Expedition to the Ancestors. Ziggurat – One of the Ways to Reach the Sky
And they said:
let's build ourselves a city and a tower,
up to the sky,
and make a name for ourselves,
before we scatter
across the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11:4
let's build ourselves a city and a tower,
up to the sky,
and make a name for ourselves,
before we scatter
across the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11:4
People and culture. At all times, people have turned their eyes to the sky and tried to understand what it is. Why does it rain and snow, why is it sometimes black, sometimes blue, and what are those lights on it that flicker in the dark, but for some reason are not visible during the day?
And... apparently, striving for the heavens, they began to conduct their religious cults on high ground, and where there were none, they began to build semblances of mountains and hills.
In ancient Mesopotamia, these were ziggurats (from the Akkadian word sigguratu – “summit”, including “mountain summit”) – which were multi-layered religious structures. They were also built in Elam, and this was a typical religious building in Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Elamite architecture.
Hypothetical reconstruction of the ziggurat in Urem
In its design, a ziggurat is a stepped pyramid, and this is precisely how it differs from the Egyptian pyramids. There, however, stepped pyramids were also built, and they appeared even earlier than smooth-walled ones, but it was impossible to walk on their ledges, while ziggurats were originally created so that one could climb them and enter the temple built on top.
Another version of the reconstruction of the ziggurat in Ur. Beautiful! But it would be very difficult to make one. For example, I thought about it and did not dare…
The Sumerians had three-story ziggurats. The Babylonians had seven-step ziggurats. Each step or terrace was painted in different colors and connected either by stairs or ramps, and the walls were necessarily divided by rectangular niches.
It is believed that the Sumerian ziggurat terraces could have been used for planting, that is, they were also decorated with greenery, which, however, required regular watering.
Another fundamental model of the ziggurat from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin
The funniest thing is that there are still debates about what they were built for. Pioneers of ancient Mesopotamian archeology believed that ziggurats were observatories or towers that served as shelter from the heat and mosquitoes for the priests of the god Bel.
It is clear that the cult nature of such buildings is obvious, and there is no need to doubt it. But how exactly the ziggurats served cult purposes is unclear. There are no tombs inside. But it is known that they were built on the sites of more ancient elevated structures dating back to the Ubaid, Uruk and proto-literate periods of Mesopotamian history.
Ruins of the ziggurat in Uruk
There is also a point of view that the Sumerians first lived in the mountains, and there on the mountain peaks they worshiped their gods. And then they moved to the Mesopotamian lowland and, missing the mountains, began to build their analogues.
A more prosaic explanation for such construction: the rise of the deity. After all, the more difficult the road to the god or the temple, the more significant it is in the eyes of the laity. In any case, the ziggurat is nothing more than a bridge between earth and heaven, and a place where all divine rituals (or almost all) took place in front of the people.
Partially restored ruins of the ziggurat at Ur
And this is how it looked before restoration...
There is practically no stone in Mestopotami. But there is a lot of clay. Therefore, ziggurats were first built from adobe bricks and reinforced with layers of reeds, while on the outside this clay-reed hill was covered with baked bricks. It is clear that rains and winds could not help but damage these structures, so they were regularly repaired, which made them taller and larger in size.
Again, the Sumerians had three steps for a reason. This is a symbol of the supreme trinity of their pantheon - the god of air Enlil, the god of waters Enki and the god of sky Anu. But the Babylonian ziggurats were built with seven steps, according to the number of planets known to the Babylonians, and were painted in their symbolic colors.
The last efforts to build ziggurats took place in Mesopotamia as early as the 6th century BC, that is, at the end of the Neo-Babylonian period. But they were repaired and renovated throughout the ancient history of this region.
It is also believed that the place in the Bible where it talks about the Tower of Babel "as high as the heavens" was inspired by the Mesopotamian ziggurats. And this is quite possible, because they made a very strong impression on people then, and even now their ruins are impressive.
Ziggurats have survived to this day in Iraq (in the ancient cities of Borsippa, Babylon, Dur-Sharrukin, all 1st millennium BC) and in Iran (in the Chogha-Zanbil settlement, 2nd millennium BC).
Ziggurat of Etemenanki. Hypothetical facade
One of the most impressive is the Etemenanki ziggurat ("House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth") - a ziggurat in ancient Babylon, which is considered the prototype of the Tower of Babel. When exactly its construction began is not established, but under King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) its tower already existed. Then it was repaired many times, and the last time during the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the builders turned this ziggurat into the tallest building in ancient Babylon. It was dedicated to the supreme god Marduk.
Another ziggurat in Ur. In fact, it is a model. But making one, especially with miniature figures of people, would be a very difficult task!
It is assumed that the height of Etemenanki was 91 meters. Today, only the site of the ziggurat has been identified, but nothing remains of it. In 331 BC, Alexander the Great ordered it to be dismantled for subsequent reconstruction, but his death prevented this from being done. It was finally destroyed by order of the superstitious king Antiochus I, who tripped somewhere there while making a sacrifice.
However, a theatre was built from its bricks, so the Greeks and other “citizens” of the kingdom of Antiochus only benefited from this.
As for the cult and architectural identity, then... the relatives of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia are the step pyramids of Mesoamerica. As in Mesopotamia, the Indian "ziggurats" were built by different peoples, but using the same technology, as well as in the same architectural style, and on their upper platforms stood temple structures.
A paper model of a ziggurat found on the Internet
It is clear that while preparing visual aids for my native 6th school/gymnasium in Penza, I could not pass by the ziggurat. But here the question arose: how, from what and what to make it?
50% of the question disappeared after I looked on the Internet. There I found a wonderful paper ziggurat layout: enlarge, print, cut out, glue and – done! But… such a glued “homemade” is not suitable for a visual aid, since it is completely devoid of volume. Yes, it is colored, and it would be nice to make it together with a child, and even in a labor/creation lesson, but this is not enough for a teaching aid.
All the details and assembly sequence of this model
I had to take, again, quite affordable cardboard from packages from the Magnit store, cut out all the same parts from it and glue two platforms and a temple crowning them. The base was a 30x30 cm foam board, covered on four sides with ordinary school birch… rulers 30 cm long. I didn’t even have to cut them!
Coffee stirrers helped me make niches on the walls. They are glued to the cardboard with PVA glue, pressed with clothespins, and then the resulting structure is sanded with sandpaper. The upper platforms are linden wood slats, they are smooth and durable, giving the structure a finished and aesthetic look.
Another photo of a ziggurat model made of cardboard, coffee stirrers, foam plastic and 30-centimeter rulers. So now the fifth-graders in the 6th gymnasium will be able not only to look at this visual aid, but also to hold it in their hands. The model is made a little rough on purpose. So that children would be psychologically able to make something similar. Filigree lines and decoration are completely unnecessary here! Photo and work by the author
The painting is done with acrylic paint to match the color of the clay. The grass around the structure, and it should be used to shade its foundation, is from a branded grass set for dioramas. It's just a pity that we couldn't find little people in the right scale, otherwise we could have made a cool procession of ancient Sumerians going to worship the gods!
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