Ancient Mesopotamia: The Ziggurat Ancient Mesopotamia: The Ziggurat Wednesday Jan 12, 2011 · 8:26 AM PST 2011/01/12 · 08:26 52 Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in present-day Iraq, is often considered the cradle of civilization. It was here that civilization, characterized by cities, monumental architecture, and writing, began to develop about 7,000 years ago. One of the characteristic forms of Mesopotamian monumental architecture is the ziggurat. The ziggurat is a Mesopotamian religious monument consisting of a series of stepped mud-brick platforms. The ziggurat evolved out of the platform temples of the Ubaid culture (5000 to 3800 BCE). These platforms were intended to raise the shrine of the god closer to heaven. The White Temple at Uruk (about 3150 BCE) appears to be part of an early predecessor of the ziggurat.

Ziggurats first appeared during the Early Dynastic Period (2900 to 2400 BCE) and are associated with the Sumerian City-States. The typical ziggurat had a rectangular base and built against one of its sides were three ascending staircases forming a T-shape. Mesopotamia was resource poor in that it lacked stones for building. Unlike ancient Egypt, this meant that large buildings had to be built out of mud-brick. Ziggurats were a part of a larger temple complex. This complex included places for slaughtering sacrificial animals, altars for making the offerings to the gods, places where the priests could bathe and purify themselves, dwelling places for the priests, and storehouses for ritual equipment. The oldest surviving ziggurat is the Temple of Sin (Nanna) built by Ur-Nammu at Ur about 2100 BCE. Under the rule of Ur-Nammu, Ur boasted paved roads, tree-lined avenues, schools, poets, scribes, and highly developed art. This ziggurat consists of three platforms of unbaked brick (cased with outer layers of baked brick).

The lowest platform covers about 3000 square meters and is about 11 meters high. The other two layers and the temple have eroded away. It is assumed that there was a structure on top which served as a chapel or temple. Ur-Nammu is shown seated in the seal below: The ziggurat at Ur is shown below: Sin (Nanna) is the moon god, seen in Sumerian mythology as the son of Enlil and Ninlil. Sin (Nanna) was the principal god of Ur. He is seen as the lord of fertility as well as the god of the moon. As Ur rose to prominence in the Euphrates Valley, Sin became to be regarded as the head of the pantheon in the area. Sin was portrayed as having a beard of lapis lazuli and riding a winged bull. On cylinder seals, he was portrayed as an old man with a flowing beard and the crescent symbol. Symbolically, he was represented by the number 30 and the moon. The number 30 probably refers to the average number of days in a lunar month.

At Nippur, the Semitic rulers razed the earlier temple structures and erected a terrace of bricks about 12 meters high which covered about 32,000 square meters. On this was built a ziggurat with three stages of dry brick faced with kiln-fired bricks laid in bitumen. On the summit of this tower, was placed a small chamber, a special shrine or abode of the god. Access to the stage of the ziggurat from the court was by an inclined plane on the south-east side. The most famous ziggurat is the temple of Etemenanki at Babylon, which is traditionally equated with the Tower of Babel. It is not clear exactly when this ziggurat was first constructed. Nabopolassar threw off Assyrian rule over Babylon in 626 BCE. His son, Nebuchadnezzer II then made Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. He ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial groups, including the rebuilding of the Etemenanki ziggurat.

On a stele from Babylon, excavated in 1917, the ziggurat of Etemenanki ("House of the Foundation of Heaven on Earth") is depicted as having seven terraces with a temple on top. A cuneiform tablet from Uruk in 229 BCE (which was a copy of an earlier tablet) describes the ziggurat as having a height of 91 meters (298 feet) and having a square base of 91 meters on each side. The size of the base of the structure has been confirmed through archaeological excavation. In 440 BCE, Herodotus wrote: The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half-way up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where persons can sit for some time on their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side.

There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the chamber occupied of nights by any one but a single native woman, who, as the Chaldeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for himself by the deity out of all the women of the land. The Etemenanki ziggurat was associated with the temple of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon. Marduk was associated with water, vegetation, judgment, and magic. Marduk is depicted below: Marduk was a very important god. His name was considered so holy that it was almost never pronounced. Marduk had defended the other gods against the diabolical monster Tiamat. After he had killed her, he brought order to the cosmos. On top of the Etemenanki ziggurat was the temple which contained several cult rooms. It was in one of these rooms where Marduk lived with his wife Sarpanitum. A second room offered accommodation to the scribe-god Nabû and his wife Tashmetu. In addition there were rooms for the water god Ea, the god of light Nusku, and the god of heaven Anu.

Overall, archaeologists have identified more than 30 ziggurats in Mesopotamia. Each great city had one. Perhaps, like modern skyscrapers, in order to be considered a city, it had to have a ziggurat. This diary was originally posted on Street Prophets Ziggurats in Ancient Mesopotamia - Mesopotamia for Kids FAQ, About Us In the center of each town, was the Ziggurat. The Ziggurat was a temple. The ancient Sumerians, believed their gods lived in the sky. In order for the gods to hear better, you needed to get closer to them. Ziggurats were huge, with built in steps. Ziggurats had a wide base that narrowed to a flat top. When the Babylonians took over in the south, and the Assyrians in the north, ziggurats continued to be built and used in the same manner as they were in ancient Sumer. The Ziggurat was the tallest building in the town. From its top, you could see well into the farmlands that surrounded the city. The largest ziggurat was probably the one built in ancient Babylon. The Assyrians also built ziggurats.

