Download The Uruk - a gift to Brown

ARCH 0412
From Gilgamesh to Hektor:
Heroes of the Bronze Age
February 8-10, 2016:
Uruk: The City of Heroes &
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Announcements
• First assignment coming up (due Feb 12, Friday):
‘Creating a Digital Gilgamesh Exhibit’
• Two parts: Prepare an exhibit, upload/post link on
Canvas AND share it with the rest of the class in a 5
minute presentation.
• Groups?
Hero in Mesopotamia
• Gilgamesh Epic
• City of Uruk
• Mesopotamian mythology
What were the main components of the city of Uruk?
What are the main themes in the epic of Gilgamesh?
How does knowing about the archaeology of Uruk
change our understanding of the Epic of Gilgamesh?
What are some common themes in Mesopotamian
myths? Within this corpus, does the Epic of Gilgamesh
represent the norm or the exception?
Uruk & Gilgamesh Timeline:
Concentrate on Key events, monuments and objects
Period
Dates
(BCE)
Key Events
Key Monuments Key Objects
Early Ubaid
4500-4000
Late Ubaid
4000-3500
Early Uruk
3500-3200
Late Uruk
3200-3000
Early Dynastic I
2900-2750
Early Dynastic II
2750-2600
Early Dynastic IIIa
2600-2500
(Standard of Ur)*
Early Dynastic IIIb
2500-2350
(Stele of Vultures)*
Akkad
2350-2200
Neo-Sumerian (Ur III)
2100-2000
Old Babylonian
2000-1600
White Temple, Eanna
Proto-cuneiform
Warka Vase, Warka mask
City wall
Reign of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh written
down
* The Standard of Ur and the Stele of Vultures were not found in Uruk, but contributes significantly to our
understanding of kingship in Southern Mesopotamia at the time
‘Urban Revolution’ and Uruk
Urban Revolution (Gordon Childe,
1930s)
1. Extensive size and population
2. Agricultural surplus and the labour
division it supports
3. Taxation
4. Monumental public buildings
5. Ruling class
6. Means of recording and exact sciences
7. Invention of writing
8. Sophisticated artistic expression
9. Trade over long distances
10. The state
Early Sumerian cities
Uruk: ‘The First City’
Uruk’s city wall covered c. 10 km and enclosed more than 400 ha.
Uruk: The First City
A reconstruction of Babylon’s city
wall during the Neo-Babylonian
Period (6th century BCE)
The city wall of Uruk, as seen in 2003
Mud-brick and
preservation at Uruk
Reconstruction of the Late Bronze Age (14-13th
century BCE) city wall of Hattusa
City and Countryside at Uruk
City and countryside: topography, visibility
Uruk as seen in aerial photography
The Urban Landscape at Uruk
Two key areas for the
late 4th millennium BCE:
- The White Temple
- Eanna District
The ‘White Temple’
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Dedicated to the Sky God Anu
A ‘high temple’ sitting on a 13
meter high terrace
Buttressed on the exterior
Altar and table in the central
room for offerings
Mainly used in the 3rd
millennium BCE
The ‘White
Temple’
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White plastered inside and
outside (hence the name)
3 entrances and the ramp
does not lead to any of them
– space, visitor, impact
The Eanna Precinct
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Composite plan of the Eanna district (note, for instance,
that the Ur-Nammu ziggurat dates to 2100-2000 BCE)
Dedicated to Inanna, goddess of
love, fertility and war
Built heavily in the 4th millennium
BCE, but took on White Temple’s
importance during the 2nd and 1st
millennia BCE
All ground temples, no artificial
terraces
Yielded a lot of textual records
and important artifacts
The Eanna Precinct
The Eanna Precinct
The Uruk (Warka) Vase:
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ca. 3000 BCE
Alabaster vessel with scenes
of ritual activity
Top register: a priestess or
Inanna herself receiving gifts,
the ruler is possibly depicted
Middle register: Naked
priests process with food and
drinks
Bottom register: The natural
world- animals, plants and
the Euphrates
The Eanna Precinct
Mask of a woman:
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ca. 3200-3000 BCE
Limestone
20 cm high
Would have been attached to
a body
To be used with inlays and
adornments
Kingship
‘After kingship had descended from heaven, Eridu
became the seat of kingship. In Eridu, Aululim
reigned 28,800 years as king. Alalgar reigned 36,000
years. … Eridu was abandoned and its kingship was
carried off to Bad-tabira. …
The Flood then swept over. After the Flood had
swept over, and kingship had descended from
heaven, Kish became the seat of kingship. In Kish a
total of twenty-three kings reigned 24,510 years, 3
months, 3 ½ days. Kish was defeated; its kingship
was carried off to Eanna.
In Eanna, Meskiaggasher, the sone of the Sun God
Samas reigned as Priest and King 324 years. …
Lugalbanda, the shepherd, reigned 1,200 years. …
Gilgamesh, whose father was a nomad reigned 126
years. … Erech was defeated, its kingship was
carried off to Ur.’
The Sumerian King List (The Weld-Blundell Prism)
c. 2000-1800 BCE (Old Babylonian)
Ashmolean Museum, Ashm 1923-444
Kingship and Ritual in Ancient
Mesopotamia
Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BCE | from the Royal Tombs of Ur
Obverse Side : ‘Peace’
Kingship and Ritual in Ancient
Mesopotamia
Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BCE | from the Royal Tombs of Ur
Obverse Side : ‘Peace’
Kingship and Ritual in Ancient
Mesopotamia
Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BCE | from the Royal Tombs of Ur
Reverse Side : ‘War’
Kingship and Ritual in Ancient
Mesopotamia
The Stele of Vultures:
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ca. 2500 BCE
Found in Girsu
Narrates the border conflict
between the city-states of
Lagash and Umma and the
victory of Eannatum (king of
Lagash)
Obverse (mythological):
Ningirsu, the patron deity of
Lagash, capturing enemy
troops in a net
Reverse (historical): King
Eannatum leading the troops
Collaboration of mortal and
divine as a must for victory
Uruk in the Later Periods
Uruk in the Ur III period (21st century BCE) – when the Epic of Gilgamesh was written down
Ziggurat dedicated to Inanna at the center of the city
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Tablet I-IV: Meeting Enkidu and
Setting Off
Tablet V: The Combat with Humbaba
Tablet VI: Killing the Bull of Heaven
Fired clay mask of Humbaba
2000-1700 BCE
Excavated at Diqdiqqah
8 cm high
BM 127443
Cylinder seal and its impression depicting Gilgamesh (on the left)
and Enkidu (on the right) killing the Bull of Heaven as Ishtar (far
left and far right) tries to prevent them
Early 1st millennium BCE
Made of chalcedony, 2.9 cm high and 1.3 cm in diameter
BM 89435
Tablet VI-XI: Death of Enkidu,
wanderings of Gilgamesh and
Return
Cylinder seal and its impression depicting a bearded hero, possibly Gilgamesh, grasping a bull and a lion
c. 2700 BCE
Made of lapis lazuli, 2.7 cm high and 1.4 cm in diameter
BM 129461
The Epic of Gilgamesh:
Main Themes
• Fear of death and the inevitable mortality
• The ‘path to wisdom’: being formed by successes
and failures
• Friendship
• Nobility of heroic enterprise
• Immortality of fame
• City and countryside | Civilized and barbarian
Next Class
Mythology and deities in Mesopotamian pantheon:
Is Gilgamesh the norm or the exception?
Presentations on the Digital Gilgamesh Exhibit