II. Ancient Mesopotamia
The Cradle of Civilization
Part II
DU1701 Periods of Art History I: from Prehistory to Trajan
Adrien Palladino, M.A., Ph.D.
Votive relief, terracotta, Irak, 13,5 x 11 cm,
Akkadian period, c. 2,255–2,219 BCE /
Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire, Brussels
Terracotta relief with Gilgamesh and
Enkidu fighting against Humbaba (?)
/Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin
Kudurru (stele) of King Melishipak I (1186–1172 BCE),
Iraq / Musée du Louvre, Paris
Wall plaque, from Ur,
Iraq, c. 2500 BCE /
British Museum, London
Libation to a goddess, limestone, Early
Dynastic III, c. 2500 BCE, found in Telloh
(ancient Girsu) / Musée du Louvre, Paris
Incised shell
inlay, from Ur, c.
2600-2500 BCE /
British Museum,
London
Libatio
The Adda cylinder seal, greenstone, : 1,5 x 3,9 cm,
diameter: 2,55 cm, from Iraq, Sippar, c. 2,300 BCE /
British Museum, London
Cylinder Seal, from Ur, Iraq, lapis lazuli, 4,2 cm
long, diameter 2,6 cm, c. 2,600–2,450 BCE /
Penn Museum, Philedalphia
“Queen of the night”, Ereshkigal , Ianna/Ishtar,
Lilitu?, clay, 49,5 x 37 cm, Old Babylonian,
1,800–1750 BCE / British Museum, London
Head of a ruler, Iran (?),
copper alloy, Early Bronze
Age, c. 2300–2000 BCE /
Metropolitan Museum,
New York
Statue of King Gudea, diorite, 44 x 21,5 x
29,5 cm, neo-Sumerian, c. 2,090 BCE, from
Girsu (Tello) / Metropolitan Museum, New
York
Statue of King Gudea, diorite, 44 x 21,5 x 29,5
cm, neo-Sumerian, c. 2,090 BCE, from Girsu
(Tello) / Metropolitan Museum, New York
[…] He (also) built the individual houses of (other) great
gods of Lagaš. For Ningišzida, his (personal) god, he
built his House of Girsu. Someone (in the future)
whom Ningirsu, his god - as my god (addressed me) has
(directly) addressed within the crowd, let him not,
thereafter, be envious(?) with regard to the house of my
(personal) god. Let him invoke its (the house's) name; let
such a person be my friend, and let him (also) invoke my
(own) name. (Gudea) fashioned a statue of himself.
"Let the life of Gudea, who built the house, be long." (this
is how) he named (the statue) for his sake, and
he brought it to him into (his) house.
From Edzard, Dietz-Otto. 1997. Gudea and his Dynasty. The
Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods vol. 3/1,
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 57-58.
Victory stele of Naram-Sin, king of Akkad, Akkadian
period, circa 2250 BCE / Musée du Louvre, Paris
New York Times, March 5, 2015
Lamassu, neo-Assyrian, c. 883–859 BCE, gypsum
alabaster, Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu)
excavated in the 1840s by Sir Austen Henry Layard /
Metropolitan Museum, New York
Lamassu, neo-Assyrian,
reign of Sargon II, c. 721-
705 BCE, from
Khorsabad, ancient Dur
Sharrukin, Iraq,
excavated in 1843-44 /
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Gate of All nations, (also Gate of Xerxes),
c. 490–480 BCE, ruins of Persepolis, Iran
Ashurbanipal,
hunting lions,
gypsum relief,
North Palace of
Nineveh (Irak),
c. 645-635 BCE /
British Museum,
London
Ivory panel, with traces of
polychromy, c. 900–700 BCE,
excavated at Nimrud, Iraq /
British Museum, London
Ishtar Gate,
reconstruction,
glazed bricks, under
King of Babylon
Nabuchodonosor II,
c. 575 BCE, Iraq /
Pergamon Museum,
Berlin
The remains of the Ishtar Gate at the beginning of the excavations, Babylon, 1902 / © Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft
Wooden boxes waiting for their transport to Berlin, Babylon 1927 /
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum