Mesopotamia & Indus Valley Civilisations

RIVER VALLEY CIVILISATIONSINDUS & MESOPOTAMIA

Date: 1 April 2016Abhinand Gopal

PANTHALASSA Mesopotamia

Indus

PANGEA

Plate Tectonics Movement200 mil years ago

apes started descending to the land from trees, attaining upright posture and rotating the thumb

Cradle of Human Civilisation: Mesopotamia

FACTORS INFLUENCING HUMAN SOCIETY & ARCHITECTURE

▸ natural factors - geography, geology, climate

▸ civilisation factors - religion, social structure, technology & history of the group, economy

geography: availability of water, fertile soil & natural barriers

geology: building materials & construction

climate: building design & orientation, presence of fenestrations (doors, windows)

Egypt (5000 - 300 BC) Mesopotamia (4500 - 550 BC) Indus Valley (3000 - 1300 BC)

IRAQ SYRIA & LEVANTMESOPOTAMIA

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

“THE LAND BETWEEN 2 RIVERS”river Euphrates & river Tigris flow through Mesopotamia, flooding in the raining season. They meet at Basra in the South East (Old testament refers to Basra as the birth of human civilization)

SAUDIA ARABIAKuwait

BASRA

Most important human invention?

wheels for transportation > pots for storing excess food & long lasting grains > trade & commerce

early Egyptian potter &introduction of chariots in war

PRESENT DAY MESOPOTAMIA: SYRIA & IRAQ

ASSYRIA, BABYLON & SUMERMOUNTAINS, PLAINS, SEAS

*Sources based on archaeology evidences claim the invention of wheel in Mesopotamia

Similar to India, Mesopotamia is land of diverse traditions, culture & multiple empires have sprouted out

THE WHEEL

the different uses of wheel based on geography in Mesopotamia

1. Assyria: chariots

2. Babylon: agriculture

3. Sumer: transportation & trade

ASSYRIA: WARRIOR LIKE GEOGRAPHY: MOUNTAINS

BABYLON: AGRICULTURE GEOGRAPHY: FERTILE LANDS

SUMER: TRADERS GEOGRAPHY: RIVER

ROUTES & SEA

Arabian Desert

Persia

THINGS TO LEARN ABOUT

MESOPOTAMIA CIVILIZATION

▸ Assyrian Palaces - Palace of Sargon, Khorsabad

▸ Hanging Gardens of Babylon - ancient wonder

▸ Ziggurats - chief town building for worship & administration, monumental in scale

▸ citizen dwellings, building materials & construction

▸ Persia - Stone Palaces of Persepolis, present day Iran.

GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS

MESOPOTAMIA - IRAQ & SYRIA

▸ little rainfall

▸ Hot & dry climate

▸ catastrophic flooding in spring

▸ no stone or timber resources

▸ fertile soil along the rivers of Euphrates & Tigris

ASSYRIATHE NORTH: WARRIOR CLANS

ASSYRIANS: WARRIOR CLASS OF PEOPLE, BUILT FORTRESS & FORTS WITH LOCALLY AVAILABLE MATERIALS.

Symbol of Assyria

TEXT

KHORSABAD

Mosul, present day provincial capital and the fourth largest city, size of Kochi, contains

kirkuk oil fields, world’s second largest oil field

ART FORM DEPICTIONS ON WALL PANELS

main elements: injured lion, group of men (teamwork + strategy), spears as weapons & bloodshed

LAMMASU

THE LAMMASU IS A BIZARRE CREATURE TYPE WITH THE BODY OF A COW, A BIRD'S WINGS AND A HUMAN FACE WITH HORNS, BASED ON THE MESOPOTAMIAN CREATURES OF THE SAME NAME

4 m

eter

s

PLAN OF THE PALACE, KHORSABAD

▸ Palaces were raised over brick platforms and entrances flanked by large guardian figures or mythical creatures.

▸ Halls & Corridors were lined with pictograms & inscriptions upto 9 feet high

PALACE OF SARGON

The Palace is approached one through the citadels.

The Palace was arranged two main courtyards & the other buildings were arranged around other smaller courtyards with rooms around it. The building was decorated with relief sculptures.

TEXT

PALACE GATEWAYS

BUILDING MATERIALSLocal available materials were used for making houses & palaces, such as:

1. Rammed earth for foundations

2. Baked Modular mud bricks

3. Timber for support

4. Reeds

5. Wattle & daub

THE WALLED CITY

FORTIFIED CITY Dur-Sharrukin, Fortress of Sargon built in 720 BC. Built with 24 meters thick walls with stone foundation. Protecting a 3 square kilometre area. Assyrian kings built palaces within walled cities, which took precedent over religious buildings. Built on the North West side of the city.

