STONEAGE,MESOPOTAMIA,BABYLON,ASSYRIAN,PERSIAN

1. •Introducing concepts of culture and civilization
-Paleolithic to Neolithic Culture – art forms
•Agricultural revolution
-its impact on culture and civilization
•Evolution of shelter – megaliths
-dwellings from Paleolithic and Neolithic age, Stonehenge etc.
•Mesopotamia

3. INTRODUCING CONCEPTS OF CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION
 Hunting gathering and Pastoralism
 Emergence of agriculture
 Permanent dwellings
 Population growth and epidemic diseases
 Technological changes
 Cultural changes
 Economic specialization
PREPARING THE SEED-BED

4. Characteristic Emergence of
technologies
Geographic range toolmakers
Palaeolithic
Age
400,000 to
10,000 B.C.
Mobile lifestyle – caves, huts,
tooth or skin hovels, mostly by
rivers and lakes.
A band of edibleplant gatherers
and hunters (25–100 people)
Handmade tools and
objects found in nature –
cudgel, club, sharpened
stone, chopper, handaxe,
scraper, spear, harpoon,
needle, scratch awl
Mesolithic
Age
20,000 BC to
9500 BC
Mode V tools employed in
composite devices – harpoon,
bow and arrow. Other devices
such as fishing baskets, boats
Temporary villages at
opportune locations for
economic activities
Neolithic
Age
9000 BC to
4500 BC
Polished stone tools, devices
useful in subsistence farming
and defense – chisel, hoe,
plough, yoke, reaping-hook,
grain pourer, loom, earthenware
(pottery) and weapons
Pakistan
Kashmir
Permanent settlements
varying in size from villages
to walled cities, public works.
PREHISTORICIRONAGEBRONZEAGESTONEAGE
Prehistory is the time period before the invention of writing.
Three-age system of C. J. Thomsen
Stone Age subdivisions - Sir John Lubbock

5. The Paleolithic Era (Old Stone Age)
400,000 to 10,000 B.C.
hunting animals and gathering plants to eat.
To hunt for food, early humans
formed spears, first by sharpening the
ends of sticks, but later by attaching a
sharp stone spear-tip to wood using
animal sinew.
people lived in temporary shelters
like caves and under the trees
because they were nomads.
CAVE ART
Cave paintings representing
the life of Paleolithic age and
their hunting techniques.

6. The Mesolithic Era( Middle Stone Age )
20,000 BC to 9500 BC
•Fishing, cultivation of cereals and vegetables began.
•Wooden objects such as canoes and bows
•Characterized by the introduction of agriculture.
Mesolithic Rock Art
Mesolithic populations were often forced to
become migrating hunters and settle in rock
shelters.
It is difficult to find a unique type of artistic
production during the Mesolithic Period, and
art forms developed during the latest period
of the Paleolithic were likely continued
Small Composite flint tools,
Backed edge bladelet: Mesolithic tools were
generally composite devices manufactured with
small chipped small stone tools called microliths
and retouched bladelets.

7. The Neolithic Era (New Stone Age)
9000 BC to 4500 BC
From hunter-gatherers to farmers.
invented agriculture To farm and
domesticate animals.
live in a permanent place they form a
village as a part of a tribe.
started making tools out of metal, It was
characterized by stone tools shaped by
polishing or grinding, dependence on
domesticated plants or animals
Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

8. They raised sheep, goats, and cattle that
provided milk and meat. They ate fish and
bird eggs from nearby low-lying wetlands
called marshes. Scenes drawn on the walls
of the city's ruins show that the people of
Çatalhüyük also hunted.
The Agricultural Revolution
they learned how to grow crops and tame
animals that produced food. They now
could produce a constant food supply.
Nomads gave up their way of life and
began living in settled communities.
This farming village grew in an area between
present-day Israel and Jordan called the West Bank.
Farmers grew fruits, nuts, and different grains on
land outside Çatalhüyük. People grew their own food
and kept it in storerooms within their homes.

9. Formation of tent houses
There is no instrument available to cut the tree trunk (trunks are
very heavy) and difficult to mould in any shape (by cutting), due
to branches they can easily bent them each other, creating the
inverted V-shape of a natural tent.
The bottom of each branch will need some support to hold it firm
on the ground. Maybe a ring of stones. When next in the district,
it makes sense to return to the same encampment.
The simple foundations will have remained in place, and perhaps
some of the superstructure too. This can be quickly repaired
constructed. There is often a circular or oval ring of stones, with
evidence of local materials being used for a tent-like roof.
CAVES HUTS MEZHIRICH LEANTOS TENTS
Stout posts along axis.