Religious ceremonies were held on top of the Ziggurat. Each day, people would leave offerings to the gods of food, cloth, and wine on the steps of the ziggurat. The priests would collect and use these gifts since they were the representatives of the gods on earth. Ziggurats - Crystalinks Ziggurats Mesopotamian Ziggurat at Ur , c. 2100 B.C. A ziggurat "to build on a raised area" is a temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley and Iran, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories. Ziggurats were a form of temple common to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia.The earliest examples of the ziggurat date from the end of the third millennium BCE and the latest date from the 6th century BCE. Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance.

The number of tiers ranged from two to seven, with a shrine or temple at the summit. Access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. Notable examples of this structure include the Great Ziggurat of Ur and Khorsabad in Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods. Through the ziggurat the gods could be close to mankind and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted inside the ziggurat and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. As a result the priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society. There are 32 known ziggurats near Mesopotamia. Four of them are in Iran, and the rest are mostly in Iraq. The most recent to be discovered was Sialk, in central Iran.

One of the best preserved ziggurats is Choqa Zanbil in western Iran, which has survived despite the devastating eight year Iran-Iraq war of the 1980's in which many archeological sites were destroyed. The Sialk, in Kashan, Iran, is the oldest known zigurrat, dating to the early 3rd millennium BCE. Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple. An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk, in ancient Sumer. The ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens, and provide access from the ground to it via steps. An example of an extensive and massive ziggurat is the Marduk ziggurat, or Etemenanki, of ancient Babylon. Unfortunately, not much of even the base is left of this massive structure, yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions.

The temple is thought to have been painted and maintained an indigo color, matching the tops of the tiers. It is known that there were three staircases leading to the temple, two of which (side flanked) were thought to have only ascended half the ziggurat's height. Etemenanki, the name for the structure, is Sumerian and means "The Foundation of Heaven and Earth." Most likely being built by Hammurabi, the ziggurat's core was found to have contained the remains of earlier ziggurats and structures. The final stage consisted of a 15 meter hardened brick encasement constructed by King Nebuchadnezzar. It has been suggested that the ziggurat was a symbolic representation of the primeval mound upon which the universe was thought to have been created. The ziggurat may have been built as a bridge between heaven and earth. The temples of the Sumerians were believed to be a cosmic axis, a vertical bond between heaven and earth, and the earth and the underworld, and a horizontal bond between the lands. Built on seven levels the ziggurat represented seven heavens and planes of existence, the seven planets and the seven metals associated with them and their corresponding colors.

Joseph Campbell in his Masks of God books says that there is archaelogical evidence supporting a direct link between Mesopotamian ziggurats and the pyramids of Egypt. Campbell also states that from Egypt, the Mesopotamian culture was passed on almost simultaneously on two separate fronts to Crete and India. From India it reached China and from there it crossed the ocean to the pre-columbian societies of Central and South America, which could explain the similarities between ziggurats and Mayan pyramids. Campbell further explores the geometry of the ziggurat and its philosophical and spiritual repercussions. According to Campbell, ziggurats first appeared during a sudden scientific and philosophical golden age where such other discoveries were made such as the invention of the wheel, the discovery of the calendar and astronomy, as well as the invention of the written word. For Campbell these are all related. The Earth needs 365 days to make a single revolution around the Sun, which is also an approximation of the number of degrees in a circle. Ziggurats, like all pyramidal structures, have a square base which could be encompassed within a circular area. The square base theoretically represents the additional five days.

The five days can be seen in the four points of the square as well as the fifth point in the middle, which is the point of the square's equilibrium as well as the point of equilibrium of whatever circle that encompasses it. The fifth point represents the bridge to heaven represented by the circle, a universally considered symbol for infinity and perfection, and the terrestrial world in turn represented by the square. The highest point of a pyramid is a projection of the square's center point. This can be interpreted as the earth's highest point being heaven's lowest. There are examples of the philosophies surrounding the ziggurat in all major ancient civilizations of the world, which Campbell has affirmed is no accident. Examples can be observed in the seven leveled Chakra system of India as well as the dualistic Yin-Yang of China. The Biblical account of the Tower of Babel may be based on Mesopotamian ziggurats. The ziggurat style of architecture continues to be used and copied today in many places of the world. One example would be the University of Tennessee central library, in Knoxville, Tennessee. University of Tennessee Central Library Another would be the ziggurat by the river, near downtown Sacramento, California, used as corporate office space.

Archaeologists dig up some of Nebuchadnezzar's legacy Boraippa, Iraq - December 3, 1998 - Associated Press After 20 years of digging, Austrian archaeologists say they have determined the design of a Mesopotamian ziggurat - a temple tower - built by King Nebuchadnezzar some 2,500 years ago. The temple tower consisted of seven terraces built of millions of mud bricks and rose 231 feet, the scientists say. It probably was similar to the many ziggurats built by Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler who ordered the destruction of the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem, they add. The temple of Borsippa, 75 miles south of Baghdad, was constructed atop the ruins of a smaller tower from the second millennium B.C. Nebuchadnezzar's temple was dedicated to Nabu, the god of science and learning in Mesopotamia and the king's protector.

