Certainly this would provide for enough circulation in the hot summer months.
The mud-brick exterior was often whitewashed to reflect radiant heat. These homes could be multi-storied rooms on each level had doorways that faced the central courtyard, sometimes roofed over with wood rafters and palm fronds.
Typically, archaeologists seek out larger constructions that last longer-such as the larger and more complex homes of the wealthy. Due to the nature of mud-brick, these structures would eventually crumble and be built upon again, causing the ground level to rise over centuries. From the Akkadian period onward, the shape of Mesopotamian bricks became uniformly rectangular. Shapes and sizes of mud-bricks varied over the centuries, the first being long and thin, the rectangularity carrying over into the Early Dynastic period when a convex top was added, also known as plano-convex bricks. Due to the nature of mud-brick construction, large amounts of water would have been trapped inside and a system of “weeping holes” were cut to drain the interior on each level. With regards to construction, the core of the ziggurat was sun-baked mud-brick covered by several feet of fired brick to resist weathering.
Surviving examples today are convex on each face of the base whether this was a deliberate design feature to give the impression of massiveness, or a direct result of time and gravity, is unknown. In fact, the temple at Babylon was called “House of the Platform between Heaven and Earth.” Ancient Mesopotamians envisioned the lofty height as a resting place to which the gods could descend from heaven. The number of tiers would range from two to seven, leading to a shrine housed in a small temple at the top, with the purpose of connecting heaven and earth. The pinnacle of Mesopotamian architecture, these multi-leveled structures would rise high on receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform. Our tablet is a part of the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, and has been described by the Madrid Sumerologist Manuel Molina as a probable “fake, with lines copied from a real tablet and others incomprehensible” it has thus joined a not so exclusive group of sales objects whose provenience CDLI enters, in a borrowing from the unparalleled Dilbert comic strip, as “ Elbonia” (until proven otherwise!). The whole story is baseless, and this, and many other artifacts that moved, and still move through the antiquities markets are believed to be inauthentic, prepared by usually unpracticed hands for an all-too-receptive pool of enthusiasts. Double levels of these stepping stones would add thirteen fingers, or about eight inches, to his perceived height.īut wait a moment. 880 BC), with her directives to brick makers in ancient Nimrud to produce so-called “head-raising” bricks (Akkadian libitti niš reši) to be set along the ceremonial footpaths of the king. The royal tablet depicted here contains the inscription of a scribe of the reign of Assurnasirpal II (ca.
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