ARTH 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ziggurat, Lamassu, Shamash
Document Summary
City-state: a sovereign state (type of small independent country). Ziggurat: sumerians most impressive surviving archeological remains; huge stepped structures with temple/shrine at the top. Cuneiform: sumerian writing system composed of phonograms - representation of syllable sounds. Votive figure: image created as a devotional offering to deity. Hierarchy of scale: relative size indicates relative importance. Stele: vertical stone slap decorated with inscriptions or reliefs. Citadel: a fortress, typically on high ground, protecting or dominating a city. Lamassu: supernatural guardian protector of ancient near eastern palaces and throne rooms. Often represented sculpturally as a combo of the bearded head of man, powerful body of lion/bull, wings of an eagle and the horned headdress of a god. Urak = world"s first city (city-state, population ~40,000) Civilization describes these city-states because they have an established language and are lasting longer. Ziggurat (one of the earliest forms of architecture: white temple and ziggurat(mountain of god), urak (modern warka), iraq, ca.