Wilfrid Allinger-Csollich of the University of Innsbruck said that of all the temple towers built during the Nebuchadnezzar's 40-year reign, the Borsippa ziggurat has best survived the ravages of time. The Austrians removed thousands of tons of debris from the mound that gradually built up around the tower over the ages and uncovered most of the ziggurat's remains, which still rise to 172 feet. The work revealed the tower's exact dimensions, Allinger-Csollich said. "We did not use high-tech, but rudimentary means. We just counted the number of bricks," he said. The square bricks used by Nebuchadnezzar had standard dimensions -- 13 1/4 inches on each side and 3 1/4 inches in depth. The Austrians used mechanical shovels to reach the foundation, which they measured at 297 by 297 feet. More than 1 million fired bricks were used for the first level's 3.3-foot-tall outer wall, Allinger-Csollich said. Given the Borsippa tower's height of 231 feet.

The builders filled the inside of each level with tens of millions of unfired bricks held in place with cedar beams brought from Lebanon. The Austrians determined the tower had three staircases and are in the process of calculating how many steps each had. Their picture of the temple's exterior is almost complete. The first two levels were covered with bitumen and were black. The third, fourth and fifth were decorated with blue-glazed bricks and possibly adorned with bulls and lions. The sixth and seventh terraces, close to the sanctuary, were wholly made of mud brick. For cultic purposes the Mesopotamians thought mud to be the purest of substances. On top was Nabu's residence with rooms for servants and priests and wings for his wife, Tachmitum, his children and daughters. There must have been a big library of cuneiform tablets. Among the finds are several tablets and a foundation stone with inscriptions detailing why and how Nebuchadnezzar constructed the tower in Borsippa. One text says the king wanted the Borsippa built on the same design as that of the Tower of Babel, of which only the foundation survives in Babylon seven miles to the north.

Another text quotes Nebuchadnezzar as declaring that Nabu's tower should reach the skies and be no less in grandeur than that of Babel, which was dedicated to the god Marduk. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Ziggurat Ancient Mesopotamia History >> Ancient Mesopotamia At the center of each major city in Mesopotamia was a large structure called a ziggurat. The ziggurat was built to honor the main god of the city. The tradition of building a ziggurat was started by the Sumerians , but other civilizations of Mesopotamia such as the Akkadians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians also built ziggurats. The Ziggurat of the city of Ur based on a 1939 drawing by Leonard Woolley What did they look like? Ziggurats looked like step pyramids. They would have anywhere from 2 to 7 levels or steps. Each level would be smaller than the one before. Typically the ziggurat would be square in shape at the base. How big did they get? Some ziggurats are believed to have been huge. Perhaps the largest ziggurat was the one at Babylon.

Recorded dimensions show that it had seven levels and reached a height of nearly 300 feet. It was also 300 feet by 300 feet square at its base. Why did they build them? The ziggurat was a temple to the main god of the city. Each city in Mesopotamia had a primary god. For example, Murdock was the god of Babylon, Enki was the god of Eridu, and Ishtar was the goddess of Nineveh. The ziggurat showed that the city was dedicated to that god. At the top of the ziggurat was a shrine to the god. The priests would perform sacrifices and other rituals here. They built them high because they wanted the shrine to be as close to the heavens as possible. Are there any ziggurats left? Many of the ziggurats have been destroyed over the past several thousands of years. The famous huge ziggurat of Babylon was said to have been in ruins by the time Alexander the Great conquered the city in 330 BC. The ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil is one of the last surviving ziggurats. Some ziggurats have been reconstructed or rebuilt.

The ziggurat at the city Ur is one that has been somewhat rebuilt. Interesting Facts About Ziggurats The ziggurat at Babylon was named Etemenanki. This meant "Foundation of heaven and Earth" in Sumerian. The tall height of the ziggurat may have also been useful during the seasonal flooding. There were generally only a few ramps leading up to the top of the ziggurat. This made the top easy to guard and helped keep the priest's rituals private, if they wanted. The early Egyptian pyramids were step pyramids similar to the ziggurat. The Mayans and Aztecs built stepped pyramids to their gods as well. This was thousands of years later and on a completely different continent. Take a ten question quiz about this page. Learn More about Ancient Mesopotamia: Overview MESOPOTAMIA MESOPOTAMIA FIND OUT MORE Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Farmers used the river water to irrigate fields and grow plentiful crops. Around 3500 BC, the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia built the world’s first cities, including Ur, Uruk, and Eridu.

