Assyrian culture
In the extreme north of Mesopotamia, the Assyrian people settled who with a long history in the area were subjected to the most powerful kingdoms and peoples of the south. Of these peoples, of course, many elements that contributed to form their own culture, which manifested markedly in their creations in which they used artistic and constructive techniques inherited from the Sumerians, were assimilated.The new Assyrian state grew around four cities fed by the waters or tributaries of the Tigris.
The four most important Assyrian cities were:
– Asur (by the god Asur) also calling the entire Assyrian region.
– ARBELA.
– Nimrud (or Cala)
– Nineveh. (By Nina, goddess of the Assyrians)
The first of the kings of the Nation had its residence in Asur, until the adverse desert climate as well as the attack of the Babylonian neighbors led the rulers to the decision to build a second capital in Nineveh. They brought their common language and artistic traditions from Sumeria, but subsequently modified them in a derivation arising from the fusion of their Sumerian roots and the language and arts of Babylon.
Decoration with reliefs in Assyrian art.
His Babylonian neighbors with whom they maintained dare points of trade and exchange as well as at different times in history (not as peaceful as it is the case of territorial conquests) contributed the knowledge of techniques applied to artistic creation, among which the elaboration of beautifully decorated polychrome glazed bricks stands out. With this technique the Assyrians decorated palaces and temples. Among the various themes they used are the representation of majestically represented lions.
These lions capture with surprising realism the expressions of pain, anguish, pride or fierceness according to which the artist represents in the image. They also developed stone reliefs and paintings in which the theme of the lions was present with human figures facing them. Other animals such as the noble horse and ox were also represented.
A imposing examples of decoration applied to architecture have come to this day as is the case of winged protective figures combining the fused human and animal image that were placed in the entries of important buildings whose realization shows a level of detail and care in the termination that amaze the spectators taking into account that they were made in such a remote time of the history of humanity.
The technique of the relief that they executed in stone, diorite, metal and clay constituted an effective means of expression of their beliefs, their culture and their conception of life that was based mainly on the here and now, on everyday experiences, on their heroic legends; Conceptions are very different about the lives of those other cultures such as the Egyptian.
These reliefs were made on walls, utilitarian vessels and also those that were made for adoration and funeral purposes. Combining the decorative with the utilitarian. The reliefs were also commissioned by the kings for the decoration of the palaces and stays destined to the cult of the gods. I recommend watching this short video where these beautiful reliefs can be seen in 3D.
Artistic works were usually carried out using the natural elements that found as stone, alabaster, shells, lapislázuli, diorita, marble and ivory.
In the doors of Nimrud or Jursabad, huge guard sculptures, (winged sphinxes with human heads and bull body with five legs offer a frontal and a side point of view. The narrative frieze, which comes from the scenes of sequences of prints and stamps, will be the most important artistic element of Assyrian art.
The architecture of Assyrian culture in antique
The construction of Zigurat, element of the constructive pattern from Sumeria is maintained in the Assyrian culture and reaches greater height (up to seven platforms) thanks to the constructive reinforcement techniques they applied; which contributed an effect of grandiloquent imposition that served very well to religious and power propaganda purposes. On their walls, reliefs were placed on the feats of gods and kings and the incorporation of decoration with marbles and alabaster stood further the splendor of these buildings.
The Assyrian Zigurat had no exterior stairs ascended to the upper level by an inner staircase from the lobby, they also built minor temples destined to worship secondary deities.
The palaces did not stay behind in terms of the diversity of new techniques used that enabled the construction of wider and stronger walls, the semicircular arc system and the elliptical system is used for the doors used with preference.
Numerous steps that give access to the upper levels using some of the Sumerian and Babylonian techniques (to which they added their own contribution) accentuate the majesty of palaces and temples that showed huge doors made in wood and metal.
Large halls or runners communicated the stays of these palaces. The construction and location of the windows shows an innovative technique in which the entry of light and visibility abroad is allowed but is taken care of at the same time that it was effective for security purposes. These palaces had large interior courtyards with floors covered with bricks made of cooked mud and on the walls were beautiful decorations.