ENTRANCE GATEWAYS TO THE CITY

MODULAR BRICKS WITH FINGER IMPRINTS

Mud modular bricks, imprinted with scriptures, family names, folk tales & nature representations.

The Birth of Language

FESTIVAL TIME, SKETCH SHOWING THE INTERIOR OF THE PALACE

unlike their Egyptian contemporaries, their walls were filled from bottom to top with artwork on mud walls

THE LAMMASUS OF THE PALACE AT LOUVRE MUSEUM, PARIS

TEXT

BABYLONTHE RIVER LANDS: AGRARIAN SOCIETY

BABYLON 1782 BC

BAGHDAD

ASCENDING SERIES OF TERRACED GARDENS SIMILAR TO TERRACE FARMING IN INDIA

BUILT BY LATER BABYLON KINGS IN 600 BC - ANCIENT WONDER OR A MYTH

THE PRESENT DAY SITE OF ANCIENT BABYLON IN RUINS

the elevated hill where the hanging gardens were to be located, a presidential palace was built. guess?

TEXT saddam hussein’s palace

THE PRESENT DAY SITE OF ANCIENT BABYLON IN RUINS

the Ishtar Gate, the Northern entry gate of the Babylon Empire.

ISHTAR GATE, ENTRY POINT TO THE CITY

PRESENT DAY BAGHDAD, CAPITAL OF IRAQ (SEAT OF THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE)

BABYLON: AGRICULTURE BASED SOCIETY, BUILT ZIGGURATS & MONUMENTAL STRUCTURES. MONARCHY.

Ancient Babylon with River Euphrates running through it

CODE OF HAMMURABIworld’s first set of civil laws

rule 229: If a builder builds a house for

someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be

put to death.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”

Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon who laid in 1782 BC

SUMERIANSTRADE CENTRE: RIVER DELTAS & THE SEA

TRADERS & SEA VOYAGERS

SUMERIANS▸ Introduced the cart wheel

for speed & transport in the Mesopotamia civilisation.

▸ Also credited with the invention of the sailboat for import/export of goods with Egypt & Indus valley

▸ Sumerian is the first official written language script known as cuneiform ‘wedge shaped’

ZIGGURATS OF MESOPOTAMIA

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 3000 BC and the latest date from the 600 BC. Each gratifying their gods and showing the power of the town.

The farmlands were located outside the city walls.

WHAT ARE ZIGGURATS?

TEXT

ziggurats massive structures built in the

ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of

successively receding stories or levels. The

ziggurat was a piece in a temple complex that

served as an administrative center for the city

TEXT

THE GREAT ZIGGURAT AT UR, LOCAL MEANING: THE TEMPLE WHOSE FOUNDATION CREATES AURA WAS BUILT BY KING UR NAMMU IN 21ST CENTURY BC DEDICATED TO THE MOON GOD NANNA, LORD OF WISDOM.

Ur Nammu Atop the Ziggurat at Ur: “a Tower Unto the Heavens”

PROTECTED BY FORTIFIED WALLS, GARRISONS & HOUSES

THE ZIGGURATS WAS THE LANDMARK FEATURE

ZIGGURAT AS A DESIGN CONCEPT

ATRIUM VIEWArt & Design museum, New York, USA.

The concept of an inverted ziggurat was used as a form.

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK, USA (ARCHITECT: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, YEAR: 1959)

PERSOPOLIS BUILT BY THE ACHAEMENID EMPIRE, 600 BC

FURTHER TOWARDS THE EAST, PRESENT DAY IRAN

built out of stone, as it was available in plenty on the Iranian plateau & well protected by the Zargos mountains on the West from the Assyrians.

TEXT

PERSOPOLIS, PRESENT IRAN

Compare the architectural elements of Persepolis (left) with the Egyptian colonnades (top)?

APADANA HALL

TEXT

APADANA HALL: LARGE HYPOSTYLE HALLS TO HOLD GREAT AUDIENCE

TEXT

ANCIENT RUINS OF PERSOPOLIS CITY, PRESENT DAY IRAN

Persian King

Ahura Mazda, symbol of which religion?

Parsi, member of a group of followers in India of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster. The Parsis,

whose name means "Persians", are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who emigrated to India to avoid religious persecution by the

Muslims.

Bas-relief in Persepolis - a symbol of Zoroastrian Nowruz - in day of a spring equinox power of eternally fighting bull (personifying the Earth), and a lion (personifying the Sun), are equal

Emblem of Lion & Sun

Flag of Iran, 1925 - 1979

humans hunting & killing lions shown as popular art & symbols in ancient Mesopotamia: the foundations of the Gulf Wars were laid much before, in the times of ancient history.