HOW WERE THE SUMERIAN CITIES RULED? Mighty kings, who commanded large armies, had strong cities, great palaces, and magnificent royal tombs made. The kings were assisted by priests and well-trained scribes, who collected taxes, controlled irrigation projects, and took charge of laws governing city crafts and trade. Priests also served the gods in ziggurats (temples). HOW WERE THE ZIGGURATS BUILT? Mesopotamian builders built ziggurats and houses from bricks made of mud mixed with chopped straw (left to dry and harden in the sun). Teams of workmen moved huge loads of bricks using sleds on wooden rollers, or carried smaller quantities in baskets on their backs. Mud was used as a mortar to bind the bricks. ZIGGURAT AT UR Ziggurats were holy “mountains,” where people could get closer to the gods. The ziggurat at Ur (in modern Iraq) was built in around 2100 BC. Originally, it had three tall terraces (raised levels), one on top of the other, which were planted with trees and flowers. A shrine to Nanna, the Moon god, stood at the top.

Today, only the temple’s lower section survives. FIND OUT MORE Ziggurat of Ur | Sumerian (article) | Khan Academy Ziggurat of Ur Ziggurat of Ur, c. 2100 B.C.E. mud brick and baked brick, Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq (largely reconstructed) The Great Ziggurat The ziggurat is the most distinctive architectural invention of the Ancient Near East. Like an ancient Egyptian pyramid, an ancient Near Eastern ziggurat has four sides and rises up to the realm of the gods. However, unlike Egyptian pyramids, the exterior of Ziggurats were not smooth but tiered to accommodate the work which took place at the structure as well as the administrative oversight and religious rituals essential to Ancient Near Eastern cities. Ziggurats are found scattered around what is today Iraq and Iran, and stand as an imposing testament to the power and skill of the ancient culture that produced them. One of the largest and best-preserved ziggurats of Mesopotamia is the great Ziggurat at Ur.

Small excavations occurred at the site around the turn of the twentieth century, and in the 1920s Sir Leonard Woolley, in a joint project with the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia and the British Museum in London, revealed the monument in its entirety. Woolley Photo of the Ziggurat of Ur with workers Ziggurat of Ur, c. 2100 B.C.E., Woolley excavation workers (Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq) What Woolley found was a massive rectangular pyramidal structure, oriented to true North, 210 by 150 feet, constructed with three levels of terraces, standing originally between 70 and 100 feet high. Three monumental staircases led up to a gate at the first terrace level. Next, a single staircase rose to a second terrace which supported a platform on which a temple and the final and highest terrace stood. The core of the ziggurat is made of mud brick covered with baked bricks laid with bitumen, a naturally occurring tar. Each of the baked bricks measured about 11.5 x 11.5 x 2.75 inches and weighed as much as 33 pounds.

The lower portion of the ziggurat, which supported the first terrace, would have used some 720,000 baked bricks. The resources needed to build the Ziggurat at Ur are staggering. Moon Goddess Nanna The Ziggurat at Ur and the temple on its top were built around 2100 B.C.E. by the king Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur for the moon god Nanna, the divine patron of the city state. The structure would have been the highest point in the city by far and, like the spire of a medieval cathedral, would have been visible for miles around, a focal point for travelers and the pious alike. As the Ziggurat supported the temple of the patron god of the city of Ur, it is likely that it was the place where the citizens of Ur would bring agricultural surplus and where they would go to receive their regular food allotments. In antiquity, to visit the ziggurat at Ur was to seek both spiritual and physical nourishment. Ziggurat at Ali Air Base Iraq, 2005 Ziggurat of Ur, partly restored, c. 2100 B.C.E.

mudbrick and baked brick Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq Clearly the most important part of the ziggurat at Ur was the Nanna temple at its top, but this, unfortunately, has not survived. Some blue glazed bricks have been found which archaeologists suspect might have been part of the temple decoration. The lower parts of the ziggurat, which do survive, include amazing details of engineering and design. For instance, because the unbaked mud brick core of the temple would, according to the season, be alternatively more or less damp, the architects included holes through the baked exterior layer of the temple allowing water to evaporate from its core. Additionally, drains were built into the ziggurat’s terraces to carry away the winter rains. Hussein’s Assumption The Ziggurat at Ur has been restored twice. The first restoration was in antiquity. The last Neo-Babylonian king, Nabodinus, apparently replaced the two upper terraces of the structure in the 6th century B.C.E.

Some 2400 years later in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein restored the façade of the massive lower foundation of the ziggurat, including the three monumental staircases leading up to the gate at the first terrace. Since this most recent restoration, however, the Ziggurat at Ur has experienced some damage. US soldiers decend the Ziggurat of Ur, Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq During the recent war led by American and coalition forces, Saddam Hussein parked his MiG fighter jets next to the Ziggurat, believing that the bombers would spare them for fear of destroying the ancient site. Hussein’s assumptions proved only partially true as the ziggurat sustained some damage from American and coalition bombardment. Text by Dr. Senta German Sumerian ZIGGURAT – Encyclopaedia Iranica Tags ZIGGURAT In Iran, buildings considered ziggurats or high temples can be distinguished from Mesopotamian ziggurats by their means of access. External flights of steps are always missing from monumental buildings in Iran, yet they are at all times present in Mesopotamia. In Iran, monumental buildings were accessible by ramps.

