Mesopotamian Art
By Omar Ceron-Santiago
I've always had a fascination with the ancients, ranging from the Christian Roman Empire to as far back as ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia etymology defines it as a "country between two rivers" in Ancient Greek. Mesopotamia is the land in which human civilization was to said to have began in. Even some sources claim the land to be where the Garden of Eden was located. Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers located in modern-day Iraq and Syria.
In these lands came the rise of settlements known as city-states which are largely populated cities with their surrounded territory that make an independent state. Well known Mesopotamian city-states include Uruk, Ur, Kish, Adab, and Eridu. However as populations began to grow, the philosophy of a new system of governing began to emerge and especially the concept of empire building. Mesopotamia brought in also a device that is always used in everyday, a writing system. Their writing system helped develop literature and folklore such as the Epic of Gilgamesh that could final be recorded. They also brought in the idea of taxes which to me somewhat comical due to fact the it created a certainty, the first be death.
As the concept of empire began to grow a great new nation emerged new temples and architecture was innovated, in particular was the Ziggurat. Ziggurats emphasized the concept of power and were used as shrines for the Mesopotamian Gods. I especially appreciate the fact that these structures were solely made by hand and would have taken decades and possibly centuries to construct as way to pledge loyalty to their king. The Assyrians became especially famous for their construction of the Assyrian Empire representing their status above others in these engravings they had on walls showing and practically giving us their history. I especially love the Lamassu which was a protective deity for the Assyrians and was depicted of having a human head and beard of a man with the body of an ox or a lion and having bird wings. Not only does it appeal to me because of its appearance but also the fact it was worshiped by humans as a guardian to the empire and invokes
power and a sense of regal because these statues were commonly placed in front of palaces and temples as a way to ward off evil.
What saddens me however is the fact that these colossal, ancient, historic masterpieces are being destroyed by the Islamic State as a method to eradicate the region's polytheistic past in order to strictly preserve as Islam as its sole religion and destroy any history that existed prior to the rise of Islam and its caliphates. These monuments symbolize as simpler past and the achievements mankind has been able to accomplish by using mostly our bare hands and the weak bronze tools used to carve the fascinating sculptures and temples thus driving us to accomplish greater achievements that humans have yet to encounter.
