What Is Art Music Pottery Sculpture and Textlies Like in Sumer

The Mesopotamian Cultures

Sumer was an ancient Chalcolithic civilization that saw its creative styles change throughout unlike periods in its history.

Learning Objectives

Talk over the historical importance of the various civilizations that existed in Mesopotamia

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The Eridu economy produced abundant food, which immune its inhabitants to settle in one location and form a labor strength specializing in diverse arts and crafts.
• Writing produced during the early Sumerian period suggest the abundance of pottery and other artistic traditions.
• Elements of the early Sumerian civilization spread through a large surface area of the Almost and Middle East.
• The Sumerian city states rose to ability during the prehistorical Ubaid and Uruk periods.

Central Terms

• theocratic:A form of authorities in which a deity is officially recognized as the civil ruler. Official policy is governed by officials regarded as divinely guided, or is pursuant to the doctrine of a particular faith or religious group.
• casting:A sculptural process in which molten material (usually metal) is poured into a mold, allowed to cool and harden, and become a solid object.
• Cuneiform:I of the primeval known forms of written expression that began as a arrangement of pictographs. It emerged in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk Iv menstruation).
• Chalcolithic:Also known every bit the Copper Age, a phase of the Bronze Age in which the add-on of tin to copper to grade bronze during smelting remained notwithstanding unknown. The Copper Age was originally defined equally a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Historic period.

Sumer was an ancient civilization in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages. Although the historical records in the region do not go back much further than ca. 2900 BCE, modernistic historians believe that Sumer was outset settled between ca. 4500 and 4000 BCE by people who may or may non take spoken the Sumerian language. These people, now called the "Ubaidians," were the start to drain the marshes for agriculture; develop trade; and establish industries including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork , masonry, and pottery.

The Sumerian city of Eridu, which at that time bordered the Persian Gulf, is believed to be the world's outset metropolis. Here, three split cultures fused—the peasant Ubaidian farmers, the nomadic Semitic-speaking pastoralists (farmers who raise livestock), and fisher folk. The surplus of storable food created by this economy allowed the region's population to settle in ane place, instead of migrating as hunter-gatherers. It also allowed for a much greater population density, which required an extensive labor forcefulness and a division of labor with many specialized arts and crafts.

An early form of wedge-shaped writing chosen cuneiform developed in the early Sumerian period. During this time, cuneiform and pictograms suggest the affluence of pottery and other artistic traditions. In improver to the production of vessels , dirt was also used to make tablets for inscribing written documents. Metal also served various purposes during the early Sumerian catamenia. Smiths used a form of casting to create the blades for daggers. On the other mitt, softer metals like copper and gilded could exist hammered into the forms of plates, necklaces, and collars.

Stele of the Vultures: Battle formations on a fragment of the Stele of the Vultures. Example of Sumerian pictorial cuneiform writing.

Past the late fourth millennium BCE, Sumer was divided into about a dozen independent city-states delineated by canals and other boundary makers. At each city heart stood a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the urban center. Priestly governors ruled over these temples and were intimately tied to the metropolis'south religious rites.

Sumer: Map of the Cities of Sumer.

The Ubaid Menstruation

The Ubaid flow is marked by a distinctive way of painted pottery, as seen in the example beneath, produced domestically on a slow wheel. This style somewhen spread throughout the region. During this time, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was established at Eridu by farmers who first pioneered irrigation agriculture. Eridu remained an important religious heart even later on nearby Ur surpassed it in size.

Ubaid pottery

The Uruk Flow

The transition from the Ubaid menstruation to the Uruk flow is marked by a gradual shift to a great diversity of unpainted pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. The trough below is an example of pottery from this catamenia.

Uruk trough: The unpainted surface of this trough marks information technology every bit a production of the Uruk menstruum.

Past the time of the Uruk period (ca. 4100–2900 BCE), the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, stratified , temple-centered cities where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. Artifacts of the Uruk civilisation have been found over a wide area—from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and every bit far east as Key Islamic republic of iran. The Uruk culture, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists, had an upshot on all surrounding peoples, who gradually developed their own comparable, competing economies and cultures.

Sumerian cities during the Uruk menstruation were probably theocratic and likely headed by priest-kings (ensis), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. The later on Sumerian pantheon (gods and goddesses) was likely modeled upon this political structure. There is little evidence of institutionalized violence or professional person soldiers during the Uruk flow. Towns generally lacked fortified walls, suggesting little, if any, need for defense force. During this period, Uruk became the well-nigh urbanized urban center in the globe, surpassing for the commencement time 50,000 inhabitants.

Gilgamesh

The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish, whose name is also mentioned in the Gilgamesh epic (ca. 2100 BCE)—leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, the 2nd millennium BCE was associated with increased violence. Cities became walled and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared.

Ceramics in Mesopotamia

The invention of the potter'southward bike in the fourth millennium BCE led to several stylistic shifts and varieties in form of Mesopotamian ceramics.

Learning Objectives

Differentiate Ubaid pottery from later on styles in Mesopotamian ceramics

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The invention and evolution of the potter's bike allowed individuals to produce vessels at increasing speeds and in increasing numbers.
• Ubaid pottery was more decorative and unique than Uruk pottery.
• As ceramics evolved, shapes and sizes of clay objects became more varied.
• Clay could also be used for writing tablets that could be fired, if the owner believed the text was important.

Key Terms

• ceramics:The craft of making objects from clay.
• throwing:Shaping dirt on a potter's wheel.
• stylus:A writing implement that incises lines into surfaces, such as dirt.
• kiln:A special kind of oven used for firing ceramic objects at loftier temperatures.

Although ceramics developed in East asia c. 20,000-ten,000 BCE, the practice of throwing arose with the invention of the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia around the 4th millennium BCE. The earliest dirt vessels appointment to the Chalcolithic Era, which is divided into the Ubaid (5000-4000 BCE) and Uruk (4000-3100 BCE) periods.

The Chalcolithic Era

The Ubaid menses is marked by a distinctive style  of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia. Ceramists produced vases, bowls, and pocket-size jars domestically on slow wheels, painting unique abstract  designs on the fired clay.

Vase from the Late Ubaid Period, 4500-4000 BCE: A pottery jar from the Tardily Ubaid Period on brandish in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Experts differentiate the Ubaid period from the Uruk menstruation by the mode of pottery produced in each era. During the Uruk period, the potter's wheel advanced to allow for faster speeds. Equally such, ceramists could produce pottery more than quickly, leading to the mass production of standardized, unpainted styles of vessels.

The Akkiadian Empire

As the Akkadian Empire overtook the Sumerian metropolis-states , ceramists continued to produce bowls, vases, jars, and other objects in a variety of shapes and sizes. Like Uruk pottery, the surfaces of these objects were left unpainted, although some vessels appear to have a form of abstract reliefs on the surface. This photograph displays the various forms (including a form that resembles a present-twenty-four hours cake stand) that pottery took during the Akkadian Empire.

Akkadian pottery: A drove of Akkadian pottery on brandish at the Oriental Found Museum, Academy of Chicago.

Ur 3

The Tertiary Ur Dynasty , better known as Ur III, witnessed the continuation of unpainted ceramic vessels that took a diverseness of forms. This photograph depicts an urn that resembles today'southward flower vases, equally well as bowls, cups, and a smaller vase.

Pottery from the Ur III period: A collection of pottery from the Ur III menstruum on display at the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago.

As in previous eras, clay was too used to produce writing tablets that were incised with styluses fashioned from blunted reeds. Frequently, tablets were used for record-keeping (the ancient version of an role memo). Like other ceramic objects, tablets could be fired in a kiln to produce a permanent course if the text was believed pregnant enough to preserve. The tablets in the photograph below contain data about subcontract animals and workers.

Administrative texts in cuneiform writing: A collection of administrative texts in cuneiform writing on display at the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago.

Babylonian Ceramics

Pottery produced during the "Old" Babylonian period shows a return to painted abstruse designs and increased diverseness in forms. In this photograph, a basin, a jar, and a goblet show remnants of paint on their exteriors.

Old Babylonian pottery: A collection of erstwhile Babylonian pottery on display at the Oriental Constitute Museum, Academy of Chicago.

