These staircases would carried religious processions to the summit of the structure, pageantry which was surely the inspiration for the story of Jacob's Ladder.ĭeep slits filled with broken pottery penetrated from the exterior face deep into the core of this platform. Access to the top of the first stage was via a pair of lateral stairways leading down from the gatehouse. From it, the central staircase continues straight up to the second stage and then on to the temple at the top of the third. The stairs intersected at a gatehouse located between the first and second stages-only the foundations survive. These have been restored somewhat and refaced with new brickwork. The summit was reached via three staircases of 100 steps-one perpendicular to, and the other two leaning against, the side of the lowest stage. Of the other two, we have only the outline of the base of the second stage and the eroded core of the third. It measures about 64 x 46 metres at the base and was about 15 metres high. However, only the lowest one is reasonably well preserved. The Ziggurat at Ur was known as the E.temennigur (“the house whose foundation creates terror”) and was built by Ur-Nammu (2112-2095 BC), the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur-the last native Sumerian rulers of Mesopotamia. Herodotus also tells us that there was a temple at the top of the ziggurat at Babylon, but no trace of any such building has been found at Babylon nor anywhere else (not surprising, really, when you consider that none of them has survived to its full height). In later times, according to Herodotus, the outer skin was glazed and the various tiers were painted with different colours. We know of at least 32 ziggurats in Mesopotamia and western Iran and typically they are built out of a core of mud-brick with an outer skin of fired bricks, set in bitumen mortar, to protect it against flood damage. On a practical level, it protected the temple from the violent floods that periodically devastated the land (it is only massive dams that hold them back today) and reduced the security problems in the place where most of the city's portable wealth was kept. It certainly made an impression on Jacob. By all accounts, Sumerian priests put on a good show and where better to stage it than on a high platform where the whole population could see it. Life was hard and life was short, let’s at least spice it up with a bit of spectacle. A big part of the relationship between the people and their god was pure show business. It also put their priests closer to the heavens, where they could better communicate with the deity so he could hear their prayers and speak his will. In the first place, its elevated position would have symbolized its elevated relationship with the people of the city- literally putting it above the humdrum of everyday life. There are a variety of reasons why they may have done this. From a very early stage in their civilization, the Sumerians had taken to placing their important temples on platforms or, in the case of ziggurats, on a stepped series of platforms. The term ‘ziggurat’ derives from the Akkadian verb zaqārū (“to build a raised area”), which pretty much describes the process involved. I never stopped making my art, as it is my main recreation outside of work.The restored Ziggurat at Ur from the Northeast The Ziggurat However, I did an art show this summer, and plan on doing more in future years. I did art shows, mostly in Wisconsin, for nine years, but stopped when I started my current job. Since I have the skills to do woodworking, I prefer to make all of my frames for my work, sometimes I even enjoy making frames more than the artwork itself. And lately, all those things are starting to combine together in the same piece. I like to do oil pastels, acrylic paintings, furniture and marquetry. I currently work in an antique store in the restoration department, and so I still have access to more tools than I can have at home. I wanted to major in something that I could do after school anyway, and you don't need much equipment for drawing.Īfter college I worked in the furniture restoration field, so I still had access to a woodworking shop. My pots and vases that I threw on the wheel looked good and were nicely glazed, but they were very fat at the bottom.the professor said that the cats couldn't tip them over. Applied or Functional Design was building wooden furniture. The drawings that I did were mostly charcoals or oil pastels. Learn more Bruce Bodden I was a Fine Arts Major at UW-Oshkosh, where I had a double emphasis: Drawing and Applied Design.
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