ZIGGURAT (Akkadian ziqqurratu “temple-tower”), a tower consisting of several stages, on whose uppermost platform existed in all probability a high temple (Roaf, pp. 104-105). According to Wilfrid Allinger-Csollich (p. 319), the high temple is not separate from the ziggurat, and the entire ziggurat should be understood as a raised temple. In Iran there are ziggurats as well as monumental buildings which exhibit similar functions, but it is unclear whether the ziggurats influenced the development of the monumental buildings, or vice versa. The monumental buildings have terraces or platforms, which possibly served as foundations for a ziggurat or a similar high temple (Akkadian gigunû, kukunnû). At sites such as Ulug Depe (Turkmenistan) there are also terrace-like substructures which supported large representative buildings. Since current research suggests that the representative buildings had absolutely no religious function, these sub-structures will not be discussed in this entry. The history of the monumental buildings in Iran can be divided into two phases.

The first phase of ziggurat-like structures und platforms dates to the Early and Middle Bronze Age (between the end of the 4th millennium and the 3rd millennium BCE ). Slightly smaller monumental platforms which possibly served as substructures for high temples were erected in the Iron Age (between the end of the 2nd and the first half of the 1st millennium BCE), and constitute their second phase. In Iran, buildings considered ziggurats or high temples can be distinguished from Mesopotamian ziggurats by their means of access. External flights of steps are always missing from monumental buildings in Iran, yet they are at all times present in Mesopotamia (for Babylonia , see Ur, Babylon, and Dur Kurigalzu; for Assyria , see Assur, Nimrud, Tall ar-Rimah and Khorsabad). In Iran, monumental buildings, with the exception of Choga Zanbil whose construction sets it apart, were accessible by ramps. Tepe Sialk. Roman Ghirshman (1939, II, pp.

23-25), the first archeologist to excavate the southern mound, dated the site to the Early Iron Age, and considered the monument a “grande construction.” Based on new excavations in the early 2000s, S. M. Shahmirzadi (2004, 2005) has proposed to consider this site ( Figure 1 ) a ziggurat dating to the Proto-Elamite Layer IV. But his date is based on pottery uncovered exclusively in the debris surrounding the monument (Pfälzner, p. 422 n. 75), and his interpretation has been widely rejected as pure speculation (Azarnoush and Helwing, p. 226 n. 172). Neither the reconstruction of this monument as a ziggurat nor its dating to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE is accepted in the archeological literature. Choga Zanbil ( Čoḡā Zanbil , Tchogha Zanbil) is nowadays the most famous ziggurat in Iran, and in 1979 it was added to the UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The town (lat 32°00′30.4″ N, long 48°31′19.0″ E) lies on the river Dez in the Khuzestan region, and was discovered in 1936. In the 1950s Ghirshman oversaw a French team excavating the site, and since 1997 the German team of Behzad Mofidi Nasrabadi has conducted further investigations of Choga Zanbil. The urban settlement was founded by the Elamite ruler Untaš-Napiriša (r. ca. 1340-1300 BCE; elsewhere dated ca. 1275-40 BCE), and the ziggurat was dedicated to Inšušinak and Napiriša, the principal deities of the town and the Elamites, respectively. The ziggurat is separated from the town by a temenos wall, and with a lateral length of 105.20 m it is the largest known ziggurat ( Figure 2 ).

The structure is unique, since the chronological sequences of the building phases, that have been recognised, differ fundamentally from that of other known ziggurats in Mesopotamia ( Figure 3 ). At the beginning ( Figure 4 ), a brick formwork (Heinrich, p. 104), which served as a protection against rain water, was set up around a slightly sunken brick floor with stairways to the temples for Inšušinak and Napiriša. Within this mantle ( Figure 5 ), the ziggurat was built up through the construction of a square core (stage IV) with two enclosing shells (stages II and III). The area between the casing and stage II was steadily filled in and, together with the outer shell, formed the ziggurat's stage I, while stage V would have been the high temple of which no traces have remained. Ghirshman (1966, p. 37) could identify this construction method because his team excavated a tunnel which lead into the ziggurat's center. It is likely that a terrace served as the foundation for the above-ground ziggurat, and on all four sides, interior staircases led to stage I.

But traces of a staircase to stage II were only found on the south-west side of stage I. In the entire brickwork, in each 11th layer, all bricks are stamped. Decorative wall nails, of which many have been recovered, originally adorned the ziggurat's exterior façade. On each side of stage I, five channels served as a constructional measure for rainwater drainage. Additional channels protected the entire building as well as the temple of Inšušinak, as they allowed for the disposal of water and liquids (Mofidi Nasrabadi, 2007). The absence of monumental flights of stairs furthermore distinguishes this ziggurat from the known stepped towers in Mesopotamia (Kleiss). Tureng Tepe. A raised terrace, which dates to approximately 2000 BCE, was exposed in Layer III C1, where it forms the core of the main mound. To the south, two stages and a ramp, providing a way up to stage I, could still be identified, and the structure is similar to a ziggurat in its construction.