The construction of cities-palacios in Assyria establishes new representative elements that respond directly to the idiosyncrasy and way of seeing the particular life that Assyrians had. As an example of these cities-palacios this is the city of Asur that was built by order of Tukulti-Ninurta I.
In the decorative aspect there is a tendency to the stylization of the images that represent the gods, and the figures of the human beings from those who symbolize the gods are much better different in them. The Assyrians also discussed worldly issues in their decorations telling stories of the daily event of kings and subjects.
First Assyrian Empire
By 1810 ac an Assyrian king, Shamshi-Adad I, managed to extend the territory of Assyria, from the Zagros Montes to the Mediterranean Sea. He may have been the first ruler to establish a empire Centralized organized in the Middle East. His kingdom was divided into districts. This first Assyrian empire with Shamshi-Adad did not last long, nor that of his son Ishme-Dagan I (which reigned around 1780 and was defeated about 1760 AC by King Babylon Hammurabi, thus Asiria became part of the Babylonian empire until the defeat suffered by Babylon at the hands of the Kassites in the 16
About 1500 AC Assyria became a dependence on Mitanni, a kingdom that controlled the entire northern Mesopotamia, King Assyrian Ashur-Uballit and around 1364 AC Liberated Assyria of the yoke of Mitanni and even annexed some of its territories. This king happened others that extended the borders and kept their neighbors away from dominating in a wide region of Mesopotamia.
The ancient Assyrian culture It is very well documented in the numerous reliefs and taxed tablets found as well as in the artistic works discovered by archaeologists.
The Assyrians were forming with the course of the years a definition as a people and nation that clearly manifested in those same artistic creations. His art is intended to serve as a medium of propaganda of the power of kings and also at the service of religious purposes and representation of his idiosyncrasy. Assyrians use worldly issues and their constant interaction with other peoples did not prevent a unique and distinctive culture from being consolidated in them that proudly showed the world.
His way of seeing life; The struggle for survival their achievements, conquests and all everyday also had an important role in their conformation as a culture what is a constant that is represented in all means of artistic creation that they had within their reach already in architecture, painting and sculpture as in others no less important such as dance, poetry, music,
Religion in Assyria culture in antiquity.
It was loved hundreds of gods in Mesopotamia who became important depending on the strength of each ethnicity, region or city. In general there was great religious tolerance. Marduk and Asur were two deities that were imposed on the rest, due to the growing influence achieved by Babylon and Assyria. Since it was the strength of the conquerors, it influenced the conquered, (separate tolerance).
In their beliefs the gods frequently took human form and visited them as their desire were behaving as humans. The king considered Asur’s representative on earth and was also the high priest. All these cults required the maintenance of large temples, priests and offerings for the gods and the files found in the mud tablets showed the need for large amounts in the real budget for the performance of such activities.
The Assyrian religion had the following gods which were widely represented in their art.
– Asur (God of the gods) who dwelt in the city of Asur.
– Ishtar (battle and love).
– Ninurta (God of hunting and war).
– Samash and Adad (Baal)God of storms, presided over the divination.
– Harran (God of the Moon took great importance towards the end of the Assyrian Empire).
– Nin (It was also the goddess Luna), gave Nineveh a one of the Assyrian cities.
The “Gilgamesh epic«, It deals with the feats of a hero whose figure seems to have been popular in Assyria around the year 2600 AC its legend comes from Sumeria and was still counted in Assyria and Babylon more than a thousand years later. It was represented in Assyrian art. quite often, judging by the examples of ceramic stelae that have been found.
Historical events that contribute to form this culture.
Assyrian culture Develop an extreme hardening of character for their previous confrontations with other tribes that ruthlessly diminished their population in the invasions they suffered, this aspect added to their conception that the world would end if they lost their battles; They exacerbated to the extreme the brutality with which they undertook their conquests and submitted to the regions that fell under their power. His story is full of wars and conquests, but also of bloody defeats.
The Assyrians …