10. Mud walls
thatched roofs
https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=m2pOP9TYJjE

11. ÇATAL HÖYÜK (7,500 BCE – 5,700 BCE)
Southern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey)
it covered 32 acres and was home to about 6,000
people. The people lived in simple mud-brick
houses that were built close together
The settlement of Çatalhöyük is one of the oldest
urban settlements and one of the most well-
preserved Neolithic settlements
The people of Çatalhöyük were one of the
earliest people to adapt to a sedentary life
and practice agriculture.
The settlement has no streets or footpaths,
instead, the houses were clustered together
with roof access.

12. There is also evidence that the people of Çatalhöyük kept
their living spaces clean and disposed of their sewage and
food in an area outside of the ruins of the settlement.
The people also buried
their dead, painted murals,
sculpted figures, and even
plastered and painted
skulls to recreate faces.

13. Megalithic age
It means the formation of a (mega + stone)
structure to formation of a temple or warship,
memorial stones. place where all the peoples
meet and know there nature and enjoy.
STONE HENGE (3100-2000 BC) Wiltshire, England
•Circle is 97’ in diameter; trilithons 24’ high.
•The circles of trilithons at Stonehenge probably functioned
as an astronomical observatory and solar calendar.
•The sun rises over its “heel stone” at the summer solstice.
Some of the megaliths weigh 50 tons.

14. •Inside circle of megaliths is a larger horseshoe-shaped
group of megaliths which frame an “Altar Stone”
•Horseshoe-shaped stones face midsummer sunrise over
“Heel Stone”
•“Altar Stone” is a green sandstone taken from a mine in
Wales, over 200 miles away
•Heaviest stones 50 tons apiece, hauled by sledges (sleds)
•Tools for building: ropes, levers, rollers, axes
•Post and lintel construction
•Megaliths are 21 to 24 feet tall,
including height of lintel, and
buried four feet in the ground
•Solar and lunar orientation
•Stones dragged from far away
to this site
•Circle of megaliths embrace
structure, enclosing it

15. The lintels (horizontal
monoliths) were
fitted to one another
using a woodworking
method, the “tongue-
and-groove joint”

16. WEST ASIAN ARCHITECTURE - 3000BC to 330 BC.
“The Cradle of Civilization”
Mesopotamia, Located in and around the valley of
Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq
Sumerians One of greatest achievements of
ancient Mesopotamia was the invention of the
wheel sometime around 3,500 BCE, evidence
suggests that they were used for making pottery
Cedar woods as commodities
invention of tar for sealing
Vessel from Mesopotamia,

17. Weapons, Tools
Pottery
ArtWeaving of reed mats, Looms
Cuneiform

18. (A) EARLY SUMERIAN (3000—2000 BC)
(B) AKKADIAN ( 2340 – 2180 BC)
(C) OLD BABYLONIAN (2016-1595 BC)
(D) ASSYRIAN (1859—626 BC)
(E) PERSIAN (750—330 BC)
Mesopotamian cultures used a
variety of building materials. While
mud brick is the most common,
stone also features as a structural
and decorate element

19. The Sumerian civilization lacked natural defensive boundaries, was well
connected by land to other neighboring civilizations, exposed to the
threat of invasions for its fertile land provided by the two great rivers.
Mesopotamia - “ The land between two rivers ”
Tigris and Euphrates the two great rivers deposited their silt over the
plain, forming natural banks and frequently changing their courses
subjected to annual inundation resulting into the formation of calendar
and the study of astronomy. Their cities stood in a raised ground above
the neighboring plain and fortified with city wall and watch towers
(entrance tower). Their individual building within the cities were raised on
platform. The stone plinth were used to protect their building.
To facilitate the organization and administration
of these large, dense communities, people
began to create social infrastructures:
economic, political, and religious institutions
that created new social hierarchies.
Professional administrators,
Farmers, Artisans, Traders,
Merchants & spiritual leaders.
Formation of governments and social classes