Since decorative pillars similar to those known from Altyn-Depe ( Altin Tepe ) were found on the terrace, the entire structure has been compared with the approximately contemporaneous raised terraces in Altyn-Depe and Mundigak (Deshayes, 1975, 1977). Mundigak. Jean-Marie Casal referred to a large building that was found in Layer IV of Mound C and which dates to the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE as “temple.” Its exterior façade was decorated with triangular pillars. In Mound A, a large building with a structured façade (“monument massif”) in Layer V had been erected atop a building (“palais”) in Layer IV. Nad-i Ali (Nād-e ʿAli). The monumental platform of this site in Sistān in today's Afghanistan is approimately dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE. Even now, the structure of solid mud brick rises more than 35 m above the ground.

Ghirshman (1942) distinguished two phases, which he dated to the Achaemenid period (Phase I) and the 9th and 8th centuries BCE (Phase II). During Phase II the platform was square (ca. 50 x 50 m), and Ghirshman compared it with the structure in Tepe Sialk. George F. Dales cut a trial trench (Operation B) and a tunnel (Operation D) on the platform, and conjectured a main occupation phase in the Median- Achaemenid period and a reoccupation in the Arsacid or Kushan period possibly up to the Sasanian period. Yet Roland Besenval and Henri-Paul Francfort reclassified the monumental structure, arguing that the rectangular size of the bricks, used for the platform construction during Phase II, and a large storage vessel, already excavated by Ghirshman, placed the building in the period between 2500 and 1700 BCE. Shahr-i Sokhta (Šahr-e Soḵta).

On the site there is a monumental structure with a platform (9.6 x 9.8 m, called Building 1, that was built atop of one of the highest points of the entire north-west area, approximately 13 m above the plain (Mariani 1989). It seems possible that this structure is the substructure of a raised structure, since a small room on the platform's east side could be interpreted as a stairwell or stairway. Susa . The remains of a raised structure on Susa's acropolis (lat 32°11′20.43″ N, long 48°14′55.07″ E) was first noticed by Roland de Mecquenem (p. 65). Although de Mecquenem had already identified an artificial platform (Niveau 10), the secure identification of the remains only occurred after 1965 on the basis of systematic stratigraphic excavations (Steve and Gasche, p. 41). Today this monumental structure, which possibly corresponds to an early type of ziggurats, is approximately dated to the end of the 4th millennium BCE ( Figure 6 ).

Only the southern side of the structure has been excavated. While stage I is definitely preserved (Steve and Gasche, p. 41), an identification of the possible remains of a stage II for a structure of 88 x 72 m has been suggested (Canal, 1978a; 1978b). The exterior wall of the above-ground building was decorated with clay nails, which have survived in great numbers. The remains of a second platform (“massif funéraire”) have been identified south of the high terrace in Niveau 11 (Canal, 1978a; 1978b), and the two platforms were built in related settlement phases (Niveaux 10B and 10A, Strata 40 and 38). Inscriptional evidence for the ziggurats in Susa dates to the Neo- Assyrian period. In the Rassam Cylinder (Streck, II, p. 53), Aššurbanipal (r.

666-625 BCE) boasted that he had destroyed the ziggurat of Susa, built from lapis-lazuli bricks, and broken off its horns of gleaming bronze. Choga Mish ( Čoḡā Miš ). Only a few traces of a terrace have remained in the area between trenches VI and IX (squares J-K14). The structure is dated to the 4th millennium BCE, and its polygonal platform had been built with very hard mud bricks (Kantor and Delougaz, p. 32). No traces of superstructures have survived. Jiroft . Two superimposed platforms are located on the mound Konar Sandal North (Madjidzadeh, 2008, pp. 88-89). The upper structure measured 150 x 150 m and the lower 300 x 300 m, so that this monumental structure covered almost the whole mound. While these platforms form a stepped massif which recalls the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, Youssef Madjidzadeh (2008, p.

89) warned against interpreting this monumental structure as a ziggurat as its function is not known. Haft Tepe ( Figure 7 ). The site’s two large structures are known as Terrace Complex I and II. They were presumably erected under the Elamite king Tepti-ahar. Terrace Complex I is almost square, and had a lateral length of more than 100 m. In the southern area a bit of excavation has been conducted. Northeast of of the first structure, archeologists found a cluster of rooms and a large hall separated from each other by a courtyard. The orientation of Terrace Complex II deviates about 15 degrees from that of Terrace Complex I. As Terrace Complex II is higher than the first structure (Negahban, p. 19), it presumably belongs to a later building phase (Mofidi Nasrabadi, 2003-04, p. 236). Both terraces might have served as platforms for temples. They are located on the east and south corners of a large courtyard, on whose north and west corners two smaller terraces could have been erected (Mofidi Nasrabadi 2004, p. 300).

Altyn-depe ( Altin Tepe ). In 1968, excavations revealed a stepped construction on this site in modern Turkmenistan. As its shape is reminiscent of the ziggurats in Mesopotamia (Masson, 1981; 1988), it is commonly referred to as a terraced structure. For this monumental structure of the Namazga V type, three building phases can be distinguished. Phase I comprised four stages each of which reached a height of 6 m. The exterior of the second stage was decorated with pilasters, which themselves were designed as three stages. During phase II a platform (2 m height) and a second stage (2.5-4 m height) were built. The platform, with a north-south orientation, had a lateral length of 45 m, and served as this phase's foundation. As in phase I, three-stage pilasters served as the decoration of the second stage. Moreover, a tower, whose structure indicated the structural remains of the early ziggurat, was erected south of the ziggurat during phase II. The ziggurat's total height during phase II is estimated to have been 12 m.

