammurabi: famous for conquests & law code = penalties (adultery, murder, cutting neighbor's trees, etc)
• top: king w/ sun god Shamash granting him authority to rule & enforce law
• headdress: 4 horns (true profile) 
• foreshortening: depth by representing a figure/object at an angle (god's beard diagonal instead of horizontal lines receding from the picture plane) 

Investiture of Zimri Lim,

mural painting from Court 106 of the palace at Mari, Syria

1775-1760 BCE

• center: investiture of Zimri-Lim: coronation, granting his right to rule by goddess Ishtar (similar to code of Hammurabi - his enemy haaah)

Lions Gate,

Boghazkoy, Turkey, 1400 BCE

lions approx. 7' high

• Hittites architecture: heavy stone
• symbolic lions: wild beasts/fantastic monsters as protection at gateways and entrances to cities, palaces, temples, tombs = echos throughout Egypt, Greece, Italy, etc

Statue of Queen Napir-Asu

Susa, Iran, 1350-1300 BCE

bronze & copper, 4' 2 3/4" high

• life size statue, wife of powerful Elamite king, Untash-Napirisha
• weighs 3,760 pounds, hollow-cast shell
• queen wanted permanent, immovable offering in the temple
• characteristic of Sumerian statue: crossed hands, tight silhouette
• refined: softness, long fingers, wrist bends, gown's pattern

reconstruction drawing of citadel of Sargon II

Dur Sharrukin, Iraq 720-705 BCE

• Strong defensive walls = society fearful of attack, constant warfare
• palace elevated on 50 ft high mount 25 acres w/ 200 courtyards & rooms
• Sargon II = grandeur; Assyrians = image of themselves as merciless to those who oppose them + forgiving to those who submit to their will

Lamassu (winged, human headed bull)

citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin, Iraq 720-705 BCE

Limestone 13' 10" high

• guardians at the gate
• conceptional picture: its important parts
• optical view: how it would actually stand in space

assyrian archers pursuing enemies, 

relief from Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu, Iraq 875-860 BCE

Gypsum 2' 10" high

• recorded battlefield victories, slaying of wild animals (success in warfare)
• every relief celebrated the king
• clear, concise, vivid w/ various viewpoints

Ashurbanipal II with attendants and soldier,

from his palace in Kalhu, Iraq 875-860 BCE

Glazed brick 11 3/8"

• glazed brick: painted, kiln fired
• king > libation: ritual pouring of liquid in honor of the gods.
• outlined figures - patterns of rich fabric

Ashurbanipal hunting lions,

relief from the North palace of Ashurbanipal, Nineveh, Iraq 645-640 BCE

Gypsum 5' 4"

• hunt: controlled environment: lions released from cages :( 
• detailed relief: straining muscles, swelling vains, flattened ears of beast
• purpose to glorify king through his strength (wahhh)

Ishtar Gate

Babylon, Iraq 575 BCE

Glazed brick

• Babylon: mud-brick city w/ blue-glazed molded bricks & molded reliefs of real & imaginary animals. 
• Gate: Marduk's dragon, Adad's bull, Ishtar's sacred lion

Persepolis (royal audience hall in the background), Iran 521-465 BCE

• administrative complex on the citadel overlooking plain
• Gate of All Lands = harmony among people of Persian empire

processional frieze royal audience hall

terrace of the royal audience hall (apadana), Persepolis, Iran 521-465 BCE

• reliefs represent procession of royal guards, Persian nobles, dignitaries, representatives bringing the king tribute. 
• detailed & colored

Palace of Shapur I, Ctesiphon, Iraq

250 CE

• iwan: brick audience hall
• barrel vault: deep arch over an oblong space - 900 ft above ground
• blind arcades: arches without actual openings - wall decorations

head of a sasanian king (Shapur II?)

350 CE

Silver w/ mercury gliding 1' 3 3/4" high

• richness of Sasanin court life + artistry of court artists
• almost life size
• repousse techinque: hammered from a single sheet of metal and pushed the features out from behind
• details engraved on surface to give form & texture to hair/beard/eyes

triumph of shapur i over valerian, rock cut relief

Bishapur, Iran 260 CE

• crumbled body of a Roman soldier: motif (Standard of Ur) 
• putto-like (cherub/childlike) figure above king w/ victory garland.
• large triumphant king/general: motif