20. Prayer was part of there daily life Offering of
cattle's for 1200 priest. They believed in eternal
life .They carried mysterious ceremonial rites,
also looked after medicine, astrology
The sumerian were the first civilization
to Make a conscious attempt of
designing public Buildings
“The land of the black-headed people”
The sumerian city of uruk is held to be
the oldest city in the world
Cities were enclosed in walls with ziggurat
Temples and palace as centers of the city.
The houses were densely packed with narrow
streets between them.
The houses streets were usually punctuated by
narrow openings that serve as entrance to houses.
Temples were the principal architectural
monuments of sumerian cities

21. WHITE TEMPLE (URUK) 3200-3000 BCE
White temple, rectengular sanctuary as
TempleVII, articulated with a uniform alternation
of protruding buttresses and deep niches.
The city was located in the southern part of
Mesopotamia, an ancient site of civilization,
on the Euphrates rivers
The site of Uruk was discovered in 1849 by
William Kennett Loftus

22. White temple has a part pleated
walls with white gypsum.
Using only mud bricks, the Sumerians
erected temple platforms called ziggurats.
The White Temple stands atop a high
platform, or ziggurat, 40 ft above the
street level of the city center.
A stairway on one side leads to the top but does not end in front of any of
the temple doorways, The bent-axis plan is the standard arrangement for
sumerian temples. The corners of the temple are oriented to the cardinal
points of the compass. It is probably dedicated to Anu, the sky god.

23. The temple had several chambers. The central
hall, or cella, was the divinity’s room and housed
a stepped altar. The Sumerians referred to their
temples as “waiting rooms”, a reflection of their
belief that deity would descend from the
heavens to appear before the priests in the cella.
The White temple was rectangular,
measuring 17.5 x 22.3 meters
a long rectangular central hall with rooms on
either side. The White Temple had three
entrances, none of which faced the ziggurat ramp
directly. Visitors would have needed to walk
around the temple, appreciating its bright façade
and the powerful view

24. The ruins of Ancient Ur of Sumer, one of the
world's earliest cities, with the Ziggurat of Ur
visible in the background. Located in present-
day Tell el-Mukayyar in Iraq.
It also served as an administrative complex
for the city of Ur,
ZIGGURAT UR (2112-2095 BC)
Early Bronze age
The term ‘ziggurat’ derives from
the Akkadian verb zaqārū
(“to build a raised area”)
In 1920s Sir Leonard Woolley excavated a massive
rectangular pyramidal structure oriented to true North

25. The Ziggurat at Ur and the temple on its top were
built around 2100 B.C.E. by the king Ur-Nammu of
the Third Dynasty of Ur for the moon god Nanna,
The core of the ziggurat is made of mud brick
covered with baked bricks laid with bitumen, a
naturally occurring tar. Each of the baked bricks
measured about 11.5 x 11.5 x 2.75 inches

26. The complex consists the ziggurat, its court, a
secondary court attached to it and the great temples.
The ziggurat 210 by 150 feet, constructed with three
levels of terraces, at base and 100 ft high,
Three monumental staircases led up to a gate at the
first terrace level.

27. Plan of
Shrine
Plan of Ziggurat

28. its sides were slightly convex, giving an added
effect of mass, broad shallow corner buttress.
Weeper – holes were provided through the
brickwork for the water to drain
The ziggurat, of Ur had a solid core of mud
brick , covered with a skin of burnt brickwork
of 8 ft thick, laid in bitumen and layers of
matting at intervals to improve cohesion,

29. Saddam Hussein knew that if he parked his MiG fighter jets close
to the Ziggurat, US bombers would spare them for fear of
destroying the ancient site.
His tactics worked to some extent, and the ziggurat suffered only
some minor damage by small arms fire. The walls of the Ziggurat
are still marked with hundreds of bullet and shrapnel holes.
in the 1980s, the former Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein restored the façade and
staircases by laying a layer of modern
bricks to protect the original ones.
Gulf War in the 90s, Hussein incorporated
the Ziggurat into his military base.

30. Babylon is the most famous city from
ancient Mesopotamia whose ruins lie in modern-day Iraq
59 miles (94 kilometres) southwest of Baghdad
Hammurabi made Babylon the center of his
kingdom, as the capital with flourishing trade &
economy, and the powerful center of worship.
The city of Babylon is shaped in the form of a quadrangle
sitting across and pierced by the Euphrates, the length of
the wall and moat is about five and a quarter miles.

31. Hanging Gardens of Babylon built by its greatest
king Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605-562 BCE).
Hanging Gardens of Babylon are known as the
Gardens of Semiramis - the name of the legendary
Assyrian queen, who always wished to live in an
ornamental lush green place that reminded her of her
motherland, these gardens has ceased to exist in 2nd
century earthquake that destroyed the garden.
The garden containing the fragrant smell of roses and
lilies to almond and cypress trees! Another interesting
aspect was that the gardens were raised by stone
columns, which supported the terraces, and thus the
trees & plants took roots in the stones, tiles, & asphalt.
IT HAD ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES, BARRACKS,
THE KING’S HAREM, PRIVATE APARTMENT ALL
ARRANGED AROUND FIVE COURTYARDS.

32. The Tower of Babel
Temple of Marduk and the great
towering ziggurat in the center
The Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi introduced the first unified
code of laws to rule and govern his people.
The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi,
enacted the code. A partial copy exists on a
2.25-meter (7.5 ft) stone stele. It consists of
282 laws, with scaled punishments

33. The Ishtar – gateway:
Traditional building was enhanced
by a new form of facade ornament
consisting of figures designed in
colored glazed brick work.
The Ishtar gate is built across the double walls of the city fortification.
The gate had a pair of projecting towers on each wall.
The procession street enters the city through the famous Ishtar gate.
The city was surrounded by a canal acting as a moat. It was also
protected by huge rampart walls which were more than 86km. In
length and provided with hundred bronze gateways.
Each of its eight gateways was protected by different gods, the
main palace and gate were dedicated to Ishtar, the goddess of
love and battle. The Ishtar gate was patterned by horned
dragons; yellow and white bulls in reilef on a blue background

34. THE ISHTAR GATE
Ishtar (Inanna in Sumerian
sources) is a primary
Mesopotamian goddess
closely associated with
love and war
120 lions were created in
polychrome relief tiles for the
processional way towards the
northern entrance to Babylon
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate of the city of Babylon
(in present day Iraq) and was the main entrance into the great city.
It was a sight to behold; the gate was covered in glazed bricks
which would have rendered the façade with a jewel-like shine.
Alternating rows of bas relief lions, dragons, and aurochs
representing powerful deities formed the processional way.
The Ishtar gate was patterned by
horned dragons; yellow and white
bulls in relief on a blue background
Aurochs from Ishtar Gate
dragon from the Ishtar gate

35. Stone was rare, availability of soil was plenty,
mixed with mud poured into moulds of sun
dried & kiln fired bricks and polychrome and
terracotta tiles.
Bitumen was obtained from natural spring was
first used as mastic, eventually its water
proofing quality was realized and used for
lining the drains and to reduce the erosion of
brick wall.
The Assyrian kings showed great energy in
ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE
THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF ASSYRIA WERE
NINEVEH, DUN, KHORSABAD, NIMRUDAND ASSUR.
Assyria is the name for a part of ancient
Mesopotamia located on the upper Tigris

36. Khorsabad Palace Gate
The Palace of Sargon at Khorsabad
(Dur Sarrukin)- Iraq
PALACES WERE RAISED ON BRICK PLATFORMS,
AND THEIR PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE WAYS WERE
FLANKED BY GUARDIAN FIGURES OF HUMAN
HEADED BULLS OR LIONS OF STONE.
THE WALLS OF CITIES WERE USUALLY STRENGTHENED
BY MANY TOWERS SERVING AS DEFENSIVE POSITIONS.
The City of Khorsabad was built by Sargon II (722-705 BC).
It was square-planned, with a defensive perimeter, and
covered nearly one square mile.
The Palace of Sargon, a complex of large and small courts,
corridors and rooms, covering 23 acres. Each of the buildings
was raised upon a terrace, was approached by road ramps.

