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Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 2
Lesson 6: Babylonian- Babylonia, an introduction
- Ancient Babylon: excavations, restorations and modern tourism
- The Babylonian mind
- The Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi
- Hammurabi: The king who made the four quarters of the earth obedient
- Law Code of Hammurabi
- Ishtar gate and Processional Way
- Ishtar Gate
- Map of the world
- Towers of Babel
- The "Queen of the Night" relief
- Kassite Art: Unfinished Kudurru
- Neo-Babylonian
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Ishtar gate and Processional Way
The Ishtar Gate and Processional Way were part of the ancient city of Babylon, built by King Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE. Nebuchadnezzar inscribed the gate with a message proclaiming his greatness and asking future rulers to rebuild it. The gate was considered one of the Wonders of the World, and was later partially reconstructed by Saddam Hussein. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- How the heck was this section moved to a Museum? It's HUGE.(64 votes)
- It wasn't moved but reconstructed within the walls of Pergamonmuseum. However, there are some other exhibits inside that are even larger, and the museum was indeed built around them.(79 votes)
- With the 3 animals described and shown in the video, were there other 'animals' or representations of power used regularly within the city?(10 votes)
- I think there where only 3 gods inscribed in Babylon. If you look on, you'll see that the desighn alternated between the three gods on the wall. 3:03(1 vote)
- How can copper be made into this brilliant blue? At the pointit states that the wall is covered with copper that is blue. Also were would the copper come from? Would it have been imported? Would the other colors be made from copper as well. 4:50(6 votes)
- Copper(II) ions are blue so copper(II) salts (for example CuCO3) can be used to produce green or blue glazes. As copper itself is somewhat red, it can also be used to create a very specific reddish shade of orange.(11 votes)
- Do you think the deep blue walls appeared as a mirage of water in the distance in the arid lands?(6 votes)
- It's certainly possible, but don't forget that Babylon stood alongside a river.(8 votes)
- We see black and white photos of this gateway in place in (relatively) modern Iraq. How did it get to Berlin? If modern dictators wish to rebuild the glories of the past, why would they allow this to leave?(4 votes)
- Great question. You are right to suggest it is unlikely that a modern ruler would let such a monument out of the country. The excavations took place when Iraq was not an independent nation and they ended with the beginning of the First World War. Iraq was then a part of the Ottoman Empire.(8 votes)
- How much of this is comprised of the original brickwork, versus replacements/replicas inserted during it's reconstruction?(6 votes)
- all of it is original if there are any bricks missing they will be replaced with bricks from another art exhibit from that time and place that either had extra bricks or to little to be put on display(1 vote)
- It almost looks like it's made out of legos.
What materials were used to color and create the gates?(3 votes)- The gates were built of glazed bricks. As every brick was glazed separately before building the gate, they all had unique colors and shades, which made the surface look unevenly colored and gave that lego-ish impression.(6 votes)
- Ishtar- goddess of fertility. We get "Easter" from her name and thus the easter egg and rabbit, both representing fertility.(5 votes)
- Aton the map, there is a place that says "Malgium?" and also there is "Rapiqum?" 0:33
What does this mean?(3 votes)- Malgium and Rapiqum were city-states in Neo-Babylonia.(3 votes)
- Who knows how to spell the guys name at: .20 ? ( seconds of course)(2 votes)
- From the author:Perhaps you are asking about King Nebuchadnezzar.(8 votes)
Video transcript
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We're in
the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. And one of the most astonishing
objects they have is-- well, it's not an object. DR. BETH HARRIS: It's
a gate for a city. There were eight double gates
that formed part of the walls around the ancient
city of Babylon. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: It's huge. DR. BETH HARRIS: It
doesn't just impress us, it impressed people
when it was built. In fact, it was called one
of the Wonders of the World. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
So Nebuchadnezzar, of biblical fame,
ascended to the throne and proceeded to
rebuild the already ancient city of Babylon. This is a city that has its
roots in the third millennia BC, but had become a major
political center under King Hammurabi in the 1700s BCE. The city had remained populated,
but regained importance in the sixth century
under Nebuchadnezzar II and under his father, and
what we're seeing here is part of the enormous
building campaign that Nebuchadnezzar
II had undertaken. DR. BETH HARRIS: We might
recognize Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible, from
the Book of Daniel. He's the ruler of Babylon
who conquers and destroys the Temple in
Jerusalem and who's responsible for the
exile of the Jews. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Clearly
he was very powerful. He was able to undertake this
enormous building campaign. He fortified and
strengthened 11 miles of wall around the city of Babylon. He reconstructed
the Great Ziggurat in Babylon, which had the
temple of Marduk at its top and is probably the
source of the story of the Tower of Babel. He created palaces,
and he created this extraordinary gate. DR. BETH HARRIS: And Hanging
Gardens, which were also considered one of the