Sculpture in Mesopotamia

While the purposes that Mesopotamian sculpture served remained relatively unchanged for 2000 years, the methods of carrying those purposes varied greatly over time.

Learning Objectives

Place the purposes of the sculptures featured in this concept

Central Takeaways

Key Points

• Mesopotamian sculptures were predominantly created for religious and political purposes.
• Common materials included dirt, metal, and stone fashioned into reliefs and sculptures in the circular .
• The Uruk menses marked a development of rich narrative imagery and increasing lifelikeness of human figures.
• Hieratic scale was often used in Mesopotamian sculpture to convey the significance of gods and royalty.
• After the end of the Uruk period, subject matter began to depict scenes of warfare and became increasingly tearing and intimidating.

Key Terms

• register:A normally horizontal division of separate scenes in two- or three-dimensional fine art.
• hieratic calibration:A visual method of mark the significance of a figure through its size. The more of import a figure is, the larger it appears.
• terra cotta:Clay that has been fired in a kiln.
• loftier relief:A sculpture that projects significantly from its background, providing deep shadows.
• votive:An object left in temples or other religious locations for a variety of spiritual purposes.
• colossal:Extremely tall.
• lyre:A hand-held stringed instrument resembling a pocket-size harp.
• cylinder seal:A minor object adorned with carved images of animals, writing, or both, used to sign official documents.
• in the round:Sculpture that stands freely, carve up from a groundwork.
• relief:A sculpture that projects from a background.
• mixed-media:Artwork consisting of two or more different materials.
• nomadic:Mobile; moving from i place to another, never settling in one location for too long.

The current archaeological record dates sculpture in Mesopotamia the tenth millennium BCE, before the dawn of civilization . Sculptural forms include humans, animals, and cylinder seals with cuneiform writing and imagery in the round or as reliefs. Materials range from terra cotta , stones like alabaster and gypsum, and metals similar copper and statuary .

Hunter-Gatherers and Samarra

Because the artists of the hunter-gatherer era were nomadic , the sculptures they produced were small and lightweight. Even after cultures discovered agricultural methods, such as irrigation and animal domestication, artists continued to produce small sculptures. The seated female figure below (c. 6000 BCE), probable carved from a single stone,  hails from the prehistoric Samarra culture (5500-4800 BCE). Like many prehistoric female figures, the features of this sculpture advise that it was used in fertility rituals . Its breasts are accentuated, and its legs are spread in a position that might resemble a woman in labor. While the creative person emphasized areas of the body related to reproduction, he or she did not add facial features or anxiety to the figure.

Female person statuette from Samarra (c. 6000 BCE): A female statuette from Samarra on display at the Louvre Museum.

Uruk Catamenia

Spirituality and communication are reflected in sculptures dating the Uruk period (4000-3100 BCE) of the tardily prehistoric era. Scholars believe that the gypsum Uruk trough was used every bit role of an offering to Inanna, the goddess of fertility, dearest, war, and wisdom. In improver to reliefs of animals, reliefs of reed bundles, sacred objects associated with Inanna, adorn the exterior of the trough. For these reasons, scholars exercise not believe the trough was used for agricultural purposes.

Uruk trough (3300-3000 BCE): An Uruk trough on display at the British Museum.

Animals, along with forms of writing, as well appear on early cylinder seals, which were carved from stones and used to notarize documents. Officials or their scribes rolled the seals on wet clay tablets as a grade of signature. Cylinder seals were likewise worn as jewelry and accept been found along with precious metals and stones in the tombs of the aristocracy members of guild. The trough, cylinder seals, and various other sculptures of the Uruk menses serve as examples of the rich narrative imagery that arose during this time.

Uruk-period cylinder seal with stamped dirt tablet (4100-3000 BCE): An Uruk-period cylinder seal and stamped clay tablet featuring monstrous lions and lion-headed eagles, on display at the Louvre Museum.

The Uruk catamenia also marked an development in the depiction of the human body, as seen in the Mask of Warka (c. 3000 BCE), named for the present-solar day Iraqi urban center in which it was discovered. This marble "mask" is all that remains of a mixed- media sculpture that also consisted of a wooden body, gold leaf "pilus," inlaid "eyes" and "eyebrows," and jewelry. Like most sculptures produced during the time, the sculpture was originally painted in an attempt to make it look lifelike.