URBAN HOUSING, TRADE & DEVELOPMENT

INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION

THINGS TO LEARN ABOUT

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

▸ Housing Units - single storey to duplex, building materials

▸ Town Planning - concepts of grids & layouts

▸ Urban Waste Management system

▸ The Great Baths & the citadels

▸ The Granaries - storages of surplus agriculture produce.

Priest King, not Narendra Modi. Mother Goddess (right)

Practice of Nature worship & presence of high priests who act as agents of god and also administrative heads.

Worship of the Sacred Bull, agriculture - trade - transportation

SIMILAR TO THE PRESENT DAY SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN MODERN DAY INDIA

DERIVED FROM THE BODY OF VAISHNAVA - THE SUPREME POWER

Societal structure in the Indus valley societies

Popular theory of mass migration of

Indus valley people to south Indian states is

based on traditions & culture.

SLAVERY WAS ABOLISHED

#1 OCCUPATION - MODULAR MUD BRICK MAKING

LARGE ENTRANCE GATEWAY TO THE INDUS TOWNS

Pashupati seal used on trade goods, wall & rock edicts.

#2 OCCUPATION - POTTERY

potters’ wheel is introduced and the mud pottery in the early times progresses to metallurgy & ceramics

Bronze Age (5000-1000 BC)

#3 Occupation: Trade

Promotion of Metallurgical works in the later Indus valley periodsIron Age (1000-300 BC)

Scales & measures for trade & business (above)

TRADE ROUTES

SILK ROAD’S PRECURSOR

Ancient trade routes laid the foundations for the Emperor Silk Road.

TEXT

Mehrgarh 7000 - 2500 BC earliest site, precursor to the Indus Valley

consisting a set of 7 villages practising farming & herding activités

Harappa 2700 BC - 1300BC

Dholavira, ancient Indus town serving as a trade post using river canals system.

Famous for the sale of clothing & beads

MODULAR BRICKS WITH TIMBER SUPPORTS

DWELLING UNITS

Modular Brick Size: 28x14x7 centimeters, made using mud moulds mixed with hay

Building Materials

Mehrgarh I, 5000 BC - Mehrgarh VII, 1300 BC, each abandoned after the previous, irregular city plans replaced by grid iron plans

MEHRGARH I - VII

First houses were singled storied, later duplex houses were designed to accommodate privacy & larger family with 1 meter undercrofts for storage of food grains

STREETS STRICTLY OPENING TO THE STREET & NOT TO THE MAIN ROAD

DUPLEX HOUSES, WITH WINDOWLESS WALLS & COURTYARD PLANNING

Horizontally laid out granaries, outside the town walls of Harappa

The Citadel in the centre of the fortified town of Harappa with closely situated Workmen quarters. Buildings laid out in along the North-South-East-West Grid Iron Patter following the cardinal points

REMAINS OF GRANARIES AT HARAPPA

The Harappa town was discovered in late 19th century, which was plundered by Railway Engineers for modular bricks to lay the Lahore Railways in the North West Province of Pakistan.

TEXT

=Mehrgarh is vanished and a new town

Mohenjodaro nearby to the river stream sprouts up, built on similar

layout as Harappa town 400kms away

▸ Grid Iron Plan

▸ N-S & E-W Orientation

▸ Wide Main Roads, Streets & Alleys providing entry to the house

▸ Bricks built on stone foundation

MOHENJA DARO TOWN PLANNING

Similar to the Iron Grid plan of Harappa

Granary placed within the Citadel complex, with the Great Bath situated along with the Citadel

Multi-storeyed granary built in Mohenja Daro in contrast with the single floor granaries of Harappa. Increase in population and reduction in the size of land lead to such measures.

The "great bath" is without doubt the earliest public water tank in the ancient world. The tank itself measures approximately 12 m north-south and 7 m wide, with a maximum depth of 2.4 meters. Two wide staircases lead down into the tank from the north and south and small sockets at the edges of the stairs are thought to have held wooden planks or treads. At the foot of the stairs is a small ledge with a brick edging that extends the entire width of the pool. People coming down the stairs could move along this ledge without actually stepping into the pool itself

Upper Town

GRID IRON PATTERNS: Main Roads: 33 Feet, Streets: 13 Feet, Lanes: 4-6 Feet wide

CITY SIZE: 1200 x 800 feet

TEXT

Plan of the Granary

TEXT

=Mehrgarh is vanished and a new town

Mohenjodaro nearby to the river stream sprouts up, built on similar

layout as Harappa town 400kms away

TEXT

Lothal, Kathiawar Area, Gujarat

BEAD FACTORIES

WARE HOUSE

DOCK

TEXT

FIRST ATTEMPT BY HUMANS AT URBANISATION

WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM▸ Drainage & sewage system-

every house was provided with a water well, toilet connected an underground network to the main drain, a community well, man hole covers & septic tank

▸ Septic tanks were water purifiers that used porous pots to filter out the waste, which was later used as manure.