Phase III was characterized by a gradual deterioration which in turn was followed by individual restorations. During the last phase, a building, that is now known as the “Corner House,” was erected on the ziggurat's south side. Koktepe. On this site in modern Uzbekistan, two monumental platforms D and E of mud brick are identified in the Iron Age layer IIIa. They had either religious or political functions (Rapin, p. 36). The eastern platform E is a two-stage construction, and measured 11,000 m3; Claude Rapin (p. 38) considers this platform a reduced ziggurat. Representations. On a vase discovered in a grave at Susa, André Parrot (p. 39, fig. 6) considered three of the represented objects as reminiscent of a stepped tower and interpreted them as ziggurats. One of these is a two-stage ziggurat, and the other two are three-stage ziggurats; people are sitting atop of all three architectural structures. A late-Uruk-period seal rolling from Susa shows a large monumental building that either stands on a platform or is surrounded by a wall.

A similar image has been preserved in a rolling from Choga Mish. But on the Susa rolling there are three horns on each side of the building, and it is unresolved whether this rolling depicts an early representation of a ziggurat or that of a fortified building (Amiet). In both rollings, however, the monumental building appears within a scene of military conflict. In the rolling from Choga Mish the stepped building of the rolling from Choga Mish, there are people atop the steppeed building, throwing objects (stones?) at attackers, seemingly to defend themselves. In another late-Uruk-period seal rolling (Louvre AO 29389), people seem also to have assembled atop a stepped building for defensive reasons. Architectural representations have been preserved on several stone vessels made from steatite (for the differences between chlorite and steatite, see CHLORITE ). On a vessel ascribed to Jiroft (Madjidzadeh, 2003; see Figure 8 ; cf. JIROFT iv. Iconography of Chlorite Artifacts , fig.

10) and on two fragmented stone weights from Tepe Yahya and the Kerman province, the architectural representations are referred to as ziggurats because of their step-like construction. A Neo-Assyrian relief in Niniveh, which is today in the British Museum, shows a stepped monumental building. As the relief is dated to the time of Aššurbanipal, it raises the question of what the ziggurat of Susa looked like in the 1st millennium BCE. While Walter Andrae (p. 38) questioned that this relief shows a ziggurat at all, Theodor Dombart (1926, 1929) considered it a representation of the ziggurat of Susa, since the stepped monumental building supports a high temple with horns, such as those mentioned in the inscription of the Rassam Cylinder. A bronze model with the three-dimensional respresentation of a cult scene (see ELAM vi. Elamite Religion ) was discovered in the northern area of the so-called Ninhursag temple on the acropolis in Susa between 1904 and 1905.

Because of the extant inscription of Šilhak-Inšušinak, the model is known as sit-šamši (lit. “sunrise”), and dated to the 12th century BCE. In its center two naked, shaven men sit opposite each other. They are flanked by two square, stepped objects. While the taller object has three steps and some kind of staircase leading up to the second stage, the other object has only two steps and its sidewalls are decorated with incisions reminiscent of gated entrances. This three-dimensional representation of a cult scene is unique within the Near East, and the interpretations of the stepped objects range from altar (Grillot, p. 12) to ziggurat (Parrot, pp. 42-43). Bibliography: W. Allinger-Csollich, “Birs Nimrud II: 'Tieftempel' – 'Hochtempel' (Vergleichende Studien: Borsippa - Babylon),” Baghader Mitteilungen 29, 1998, pp. 95-330. P.

Amiet, “Temple sur terrasse ou fortresse?” Revue archéologique 81, 1987, pp. 99-104. W. Andrae, “Altmesopotamische Ziggurrat-Darstellungen,” Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin 64, 1926, pp. 32-54. M. Azarnous and B. Helwing, “Recent Archaeological Research in Iran: Prehistory to Iron Age,” AMIT 37, 2005, pp. 189-246. R. Besenval and H.-P. Francfort, “The Nad-i Ali 'Surkh Dagh': A Bronze Age Monumental Platform in Central Asia?” in From Sumer to Meluhha: Contributions to the Archaeology of South and West Asia in Memory of George F. Dales, Jr., eds. J. M. Kenoyer and R. Meadow, Madison, Wisc., 1994, 3-14. D.

Canal, “La terrace de l'Acropole de Suse,” in Cahiers de la Délégation Archéologique Française en Iran (DAFI) 9, 1978a, pp. 11-55. Idem, “La haute terrasse de l'acropole de Suse,” Paléorient 4, 1978b, pp. 169-76. J.-M. Casal, Fouilles de Mundigak, Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan 17, 2 vols., Paris, 1961. G. F. Dales, New Excavations at Nad-i Ali (Sorkh Dagh), Afghanistan, Berkeley, Calif., 1977. J. Deshayes, “Les fouilles recentes de Tureng Tepe: La terrasse haute de la fin du 3e millenaire,” Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions, 1975, pp. 522-30.

Idem, “A propos des terrasses hautes de la fin du IIIe millénaire en Iran et en Asie Centrale,” in Le Plateau Iranien et l'Asie Centrale des origines à la conquête islamique: Leur relations à la lumiere des documents archéologiques, ed. J. Deshayes, Paris, 1977, pp. 95-111. Th. Dombart, “Die Ziggurrat-Darstellung aus Ninive,” Archiv für Orientforschung 3, 1926, pp. 177-81. Idem, “Das Ziggurratrelief aus Kujundschik: Seine Geschichte, genaue Einreihung und Deutung,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 38, 1929, pp. 39-64. R. Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk près de Kashan, 1933, 1934, 1937, 2 vols., Paris, 1938-39.

Idem, “Recherches préhistoriques en Afghanistan. Fouilles de Nad-i Ali dans le Seistan Afghan,” Revue des Arts Asiatiques 13, 1942, pp. 10-22. Idem, Tchoga Zanbil (Dur-Untash): I - La ziggurat, Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique en Iran 39, Paris, 1966. F. Grillot, “Le 'shuter' royal de Suse,” Iranica Antiqua 18, 1983, pp. 1-24. A. Hakemi, “Kerman: The Original Place of Production of Chlorite Stone Objects in the 3rd Millennium B.C. ,” East and West 47, 1997, pp. 11-40. Prudence O. Harper et al., The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre, New York, 1992. E. Heinrich, Review of Tchoga Zanbil (Dur-Untash): I - La ziggurat by R.

Ghirshman, Archiv für Orientforschung 23, 1970, pp. 104-7. H. Kantor and P. Delougaz, Chogha Mish: I - The First Five Seasons, 1961-1971,Oriental Institute Publication 101, Chicago, 1996. W. Kleiss, “Bemerkungen zur Zikkurrat von Choga Zanbil,” AMIT 31, 1999, pp. 143-48. Y. Madjidzadeh, Jiroft: The Earliest Oriental Civilization, Tehran, 2003. Idem, “Excavations at Konar Sandal in the Region of Jiroft in the Halil Basin: First Preliminary Report (2002-2008) with a Contribution on Glyptic Art by Holly Pittman,” Iran 46, 2008, pp. 69-104. L.

Mariani, “The Monumental Area of Shahr-i Sokhta: Notes from a Surface Reconnaissance,” in South Asian Archaeology 1985, eds. K. Frifelt and P. Sorensen, London, 1989, pp. 114-36. V. M. Masson, “Urban Centers and Early Class Society,” in The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries, ed. P. L. Kohl, Armonk, N.Y., 1981, pp. 135-48. Idem, Altyn-Depe, tr. H. N. Michael, University Museum Monograph 55, Philadelphia, 1988. R. de Mecquenem, “Constructions élamites du tell de l’Acropole de Suse,” Mémoires de la Délégation française en Perse 12, 1911, pp. 65-78. B.

Mofidi Nasrabadi, “Archäologische Untersuchungen in Haft Tape (Iran),” AMIT 35-36, 2003-2004, pp. 225-39. Idem, “Elam: Archäologie und Geschichte,” in Persiens Antike Pracht, eds. Th. Stöllner et al., Bochum, 2004, pp. 294-309. Idem, Archäologische Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen in Coga Zanbil, Münster, 2007. E. O. Negahban, Excavations at Haft Tepe, Iran, University Museum Monograph 70, Philadelphia, 1991. A. Parrot, Ziggurats et tour de Babel, Paris, 1949. P. Pfälzner, “Das Tempeloval von Urkeš: Betrachtungen zur Typologie und Entwicklungsgeschichte der mesopotamischen Ziqqurrat im 3. Jt. v.

Chr.,” Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 1, 2008, pp. 396-433. C. Rapin, “Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia: From the Early Iron Age to the Kushan Period,” in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam, eds. J. Cribb and G. Herrmann, Proceedings of the British Academy 133, Oxford, 2007, pp. 29-72. M. Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Oxford, 1990. S. M. Shahmirzadi, The Ziggurat of Sialk, Sialk Reconsideration Project, Report No. 1, Tehran, 2004. Idem, “Additional Remarks and a New Reconstruction of the Ziggurat of Sialk,” in The Fishermen of Sialk, ed. S. M. Shahmirzadi, Archaeological Report Monograph Series 7, Tehran, 2005, pp. 103-12. M.-J. Steve and H.

Gasche, L'Acropole des Suse: Nouvelles fouilles - Rapport préliminaire, Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique en Iran 66, Leiden, 1971. T. Stöllner et al., Persiens Antike Pracht: Bergbau, Handwerk, Archäologie: Katalog der Ausstellung des Deutschen Bergbau-Museums Bochum vom 28. November 2004 bis 29. Mai 2005, 2 vols., Bochum, 2004. M. Streck, Assurbanipal und die letzten assyrischen Könige bis zum Untergange Ninivehs, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1916. F. Vallat, “L’origine orientale de la ziggurate,” Dossiers d’Archéologie,no. 287, 2003, pp. 92-95. (Michael Herles)

Question: For what purpose were Mesopotamian ziggurats built?
Answer: Temples