Uruk Caput, also known as the Mask of Warka (c. 3000 BCE): The eyes and eyebrows on this Uruk marble head are hollow to accommodate the original inlay.

Early Dynastic Period

Sculpture built on older traditions and grew more circuitous during the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2350 BCE). Although artists nevertheless used dirt and stone, copper became the dominant medium. Field of study matter focused on spiritual matters, war, and social scenes.

A cylinder seal discovered in the royal tomb of Queen Puabi depicts two registers of a palace banquet scene punctuated by cuneiform script, marking a growing complication in the imagery of this form of notarization. Each register features hieratic scale, in which the queen (upper annals) and the rex (lower register) are larger than their subjects.

Cylinder seal and stamped clay fragment from the tomb of Queen Puabi (c. 2600 BCE): The queen sits on the top annals, while the male monarch sits on the bottom. Each figure is set apart from his or her subjects through hieratic scale.

Another sculpture of note is a mixed-media bull's head that once adorned a ceremonial lyre found in Puabi'south tomb in Ur. The head consists of a gilt "face," lapis lazuli (a blueish precious stone) "fur," and shell "horns." Although much of the lyre, whose dominant material was wood, disintegrated over time, contemporaneous imagery depicts lyres with similar ornamentation. Scholars believe that lyres were used in burying ceremonies and that the music that was played held religious significance.

Bull's head from ceremonial lyre (c. 2600 BCE): This lyre was constitute in the tomb of queen Pu-Abi. The lapis lazuli, shell, crimson limestone decoration, and the head of the bull are original. The bull's head is covered with gold. The eyes are lapis lazuli and shell. The bristles and hair are lapis lazuli. A lyre of the same type is shown on the Standard of Ur.

Sculptures in man course were also used as votive offerings in temples. Among the best known are the Tell Asmar Hoard, a group of 12 sculptures in the circular depicting worshipers, priests, and gods. Like the cylinder seal constitute in Queen Puabi's tomb, the figures in the Tell Asmar Hoard show hieratic scale. Worshipers, as in the prototype beneath, stand with their arms in front end of their chests and their hands in the position of holding offerings. Materials range from alabaster to limestone to gypsum, depending on each figure'south significance. One common feature is the large hollowed out center sockets, which were once inlaid with stone to make them announced lifelike. The eyes held spiritual significance, especially that of the gods, which represented crawly otherworldly power.

Votive figure of a male worshiper from Tell Asmar (2750-2600 BCE): The votive effigy—made from alabaster, shell, blackness limestone, and bitumen—depicts a male worshiper of Enil, a powerful Mesopotamian god.

Akkadian Empire

During the period of the Akkadian Empire (2271-2154 BCE), sculpture of the human form grew increasingly naturalistic, and its subject matter increasingly about politics and warfare.

A bandage statuary portrait caput believed to be that of King Sargon combines a naturalistic olfactory organ and mouth with stylized eyes, eyebrows, pilus, and beard. Although the stylized features dominate the sculpture, the level of naturalism was unprecedented.

Head of an Akkadian ruler, probably Sargon (2270-2215 BCE): This portrait combines naturalistic and stylized facial features and was cast using the lost-wax method. The center sockets were once inlaid.

The Victory Stele of Naram Sin provides an instance of the increasingly tearing subject affair in Akkadian fine art, a result of the violent and oppressive climate of the empire. Here, the king is depicted as a divine figure, as signified by his horned helmet. In typical hieratic fashion, Naram Sin appears larger than his soldiers and his enemies. The king stands among dead or dying enemy soldiers as his own troops expect on from a lower vantage point. The figures are depicted in high relief to amplify the dramatic significance of the scene. On the right hand side of the stele, cuneiform script provides narration.

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin (12th century BCE): The rex stands in the center of the stele wearing a horned headpiece. His dead and dying enemies surround him while his own soldiers passively detect.

