CHARACTERISTICS of Mesopotamian architecture

In ancient Mesopotamia, construction was considered a divine art that the gods had taught Humanity, thus giving rise to architecture. Thus, to the knowledge of this trade is added the type of materials that are usually used: in the face of the scarcity of stone, They use clay bricks baked in the sun, resorting to pilasters, columns, frescoes and tiles. An architecture that used both the architrave architecture and the semicircular arch.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we tell you which are the main characteristics of Mesopotamian architecture and the most outstanding type of constructions.

It is known as Mesopotamian architecture to the architecture developed in the territory called Ancient Mesopotamia, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from Prehistory to the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, that is, from 10,000 BC to 539 BC, although the remains of the oldest ziggurats and temples date from the fourth millennium BC by C.

Among the types of Mesopotamian architecture:

Domestic Architecture

The houses of the Mesopotamians were built with mud bricks, wooden doors and canes. The concept of space, keeping the private space away from the public, led to the buildings only only doors, with hardly any windows and with a design that consisted of central rooms or patios with small rooms around. These courtyard houses, with a circular silver courtyard and polygonal rooms, were built in adobe with wooden beams.

Other houses, the so-called beehive houses, They used to be composed of two bodies, one circular and the other square. The farms also had open courtyards for carrying out agricultural activities.

The cities had imposing defensive walls with monumental access doors. Some walls decorated with polychrome glass reliefs in which typical plants and animals such as winged bulls or lamassu and lions are represented.

Ziggurats

This is one of the representative constructions of Mesopotamian architecture. Ziggurats were not places of worship for the general public, only priests or other religious officials could enter to carry out acts of worship and make offerings.

The first ziggurats date from Sumerian culture in the fourth millennium BC. C., but they continued to be a popular architectural form in the late third and early second millennium BC. C.

A type of construction that responds to the Sumerian belief that gods lived in mountains and for that reason they raised temples on natural or artificial platforms. Thus, the ziggurat is of Sumerian origin and basically constitutes a pyramidal and stepped tower with a quadrangular base with a terrace and with a sanctuary or a temple on top. It used to be attached to the temple and the kings watched over its care and conservation.

Political architecture

The palaces and temples They are the typical constructions of Mesopotamian architecture. Some buildings decorated with gold, enamels, leaves, colored stones and terracotta panels.

The palaces had long, narrow rooms with transversely laid palm wood covered ceilings. The walls were thick, with few windows and divided into two areas, one administrative and one for receptions and royal rooms, without a specific order in the distribution of the rooms.

In the thirteenth century BC, the Assyrians stopped using bricks to gradually introduce stone and masonry decorated with bas-reliefs. Some constructions that were growing in size and complexity of the plants and decoration, being the patios one of the main rooms.

The temples also preceded the creation of an urban settlement, going from small structures to complex buildings with more elaborate materials and techniques.

Behind the temples stood the palaces and city walls, including some long-axis doors as the entry point for the gods, and the short-axis doors as the entry point for people. Next to it were the ziggurat and the palace.

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