Tag Archives: arsenic bronze

Mesopotamia: Arts and Gods in the Akkadian Empire

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NumisBids: Classical Numismatic Group ...

Akkadian cylinder seals were one inch tall and when rolled out on clay tablet documents left a distinctive identifying image (used in lieu of a signature)

Episode 10: Akkadian Empire Arts and Gods

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

Third millenium BC clay tablets from Agade, the capitol of the Akkadian Empire, claim the city was as filled with gold and silver and that granaries were used to store copper, lead and slabs of lapis lazuli. Except for silver, these materials, along with tin and diorite (a mineral used in sculpture) were imported from Dilmun, in modern day Bahrain. Pearls, carnelian, silver, elephants, monkeys and water buffaloes were imported from the Indus Valley.

As animists, Akkadians believed all forces of nature (including non-living entities such as rocks) were alive and manifested as gods. All sculpture was focused around the gods and the royal family and most art was limited to jewelry, rich textiles, cylinder seals and other luxury goods for the ruling elite.

Sculpture became more naturalistic during this period, in part due to technological innovations that allowed sculptors to carve figures in wax to create a clay mold that could be filled with molten (arsenic)* bronze.

Akkadians believed their statues embodied a life force incorporating the essence of the subject’s soul. For this reason, the multiple statues kings erected in distant settlements were believed to have the same authority as the king himself. Many statues dating from the Empire are missing heads, as decapitating a statue was felt to destroy its power. Likewise praying to the statue of a god was comparable to praying to the god or goddess themselves.

Although most people were illiterate, creation myths and other god-related mythology related to the life of the gods began to be written down in Akkadia. Apprentice scribes learned to write by copying these myths in special schools.

The world’s first self-identified author, Enheduanna (daughter of King Sargon) dates from this time. A high priestess of the moon god, she wrote (and signed) hymns used in worship.

*With arsenic bronze, arsenic was added to copper instead of tin to make it harder and more durable.

Film can be viewed free with library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/akkadian-empire-arts-and-gods

Uruk: The World’s First Big City

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Uruk’s Colonies

Episode 5: Uruk: The World’s Biggest City

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

Founded around 40000 BC, Uruk was the first large city in the world. A walled city, it was approximately 260 hectares (the size of a large university campus) and housed 25,000 residents. It had two distinct temple precincts, one dedicated to Inana, the goddess of love, and the other to Anu, the god of the heavens. Each took 100 years to build, and (to keep the population employed) citizens began rebuilding them once they were completed

The economy was mainly based on farming, with most residents owning or working on farms outside the city walls and coming into the city to sleep. With the invention of the plow (pulled by oxen or donkeys) farming became much more efficient. This period also saw the invention of the wheel, the pottery wheel, cylinder seals (used like a signature to authenticate documents), a primitive writing system arsenic bronze. Wealthy began using bronze tools (because they were stronger than stone) and bronze dishes instead of ceramic ones.

Irrigation canals were enlarge until they were enough to accommodate sailing vessels.

There is evidence of a centralized government in Uruk that lived more luxurious lives than commoners but no kings. Although most people were illiterate, central government used the new writing system extensively. Scribes who kept governmental records (on clay tablets) learned to write in special schools. Archeologists have discovered clay tablets with lexicons of the proto-cuneiform* words they were expected to learn. Many are bilingual, with Sumerian** and Akkadian** versions of each word.

Uruk had a string of colonies across Mesopotamia and modern-day Syria and Turkey. They gained some via conquest (the first evidence of Middle East warfare. Others were uninhabited land taken up by Uruk settlers. The main purpose of the colonies wasn’t subjugation and exploitation, as with modern colonialism, but to facilitate trade. There is evidence Uruk traded with Egypt during this period.

Elements of modern Western life that derive from fourth millennium Uruk include

  • rectangular houses
  • streets
  • specialized rooms (ie kitchens)
  • marriage
  • laws
  • courts
  • armies
  • diplomats
  • burial of dead
  • written language
  • story telling

use of domesticated animals and plants to make clothes

*Proto-cuneiform – earliest form of writing on Earth, consisting of pictographs or simple drawings.

**Sumerian – language of ancient Sumer (area of southern Mesopotamia from 4500-1900 BC), gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language around 2000 BC, though it continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Akkadian-speaking Mesopotamian states.

***Akkadian – east Semitic language, now extinct, spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa and Babylonia)/

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/uruk-worlds-biggest-city