Wonders of the World. So the city of Babylon
had eight double gates. The one we're looking at
is one of those gates, and actually the smaller
of the double gate. The other one would
have been even larger, if that's possible to imagine. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
In fact, so large that the museum can't
actually put it on display even in this
very large space. This gate-- which,
of course, would only be opened for the
friendly-- is at the end of a long processional way
lined with beautiful lions that speak very clearly
of pride, of power, and of Nebuchadnezzar's rule. DR. BETH HARRIS: The lions that
we see on the processional way represent Ishtar, one of
the Babylonian goddesses, the goddess of war and
wisdom and sexuality. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: They're
raised up to eye level. And they're a little bit
smaller than life-size, but they're pretty big. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
they're frightening. Their mouths [? were ?] open
in these ferocious roars. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: It's true. They're snarling, aren't they? DR. BETH HARRIS: They
are, but the fact that they're placed in
this very regular way makes them seem as
though they're almost trained, or controlled, by
King Nebuchadnezzar himself. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: It makes
us fear not only the lions, but it makes us fear the king. The image of the
lion is beautiful, this faience raised to create
a kind of relief sculpture. So in addition to
the lions, there are two other animal forms
that decorate the gate. And they're both meant to be
as ferocious as the lions. A kind of ancient bull,
known as an auroch-- these were supposed to
be terribly fierce. And then alternating
with the rows of auroch are a kind of
Mesopotamia dragon, which is really a
composite beast. The front paws are
those of lions. The head and neck come
from a snake or serpent. The hind legs come
from an eagle, perhaps. DR. BETH HARRIS: And their tails
have a stinger like a scorpion. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Those
dragons are associated with Marduk, the
patron god of the city. And Nebuchadnezzar associated
himself directly with Marduk. The aurochs-- that
is, these bulls-- are associated with the
god Adad, a god associated with storms, with the fertility
of the land, with the harvest. All of these animals speak
to protecting the city but also providing for the city. DR. BETH HARRIS: They're
ferocious animals, but they're also represented
in a very regular way along the procession, and on the
tower and archway of the gate, so that there's symmetry, a
sense of order, in the way that they're represented. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: One of the
most extraordinary aspects of these towers, of the gate
as a whole, is the color. This is an arid place
where the sun is bright, where it gets really hot. And you can imagine
how brilliant the blues and the greens of the surface
would have originally been, not in the context
of the museum, but in the context of
the edge of a desert. In Mesopotamia, there
was a real problem. The Egyptians were able to
build their great pyramids and other monuments out
of the native stone that surrounded them. But in Mesopotamia,
they didn't have that. This was a river valley. Babylon is on the
banks of the Euphrates. In fact, the Euphrates cuts
right through the city. When the Mesopotamians
wanted to build, they created
buildings out of brick created from the clay
of the river valley. The brilliant blue that we
see on the surface of the gate is faience. This is a technique that was
known to the ancient Egyptians and other parts of
the ancient world. And it uses copper to
create this brilliant blue. And this is a beautiful example. DR. BETH HARRIS: So
the gate is massive. It's frightening. It's decorative. And it's brilliantly colored. No wonder Nebuchadnezzar
was so proud of it and wrote an
inscription on the side. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Let's go read that. Now, we're not sure where the
inscription was originally placed on the wall. But in this reconstruction,
it's on the left side of the left tower. Here's an excerpt. "I, Nebuchadnezzar,
laid the foundation of the gates down to
the groundwater level and had them built out
of pure blue stone. Upon the walls in the
inner room of the gate are bulls and dragons. And thus, I magnificently
adorned them with luxurious splendor for
all mankind to behold in awe." DR. BETH HARRIS:
And we are in awe two and a half millennia later. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Nebuchadnezzar understood his place in history. And he actually
wrote inscriptions in his new buildings that
not only identified them and identified their purpose
and him as their patron, but also asked future rulers
to rebuild them for him. DR. BETH HARRIS:
It's as though he knew that empires come and go. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And that
he could speak across history. And in our time, the
ruler of Mesopotamia, which we now call Iraq,
seemed to pay attention. Saddam Hussein
actually had begun the rebuilding of
parts of Babylonia. He built his own palace
a few hundred meters away from the Ishtar Gate and
began the reconstruction of parts of the city, as well. That came to a halt, of course,
in the recent military actions against him. And of course, he was
ultimately deposed and killed. DR. BETH HARRIS:
And what it meant to rebuild this legendary city. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Saddam
Hussein was very much rebuilding it not
for Nebuchadnezzar, but for his own
political ambition. DR. BETH HARRIS: Reclaiming
the power of Nebuchadnezzar for himself. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: That's right. And the power of
ancient Mesopotamia.