DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0094
56 EARLY BABYLONIAN PERIOD
and Hammurapi (2.12.3-2.081 b.c.), both of whose reigns indicate
a climax in the civilization of the valley.
Agriculture was the chief economic basis of the state, and
commerce was the main concern of the community. Not only was
business controlled by the state, with the king at the head, but
even the priesthood became an important factor in the business
life of the country, renting out land, bartering and exchanging
the wool, cattle, birds, fruits, grain, oil, and perfumes. Religion
itself was concerned chiefly with material prosperity.
After the climax reached under Hammurapi, when Babylon
for the first time became the leading city, a thousand years of
decline set in, when the state was harassed by the Kassites, a
pre-Indo-European people who came from the grasslands of the
north, bringing with them the horse. In the meantime the
struggling settlement of Assur in the northern part of the valley
was steadily gaining in strength, and ready to assume the leader-
ship upon the decline of the Babylonian power.
ARCHITECTURE
The remains are so scanty that, to study the architecture of
early Babylonia, we go to a temple some distance up the river at
Assur (Fig. 39), which, though really Assyrian, is of the same
general type as the Babylonian. It is a massive structure, with
thick, heavy turreted walls, built about an open court. The
entrances are constructed of square towers with arched openings,
contrasting in this respect with the work of the Egyptian, who,
with his plentiful stone, could roof over his buildings with lin-
tels; while the Babylonian, with no material large enough to
span the distance between the piers, used bricks made roughly
wedge-shaped so that they formed an arch.2 Thus of necessity the
arch, rather than the lintel, became the basic structural element
of his buildings. But the dominating feature of the temple is
the ^iggurat, or tower of four stages, each smaller than the one
below and ascended by a ramp. The purpose of the ziggurat was
to provide an artificial hill for the shrine of the god which had
been built on the mountain top before the Sumerians left their
original home. While the shrine is on the top of the tower, the
temple is on the plain. The stages of a ‘zjggurat recently discovered
at Ur were covered with glazed tiles, light blue for the shrine,
2 A true arch consists of wedge-shaped blocks, usually of brick or stone, called voussoirs, fitted
together in order to roof over the space between two supports.. The central voussoir, at the crown
of the arch, is called the keystone because when this block is put into place, usually last, the
arch is firmly set.
and Hammurapi (2.12.3-2.081 b.c.), both of whose reigns indicate
a climax in the civilization of the valley.
Agriculture was the chief economic basis of the state, and
commerce was the main concern of the community. Not only was
business controlled by the state, with the king at the head, but
even the priesthood became an important factor in the business
life of the country, renting out land, bartering and exchanging
the wool, cattle, birds, fruits, grain, oil, and perfumes. Religion
itself was concerned chiefly with material prosperity.
After the climax reached under Hammurapi, when Babylon
for the first time became the leading city, a thousand years of
decline set in, when the state was harassed by the Kassites, a
pre-Indo-European people who came from the grasslands of the
north, bringing with them the horse. In the meantime the
struggling settlement of Assur in the northern part of the valley
was steadily gaining in strength, and ready to assume the leader-
ship upon the decline of the Babylonian power.
ARCHITECTURE
The remains are so scanty that, to study the architecture of
early Babylonia, we go to a temple some distance up the river at
Assur (Fig. 39), which, though really Assyrian, is of the same
general type as the Babylonian. It is a massive structure, with
thick, heavy turreted walls, built about an open court. The
entrances are constructed of square towers with arched openings,
contrasting in this respect with the work of the Egyptian, who,
with his plentiful stone, could roof over his buildings with lin-
tels; while the Babylonian, with no material large enough to
span the distance between the piers, used bricks made roughly
wedge-shaped so that they formed an arch.2 Thus of necessity the
arch, rather than the lintel, became the basic structural element
of his buildings. But the dominating feature of the temple is
the ^iggurat, or tower of four stages, each smaller than the one
below and ascended by a ramp. The purpose of the ziggurat was
to provide an artificial hill for the shrine of the god which had
been built on the mountain top before the Sumerians left their
original home. While the shrine is on the top of the tower, the
temple is on the plain. The stages of a ‘zjggurat recently discovered
at Ur were covered with glazed tiles, light blue for the shrine,
2 A true arch consists of wedge-shaped blocks, usually of brick or stone, called voussoirs, fitted
together in order to roof over the space between two supports.. The central voussoir, at the crown
of the arch, is called the keystone because when this block is put into place, usually last, the
arch is firmly set.