Editing Architecture of Mesopotamia (section)

==Building materials==
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300|caption_align=center
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| header=Anu/White Temple ziggurat
| image1   = White Temple 'E at Uruk, 3500-3000 BCE.jpg
| image2   = White Temple ziggurat in Uruk.jpg
| footer=Anu/White Temple [[ziggurat]] at [[Uruk]]. The original pyramidal structure, the "Anu Ziggurat" dates to the [[Sumerians]] around 4000 BCE, and the White Temple was built on top of it {{circa|3500 BCE}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crüsemann |first1=Nicola |last2=Ess |first2=Margarete van |last3=Hilgert |first3=Markus |last4=Salje |first4=Beate |last5=Potts |first5=Timothy |title=Uruk: First City of the Ancient World |date=2019 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-1-60606-444-3 |page=325 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=muCvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT325 |language=en}}</ref>
}}
Sumerian masonry was usually mortarless although [[bitumen]] was sometimes used. Brick styles, which varied greatly over time, are categorized by period.<ref>Harmansah, 2007</ref>

*Patzen 80×40×15&nbsp;cm: Late [[Uruk period]] (3600&ndash;3200 BC)
*Riemchen 16×16&nbsp;cm: Late [[Uruk period]] (3600&ndash;3200 BC)
*Plano-convex 10x19x34 cm: [[Early Dynastic Period which is called Sumer|Early Dynastic Period]] (3100&ndash;2300 BC)

The favoured design was rounded bricks, which are somewhat unstable, so Mesopotamian bricklayers would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest every few rows. The advantages of plano-convex bricks were the speed of manufacture as well as the irregular surface which held the finishing plaster coat better than a smooth surface from other brick types.

Bricks were sun baked to harden them. These types of bricks are much less durable than oven-baked ones so buildings eventually deteriorated. They were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This planned structural life cycle gradually raised the level of cities, so that they came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resulting mounds are known as [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]]s, and are found throughout the ancient Near East. Civic buildings slowed decay by using cones of coloured stone, terracotta panels, and [[clay nail]]s driven into the adobe-brick to create a protective sheath that decorated the façade. Specially prized were imported [[building material]]s such as cedar from [[Lebanon]], [[diorite]] from [[Arabia]], and [[lapis lazuli]] from [[India]].

Babylonian temples are massive structures of crude brick, supported by [[buttress]]es, the rain being carried off by drains. One such drain at [[Ur]] was made of lead. The use of brick led to the early development of the [[pilaster]] and column, and of [[fresco]]es and enamelled tiles. The walls were brilliantly coloured, and sometimes plated with [[zinc]] or gold, as well as with tiles. Painted [[terracotta]] cones for torches were also embedded in the plaster. Assyria, imitating Babylonian architecture, also built its palaces and temples of brick, even when stone was the natural building material of the country&nbsp;&ndash; faithfully preserving the brick platform, necessary in the marshy soil of Babylonia, but little needed in the north.

===Decoration===
As time went on, however, later Assyrian architects began to shake themselves free of Babylonian influence, and to use stone as well as brick. The walls of Assyrian palaces were lined with sculptured and coloured slabs of stone, instead of being painted as in [[Chaldea]]. Three stages may be traced in the art of these ''bas-reliefs'': it is vigorous but simple under [[Ashurnasirpal II]], careful and realistic under [[Sargon II]], and refined but wanting in boldness under [[Ashurbanipal]].

In Babylonia, in place of the bas relief, there is greater use of three-dimensional figures in the round&nbsp;&ndash; the earliest examples being the statues from [[Girsu]], that are realistic if somewhat clumsy. The paucity of stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious, and led to a high perfection in the art of gem-cutting. Two seal-cylinders from the age of [[Sargon of Akkad]] are among the best examples of their kind. One of the first remarkable specimens of early [[metallurgy]] to be discovered by archaeologists is the silver vase of [[Entemena]]. At a later epoch, great excellence was attained in the manufacture of such jewellery as earrings and bracelets of gold. Copper, too, was worked with skill; indeed, it is possible that Babylonia was the original home of copper-working.

The people were famous at an early date for their embroideries and rugs. The forms of Assyrian pottery are graceful; the porcelain, like the glass discovered in the palaces of [[Nineveh]], was derived from Egyptian models. Transparent glass seems to have been first introduced in the reign of Sargon. Stone, clay and glass were used to make vases, and vases of hard stone have been dug up at Girsu similar to those of the early dynastic period of Egypt.
[[File:Symbolic_scene_-_king_Ashurnasirpal.jpg|center|thumb|600x600px|King [[Ashurbanipal|Ashurnasirpal's]] throneroom relief showing [[Ashur (god)|Ashur]] hovering above the tree of life.]]