ARTS 149 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Fertile Crescent, Nimrud, Sargon I
Document Summary
Used a stylus on a wet clay surface. Ziggurat: huge stepped structure with a temple or shrine on top. Inlay: precious/dark stone set into the marble/wooden statue to be eyebrows/eyes. Most spectacular discoveries in the archaeological excavations of the royal burials. Background is carved out and filled with bitumen (tarlike; waterproof) Used to identify documents and establishing property ownership. Earliest known work -> bronze head found at nineveh; once identified as sargon himself. Hierarchic scale: relative size indicates relative importance; artistic practice. Low relief: sculpted relief with figures that project one slightly from a recessed backgroun. Palace complex: group of buildings where the ruler governed and resided. Bearded head of man, body of lion, wings of eagle, horned headress of gold. Major cultural shift --> agri villages evolved into cities simultaneously and independently (north/south) Rubble from one structure served as foundation for next. Elevated buildings -> protected the shrines from flooding. Symbolically functioned as bridge between earth and the heavens.
