art history

Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq). Sumerian. c. 2600–2400 B.C.E. Wood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone. CITY STATE UR  MODERN DAY IRAQ MESOPOTAMIA  GREAT EARLY CITIES  UNKNOWN PURPOSE  INTENTIONALLY BURIED  ELABORATE BURIAL RITUAL  DISCOVERED IN 1920S, 1930S ELABORATELY DECORATED  CARRIED  THREE REGISTERS  SHELL (IRAQ) LONG DISTANCE TRADE LAPIS LAZULI (AFGHANISTAN)  RED STONE (INDIA)  AGRICULTURE SUCCESSFUL, BETWEEN TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVER SURPLUS OF FOOD ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY  MORE TIME TO DEDICATE TO ARTS  DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT ROLES POSSIBLE THIS IS DEMONSTRATED IN THE PIECE  WEALTHIEST, MOST POWERFUL FIGURES AT THE TOP COMMON LABORERS IN THE BOTTOM FIGURES BRINGING THINGS TO A DESTINATION; ON BACKS  ANIMALS; SHEEPS, BULL ANIMALS FOR SACRIFICE, TAXATION  COLLECTION FOR THE KING RULER LARGER; DIFFERENT CLOTHE...

White Temple and its ziggurat. Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq). Sumerian. c. 3500–3000 B.C.E. Mud brick. Uruk (modern Warka in Iraq)—where city life began more than five thousand years ago and where the first writing emerged—was clearly one of the most important places in southern Mesopotamia. Within Uruk, the greatest monument was the Anu Ziggurat on which the White Temple was built. Dating to the late 4th millennium B.C.E. (the Late Uruk Period, or Uruk III) and dedicated to the sky god Anu been visible from a great distance—even over the defensive walls of the city. A ziggurat is a built raised platform with four sloping sides—like a chopped-off pyramid. Ziggurats are made of mud-bricks—the building material of choice in the Near East, as stone is rare  Ziggurats were not only a visual focal point of the city, they were a symbolic one, as well—they were at the heart of the theocratic political system seeing the ziggurat towering above the city, one made a visual connecti...