Chapter 6, The Ancient Near East, 03 — Transcript

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1. 0:00The Warka Vase includes a lot of elements of ancient Sumerian society: growing plants
2. 0:07irrigated by water, animal husbandry (notice that we have alternating rams and ewes-male
3. 0:14and female sheep), separated social classes, elaborate religious practice, and an incredibly
4. 0:21close link between the king/priest and the deity-here, likely the goddess Inanna, goddess
5. 0:28of love, war, and fertility.
6. 0:32Men whose nudity indicates their lower social status bear vases and baskets full of produce
7. 0:38as votive offerings-gifts brought to the deity.
8. 0:42The Warka Vase not only reflects elements of Sumerian society, it displays artistic
9. 0:49CONVENTIONS, or established means of representation, that were developed in ancient Mesopotamia
10. 0:58and remain very influential.
11. 1:01The decoration is laid out in registers, or horizontal bands.
12. 1:06We still see the influence of this convention today, in comic strips!
13. 1:11Another Sumerian artistic invention on display here is a shared ground line.
14. 1:18Think back to last chapter and the Neolithic Deer Hunt.
15. 1:22The human and deer figures there, although part of a shared narrative, seemed to hover
16. 1:28on the surface of the wall.
17. 1:31Here, we see everyone's feet aligned on the same horizontal level.
18. 1:36Finally, our most important figures here-the deity and the priest-are not only better dressed
19. 1:43than the servants, they're larger.
20. 1:46We see here the convention of hierarchy of scale.
21. 1:51A female head that may represent Inanna, or possibly a mortal priestess, was found at
22. 1:58this same temple complex in Uruk.
23. 2:02The material is again stone, this time expensive imported marble.
24. 2:06The head was probably attached to a wooden body that was dressed in expensive clothing.
25. 2:13She was probably also painted, and had both a gold-leaf wig (attached to the groove at
26. 2:20the top of her head) and inlaid eyes and eyebrows, now lost.
27. 2:26It's important to realize that many of these ancient sculptures look very different now
28. 2:31than they did at the time of their creation.
29. 2:36Deities like Inanna had a central role in the daily life of Sumerians, and the layout
30. 2:41of their cities reflects this.
31. 2:44Each city-state had a main temple to their chief deity at its center, towering above
32. 2:50the rest of the buildings.
33. 2:52The temple complex itself was like a small city, with priests and scribes conducting
34. 2:59official administrative and commercial business as well as religious functions.
35. 3:06These city states could be quite large; by the 4th millennium BCE, the population of
36. 3:11Uruk was around 40,000.
37. 3:15The White Temple at Uruk was dedicated to Anu, the sky god, and was raised on a man-made
38. 3:22mountain called a ziggurat that allowed it to tower over the city, symbolic of the central
39. 3:29role of the gods.
40. 3:32Ziggurats have four sloping sides, like a pyramid, but are flat on top, and are made
41. 3:38of mud brick rather than the stone the Egyptians used to build the pyramids, which explains
42. 3:45the eroded state of the ziggurat today.
43. 3:50Like the pyramids, building the ziggurat required massive people power.
44. 3:55As the textbook mentions, some of this work may have been inspired by religious belief,
45. 4:01but there was also likely the use of corvee labor, which is unpaid forced labor required
46. 4:08by the state.
47. 4:11Although the ziggurat and temple were built by the people, they were not *for* the people.
48. 4:17Only the very elite (priests and rulers, often the same thing) were allowed to even climb
49. 4:24with long, steep path up this simulated mountain, and entrance to the inner areas of the temple
50. 4:31was even more exclusive.
51. 4:34The temples were built not for people, but for the gods.
52. 4:37In fact, the ancient Mesopotamians considered their temples to be "waiting rooms" for the
53. 4:44gods.
54. 4:46The reconstruction drawings in this chapter show the temple with a roof, but they may
55. 4:52actually have been open to the heavens where the deities were believed to live, and toward
56. 5:00which the ziggurats lifted them.
57. 5:04These votive figures were found in another Sumerian city-state, Eshnunna.
58. 5:10Collectively, they're often known as the Eshnunna statuettes.
59. 5:15The "Standing Male Worshipper," discussed in the textbook, is one of the two largest
60. 5:22figures, as shown in the photograph on the right.
61. 5:26Take a moment to examine them-and to read about the Standing Male Worshipper in the
62. 5:32textbook (also linked below).
63. 5:35What do you notice?
64. 5:37Based on what you know about the purpose of Sumerian temples, what purpose do you think
65. 5:43they might have served?