37. Main entrance (Palace of Sargon )
Grand court
Temple court with
ramp
Group of small & big
temples
ziggurat
State court
Rooms &corridors
arranged around courts
Raised terrace
Main entrance
Plan of Palace of Sargon
View of palace of Sargon
The main entrance to the palace leading to Grand
court, was flanked by great towers and guarded by
man-headed winged bulls, 12’ 6” high, supporting a
bold, semi-circular arch decorated with brilliantly-
coloured glazed bricks.
Service quarters &
administrative offices

38. Entrance guarded
by winged bulls
Painted walls
vertical recessed panel
Stepped battlement
Flat buttress
Stone plinth
Towers or flat buttress
The temples had a ziggurat on a square base of
148’-0” side. The seven-tiered ziggurat rose to
148’0” ascended by a winding ramp 6’-0”wide.
The successive tiers were paneled and battlement,
painted in different colours on the plastered faces.
Square base Ziggurat

39. The palace had three main parts, each
abutting the grand court. On the left a
group of three large and three small
temples; on the right service quarters
and administrative offices; and with
the state chambers behind.
The state chambers had their own
court, with dado slabs over 7’-0” high
bearing relief's of the king and his
courtiers. The lofty throne-room,
about 160’ x 35’ , was the outermost
of the state suite planned around its
own internal court, with timber ceiling.

40. The court of the royal palace in Hatra
A human-headed winged bull known as
a lamassu from Dur-Sharrukin. Neo-
Assyrian Period, ca. 721–705 BC
Their halls and corridors were lined with
pictures & inscriptions carved in relief on
stone slabs up to 9 ft high.
Generally rooms were arranged around large and small
courtyards, rooms were narrow with thick walls supporting
barrel vault or domes the roofs were usually flat outside.
The plastered walls bore a painted decoration of a triple
brand of friezes, 18 ft high around the room above. Walls
were 20’ thick.
Burnt bricks were used sparingly for facings or for special
character. Walls were whitewashed or painted in color.
Towers or flat buttress strips were vertically paneled and
finished in stepped battlements with stone plinths below.
Their entrance were guarded by colossal winged bulls.
Polychrome glazed bricks were used for facing.

41. PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE
Cyrus and his successors, Darius 1 and
xerxes had conquered the entire civilized
world from indus to danube river
Persepolis and was constructed as a
new capital for the Persian empire.
RELIEF OF PERSIAN SOLDIER, XERXES'S PALACE
The palace of Persepolis was begun in 518 BC by Darius I, was
mostly executed by Xerxes I (486-465 BC). Various buildings
stood on a platform, partly built and partly excavate, faced in well
laid local stone bounded with iron clamps.

42. 1) The approach to the palace by
magnificent flight of steps on the
northwest, shallow enough for the horse
to ascend were6.7 m (22 ft) wide
2) Two great state halls towards the center
of the platform.
3) The palace of Xerxes, the harem, living
quarters at the south end of the site.
"All Nations Gate"
at Persepolis, located in
present-day Iran.
 The palace 460 m x 275 m (1500 ft x 900 ft) in extent and rising
15 m (50 ft) above the ground level surrounded by a fortification wall.
Structurally, the buildings relied On a hypostyle scheme
Throughout.
 The most impressive aspect of the Palace was the royal audience

43. Tripylon
propylon
Xerxes'
Gateway
The gatehouse of Xerxes has mud walls
faced with polychrome brick, with front
and rear portal guarded by stone bulls.
This palace along with tripylon and treasury were the
works of Darius. Tripylon lay centrally among the
buildings, acted as a reception chamber and ground
room. Treasury in the south-east angle of the site is a
double-walled administration and store house with
columned halls of different sizes and single doorway.
A doorway on the south led to “ apadana " a
grand audience hall 76.2 (250 ft) square
with 36 columns enclosed by a 6 m (20 ft)
wide walls. It stood on its own terrace 3 m
(10 ft) high had three porticoes, each with
double colonnades, stairway, on the north
and east sides and mirror rooms across the
Southside and with four angle towers.

44. Xerxes added his own palace, in the south-west connected by the
women Quarters known as harem. He also built "Hall of Hundred
Columns'. This is a Throne Hall, 225’ square, with columns 11.3 m
(37 ft) high, supporting a flat, cedar roof. Columns had capitals with
twin bulls or dragons supporting the roof beams.
All the monumental stairs were lined with relief sculpture. There were
stepped battlements in the parapet walls. All these sculptures were
originally in painted in brilliant colours. Column of the smaller
apartments had wooden shafts & complex capitals which were
decoratively painted. The walls of the main Halls were built of stone.

45. Double “bull” cap ital :
Apadana of Xerxes
Great hall of Xerxes