Babylon and Assyria

The 2nd millennium BCE marks the transition from the Eye Statuary Historic period to the Late Bronze Age . The most prominent cultures in the aboriginal Near Due east during this period were Babylonia and Assyria. Clay was the ascendant medium during this time, but rock was likewise used. The most common surviving forms of 2nd millennium BCE Mesopotamian art are cylinder seals, relatively pocket-sized costless-standing figures, and reliefs of various sizes. These included inexpensive plaques, both religious and otherwise, of molded pottery for private homes.

Babylonian culture somewhat preferred sculpture in the round to reliefs. Depictions of human figures were naturalistic. The Assyrians, on the other hand, developed a style of large and exquisitely detailed narrative reliefs in painted stone or alabaster. Intended for palaces, these reliefs depict royal activities such as battles or hunting. Predominance is given to animal forms, particularly horses and lions, which are represented in great detail. Human being figures are static and rigid by comparison, but as well minutely detailed. The Assyrians produced very little sculpture in the round with the exception of jumbo guardian figures, usually lions and winged beasts, that flanked fortified imperial gateways. While Assyrian artists were profoundly influenced by the Babylonian way, a distinctly Assyrian creative style began to sally in Mesopotamia around 1500 BCE.

Burney Relief (c. 1800-1750 BCE): The Burney Relief is a Mesopotamian terra cotta plaque in high relief of the Old-Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-similar figure with bird'south talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon supine lions. Apart from its distinctive iconography, the sculpture is noted for its high relief and relatively big size, which suggests that is was used as a cult relief, which makes it a very rare survival from the menstruum.

Compages in Mesopotamia

Domestic and public compages in Mesopotamian cultures differed in relative simplicity and complexity. As fourth dimension passed, public architecture grew to monumental heights.

Learning Objectives

Differentiate how Mesopotamian cultures approached domestic and public architecture

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Mesopotamian cultures used a multifariousness of edifice materials. While mud brick is the near common, stone also features as a structural and decorate element.
• The ziggurat marked a major architectural achievement for the Sumerians , too as subsequent Mesopotamian cultures.
• Palaces and other public structures were often decorated with coat or pigment, stones, or reliefs .
• Animals and human being-creature hybrids feature in the religions of Mesopotamian cultures and were often used as architectural decoration.

Key Terms

• alto relief:A sculpture with significant projection from its groundwork.
• bas reliefs:Sculptures that minimally project from their backgrounds.
• public sphere:The globe outside the home.
• ziggurat:A towering temple, similar to a stepped pyramid, that sat in the heart of Mesopotamian city-states in award to the local pantheon.
• individual sphere:The home, or the domestic realm.
• load-begetting:A class of architecture in which the walls are the construction's main source of support.
• stacking and piling:A form of load-bearing architecture in which the walls are thickest at the base of operations and grow gradually thinner toward the top.
• pilaster:
  A rectangular column that projects partially from the wall to which it is attached; information technology gives the appearance of a support, but is but for ornamentation.

The Mesopotamians regarded "the craft of edifice" equally a divine souvenir taught to men by the gods, and architecture flourished in the region. A paucity of stone in the region made sun baked bricks and clay the building fabric of option. Babylonian architecture featured pilasters and columns , as well equally frescoes and enameled tiles. Assyrian architects were strongly influenced by the Babylonian style , simply used rock equally well every bit brick in their palaces, which were lined with sculptured and colored slabs of stone instead of being painted. Existing ruins point to load-bearing architecture as the dominant class of building. All the same, the invention of the circular arch in the full general area of Mesopotamia influenced the construction of structures like the Ishtar Gate in the sixth century BCE.

Domestic Architecture

Mesopotamian families were responsible for the construction of their own houses. While mud bricks and wooden doors comprised the dominant edifice materials, reeds were likewise used in construction. Because houses were load-bearing, doorways were often the but openings. Sumerian culture observed a rigid division between the public sphere and the individual sphere , a norm that resulted in a lack of direct view from the street into the dwelling house. The sizes of individual houses varied, but the general blueprint consisted of smaller rooms organized around a large central room. To provide a natural cooling effect, courtyards became a mutual feature in the Ubaid menstruation and persist into the domestic architecture of present-day Iraq.

