The rise of the city in Mesopotamia

new spatial concepts of social life:from the city space to the private home

new public symbols:temples versus palaces

3500-3000 BC PROTOLITERATE PDCompact and protected citiesTemples and Ziggurat became typesShort terms leaders

3000-2300 BC EARLY DYNASTIC PDKingship was establishedMonumental palaces

UP TO 1600 BC LATER SUMERIAN PDRise of empire with city state in competitionThird Dynasty of Ur and most important Ziggurat never built

1350-600 BC ASSYRIAN PDNorthern part of Mesopotamia flourished and became dominant in the regionAssyrians imposed a new urban culture in which their palaces were more important than temples

CITIES

The city of Ur in the Later Sumerian period

URBAN FABRIC

Street networkUrban blocks

Courtyard houses

HOUSING TYPES

HOUSING TYPES

Map of the city of Nippur in the 1500 BC

TEMPLES

TEMPLES

Approaching the PROTOLITERATE PD

Formation of an archetype for the temple building and the idea of the corner as a bastion

Temple of Eridu from 5000 BC to 3800 BC

TEMPLES

PROTOLITERATE PD

The idea of the Ziggurat as a sacred landmark

Platform as a sloped wallTypical temple planIrregular sequence of ramps and stairs

White Temple of Warka in its natural context, 3500 3000 BC

TEMPLES

EARLY DYNASTIC PD An urban templeAt Khafaje from 3000 to 2750 BC

The idea of the courtyard as the main worship space

TEMPLESEARLY DYNASTIC PD

An another urban temple

TEMPLES

LATER SUMERIAN PD

The Ziggurat is a monumental urban landmark

Social spaces and symbolical references of mountains where Sumerians deities lived

Ziggurat of Ur-Nammur

Tower of Babel, Bruegel the Elder, 16th century.

PALACES

1350-600 BC ASSYRIAN PD

The city of Khorsabad represented a new political and cultural condition in which the king built a city in the city, called citadel.Within this walled part of the city was built the palace. The ziggurat is now less important than the palace.

PALACES

Versus

ZIGGURATS.

UR VS KHORSABAD

PLANNED CITIESWITH ORTHOGONAL LAYOUTS:MOHENJO-DARO(Pakistan)Around 2500 BC

PLANNED CITIESWITH ORTHOGONAL LAYOUTS:

El Kahun (Lower Egypt)Around 19th century BC