▸ Drains were made of clay pipes that were placed underground.

Every house had a private bathroom, private drinking water facility and well connected drainage system

DRAINAGE SYSTEM

MAIN DRAINS: 24 X 18 INCHES PRIVATE DRAIN: 20 X 9 INCHES

TEXT

TEXT

COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

THE ANCIENT TRADE ROUTES SERVED AS A PRECURSOR TO THE SILK ROAD

WHAT IS THE MOST DANGEROUS THREAT TO

HUMANS TODAY?

The Creator

INVENTION: WHEEL & DISCOVERY: FIRE

TERRORISM, EXTREMISM, COMMUNAL CLASHES, CIVIL WARS: RISK TO LIFE & ARCHITECTURE

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

EGYPT

INDUS VALLEY

on top of the world

Kings came by, dynasties rose & fell, rebel kings burned scriptures & destroyed tablets, but never ever there were a time where Destruction of Architecture took place.

Bamiyan, present day Afghanistan. Buddha statue & monk settlements carved into the cliffs of Bamyan valley in the Greek-Buddhist style. Destroyed by Taliban in 2001 as it was declared an idol.

TEXT

TEXT

BEFORE AFTER 2001

TEXT

PRESENT DAY MOSUL, HEADQUARTERS OF ISIS (FORMERLY KNOWN AS ISIS: ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ LEVANT & SYRIA) - NEAR ANCIENT CAPITAL CITY OF KHORSABAD

ROMAN THEATER, PALMYRA, PRESENT DAY SYRIA

25 TEENAGERS OF ISIS KILLING 25 CAPTIVE ADULTS OF THE SYRIAN ARMY AT THE ROMAN THEATRE

TEXT

World Trade Centre, New York Built in 1973 Architect: Minoru Yamasaki Structural Engineer: Fazlur Khan, introduction of the tube frame design to achieve heights & large spacing between steel members called Vierendeel Trusses to achieve strength

the Saddam Hussein statue at the Firdos square, Baghdad (ancient Babylon) - being taken down by the US Army

AZTEC & MAYANS USED SLOPED PYRAMIDS FOR HUMAN SACRIFICES

RITUAL OF PUBLIC PUNISHMENTS USING HEIGHTS FOR CRIMES

Hatsheput, known as Djeser-Djeseru (Holy of Holies) on the western Bank of River Nile, opposite to the Temple of Luxor. On 17 Nov, ’97 six gunmen went on rampage for 45 minutes killing 58 tourists trapped inside the temple complex located in the region called Valley of the Kings.

TEXTPalestine Refugees

Homs, third largest city in Syria, destroyed by the Assad regime. Considered as the ‘capital of revolution’ in 2011. But the peaceful revolution turned into a bloody civil war displacing half of Syrian population of 22 million and later, joined by the ISIS in 2013.

Sketches Required:

Mesopotamia:

1. Ziggurat - Plan, Elevation, Section, 3D View. (Sectional 3D or Elevation - Section)

2. Design Concept of any Assyrian Palace which used military strategy in it’s buildings.

3. Explain with diagrams the town planning of Mohenja Daro Buildings & houses.

4. If you were an Indus valley architect, design an duplex house for your family in a plot of 8 x 9 meters with road on either sides. Road dimensions: Main Road - 4 meters and Street Road - 2 meters. PLOT IN RED

Date of Submission: 22 April 2016

Mode of Submission: A3 sketch books

Movies recommended for better visual understanding into Empires, house typologies & Urban Development: Urbanized, Star Wars series, Lord Of The Rings series, City of God, Salaam Bombay, Satya, Slumdog Millionaire, Zero Dark Thirty, 10,000 BC, Baahubali, American Sniper. A song of Fire & Ice - The Game of Thrones TV series.

8 X 9 NEIGHBOUR NEIGHBOUR

NEIGHBOUR NEIGHBOUR NEIGHBOUR

Street

Mai

n Ro

ad

N

TEXT

Date: 22 April 2016Abhinand GopalTHE DEMOCRACY

THE CLASSICAL GREEK CIVILISATION