Ziggurats

One of the near remarkable achievements of Mesopotamian architecture was the development of the ziggurat, a massive construction taking the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels, with a shrine or temple at the top. Like pyramids, ziggurats were built by stacking and piling . Ziggurats were non places of worship for the general public. Rather, only priests or other authorized religious officials were allowed within to tend to cult statues and make offerings . The starting time surviving ziggurats engagement to the Sumerian culture in the fourth millennium BCE, but they continued to be a pop architectural form in the late third and early 2d millennium BCE as well .

Chogha Zanbil ziggurat: The Chogha Zanbil ziggurat was congenital in 1250 BC past Untash-Napirisha, the king of Elam, to honour the Elamite god Inshushinak.

The image below is an creative person's reconstruction of how ziggurats might have looked in their heyday. Homo figures appear to illustrate the massive calibration of these structures. This impressive height and width would not have been possible without the use of ramps and pulleys.

An artist's reconstruction of a ziggurat: Like near Mesopotamian architecture, ziggurats were composed of sun-baked bricks, which were less durable than their oven-baked counterparts. Thus, buildings had to exist reconstructed on a regular ground, ofttimes on the foundations of recently deteriorated structures, which caused cities to go increasingly elevated. Dominicus-baked bricks remained the dominant building fabric through the Babylonian and early on Assyrian empires.

Political Architecture

The exteriors of public structures like temples and palaces featured decorative elements such as brilliant paint, gold, foliage, and enameling. Some elements, such every bit colored stones and terra cotta panels, served a twofold purpose of ornamentation and structural support, which strengthened the buildings and delayed their deterioration.

Betwixt the thirteenth and 10th centuries BCE, the Assyrians replaced dominicus-broiled bricks with more durable stone and masonry. Colored rock and bas reliefs replaced paint as ornament. Art produced under the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE), Sargon Two (722-705 BCE), and Ashurbanipal (668-627 BCE) inform u.s.a. that reliefs evolved from uncomplicated and vibrant to naturalistic and restrained over this fourth dimension span.

From the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2350 BCE) to the Assyrian Empire (25th century-612 BCE), palaces grew in size and complexity. However, even early palaces were very large and ornately decorated to distinguish themselves from domestic architecture. Because palaces housed the royal family and everyone who attended to them, palaces were frequently arranged like small-scale cities, with temples and sanctuaries , likewise equally locations to inter the dead. Equally with private homes, courtyards were of import features of palaces for both utilitarian and formalism purposes.

Past the time of the Assyrian empire, palaces were decorated with narrative reliefs on the walls and outfitted with their ain gates. The gates of the Palace of Dur-Sharrukin, occupied by Sargon II, featured awe-inspiring alto reliefs of a mythological guardian effigy called a lamassu (also known as a shedu), which had the caput of a human being, the body of a balderdash or lion, and enormous wings. Lamassu figure in the visual art and literature from nearly of the aboriginal Mesopotamian world, going as far back equally ancient Sumer (settled c. 5500 BCE) and standing guard at the palace of Persepolis (550-330 BCE).

Lamassu: This is only one example of how a lamassu would appear in Mesopotamian fine art. Other sculptures wear conical caps, face up the front, or have the bodies of lions. In literature, some lamassu assumed female person grade.

Although the Romans oftentimes receive credit for the round arch, this structural arrangement actually originated during ancient Mesopotamian times. Where typical load-bearing walls are not stiff plenty to take many windows or doorways, round arches absorb more pressure, allowing for larger openings and improved airflow. The reconstruction of Dur-Sharrukin shows that the round arch was being used as entryways by the eighth century BCE.

Palace of Dur-Sharrukin: Round arches tin can exist found in the fundamental portal, likewise equally in each window on the right and left.

Perhaps the best known surviving example of a circular curvation is in the Ishtar Gate, which was part of the Processional Way in the city of Babylon. The gate, at present in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, was lavishly decorated with lapis lazuli complemented by blue glazed brick. Elsewhere on the gate and its connecting walls were painted floral motifs and bas reliefs of animals that were sacred to Ishtar, the goddess of fertility and state of war.

Ishtar Gate (c. 575 BCE): The reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

The photo to a higher place shows the immense scale of the gate. The photo below shows the item of a relief of a bull from the gate'southward wall.

Item of bull relief on Ishtar Gate: An aurochs, or bull, above a flower ribbon.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/mesopotamia/

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