Mesopotamia Image Dump 7: Mesopotaimia Mania!!!

Gonna have druids running those hanging gardens and shamen becoming temple exorcists. Legal magicians of all types who are also cult members could earn legitimate posts such as different types of divination (more varieties the better) like astrologers, soothsayers, gardener (more than just a crappy job in those palaces and zigeruts. All those trees groming on buildings below need skilled gardners. Trees hundreds of years old. Forest animals. All pedicured into a cosmic symbolic landscape. Wild druids among mountain forest tribes and even frontier country, where everything is more sordid crappy and mean.Actualy probably not one ziggarut painted properly colour wise in any of this art. Each step another colour of magical significance.



Worlds oldest one page dungeon: This is freakin awesome ancient one page dungeon map from real stelae with zigurat map. Alexander Great movie had this all run down after persian rule....







Alexander the great - best sequence in film. The tower of babylon and pyramids built when labour cheap, alexander couldnt even afford to repair it. Imagine a ruin dungeon complex in middle of ancient city.



Chariot amok! A procession from a city.



sumerians taking on the fly records - some huge amount of all akkadian documents in the form of clay tablets were receipts, many personal letters. Best one i read was girl asking daddy for more slaves as she blew the feeding budget for last lot and they died.

.

Sumerian war cart, a proto chariot. Chariots and horses came from central asian waves of inventers. Ox wagons are the oldest then wild ass or onagers or donkeys go back to 4000 bc. Riding much later. Dromedary camels appeared from arabia 2500bc-3000bc spreading to civilized lands later. Bactrain camels from asia came later (assyrian times?). A hybrid of both was sterile but could endure heat or cold were in great demand. Persia introduced the camel to Egypt 525 bc. Were extict from earlier time. No camel god (Set?).



Brilliant - really good painting of a Sumerian army with priest scribes in wooly robes and kilts - studded cloak - ive added cloaks to my armour in DnD of late - these would be even better - also a cloak skill to enhance.



Nice domestic scene of farms - code of Hummarabi has lotsa good farming info. Poets would have wrap battles comparing date palm to tamarisk and who could elogently list the most uses. Huge amount of all crops for beer. Everyone drinks from pot with filtered straw. Date palm if cut down can make sugar which can make palm wine. Cutting down fruit trees was a war crime. Arab nomads specialized in tearing down walls, filling in wells, cutting down trees and helping desert grow (sorry guys but i could go on).



Let loose the battle donkey wagons!!! this is great.



Nice comic book aerial view of ur



Scribe school or old school typing pool. Scribes wrote lists which were used for training and formed a kind of Dewey decimal / encyclopedia the melamu. These lists had mystical significance too which i think filtered to Mediterranean middle east and Europe. Magical powers of words and true names was big here. Magicians use true names of beings and hings to do magic. When Anzu stole the tablets of destiny he could deconstruct and disassemble arrows sent at him. Words had secret hidden power. Nebo/Nabu the son of marduk is epitome of this and the Babylonian Mercury. Bindings, seals, wards, stelae all may have power through this. Sacred foundation stones dedicated o gods and kings protect buildings Stones mark territories, fields, memorial sights.




See me rolling with my donkeys they be hating. I saw mistranslated my little pony bootlegs named demon donkey. Id consider having underworld beings using older style vehicle so demon donkey possible. These are the oldest wheels found in world.


This is a nice farmstead with woven reed building and mud brick and rammed earth



Current thoughts among some is the hanging gardens were in Nippur not Babylon and all based on mistranslation about Babylon. I'm undecided about this. Option B is to put one in every big city. A library a must in every city and museum (fossils and archeology of a thousand years earlier) and a hanging garden. Grow all your pharmacology produce for your amazing list of cooking and medicinal and magical plants. Palaces and temples need the best at all times. Druids could control micro climates in courtyards.



I kinda reacon these were not into charging and trampling so much - javelin and carrying elevated officers and escape for bosses seems better use or transport a hero. That axe is for when guys hang on or board - not like a chariot lance that could kill every hit and a bit more range.



Onagers - wild ass, good eating and main beast of burden. Horses more obedient and fierce. These guys in wild went to extinction when not so used. Could kill you and bite you but not so obediant and cooperative - no double lance bonuses for charge and no fancy riding. Chariot better with a driver and even a shield guy letting king get a lion with lance or bow. Early kings were temporarily ellected from assemblies for emergencies like a giant friggin cow attack! Aurochs and man battled for eaons and we won making cows our slaves. Kings wore horned crowns. Moses had horns - a symbol for power - more horns the better higher rank king or angel. Lion became a better victim later when kings were established as not just emergency title for war or crisis. Kings sized control and thats how Marduk a young god rules the universe. If you assembly of gods dont vote me unanimous king of universe and submit to me forever i wont save us from granny Tiamat. Kings fight monsters or at least poor animals. If you cant find a agro 8 foot high at shoulder lone bull in your battle donkey wagon you kill lions jut like rich jerks do now. Marduk (Jupiter) has 7 hellhounds: Grasper, biter etc, (his moons?).


Assyrians at work - great seige specializations.



Another palace with river - animal headed boats were big. Horse heads big in later years.



Slave labour under Assyrian yoke



I think this is persian but nice


Assyrian kings do what they do best



Royal canal docks



Close up of palace



Wider view - parks with trees and animal reminded post Sumerians of mountains and forests of ancestors. Ziggerats were a atempt to build a microcosm of the cosmic mountain - the body of the old earth goddess Ki.



Another palace on water edge view



A rather fierce king



Warrior kit. I really like the mini bows guys wore on belt holster all over middle east only 30-50 cm. Not so lethal but having everyone get a few extra shots at a range is nice



Aking attended by women of many lands - hats, hairstyle denoted you race - people would see you beard and just know you were foreign. Every tribe had gang colours. Folk outfits not just funny dancing costumes for old people.



I think this is Nebechenezzer seeing word of god or something back when god made an effort to prove himself.



A dramatic biblical Babel at least based on some archeology - tower only a bit OTT and doesnt look like Bruegel - will do a whole post on hopeless European portrayals like Brugel.



A few moments later and bam! god does a S11 on the greatest work of man ever.



Artist has made a bit too Greek but nice ancient urbanization even if Ive erroneously included this here



More here



I could use this in my cthulhu-metropolis decopunk game. These same forms were big in my city in 80s. Temples that look like bakalite jazz age radios on valium. Deco era and before it 1890s arts and craft era copy every ancient art style in the world. Iraq well represented in 20th century building firsts. Very standard reproduced form which Akkadians and Asyrians created their own distict version as symbols of empire. Assyrian very engineer oriented and they would build wall up to your walled city and bring in heavy demolitions hardware and pour troops from national road and canal system.



A nice gung ho city breaching moment. For an era walls were unstoppable and sige technology not up to task/ Persians had to trick Babylon by moving river and giving the Babylonians tempting party favours. Then run under walls. Only a few generations before a Assyrian king had razed babylon badly and said Assyria had to destroy forever, but his son was more religious and rebult everything which led to their revolt from Asyria. The Persian eventually had to agree and destroyed it forever, marching populace one mile down road to site of Bagdad.



Able men prisoners might just be executed by victorious officers swords executing them to build head pyramids. The lucky ones got to be enslaved in dangerous job like mining. Swords for captains and aristocrats to execute (justice), club for middle managers to beat subordinates. Women and children might be sold off. Males old enough to be indolent resentful teen get killed too. Other boys made into eunachs (the lucky ones yay!). Many kings sons and captured enemy sons could expect this.



Don't hi-five the king



Take that donkey wagon, make way for the bigger gun in bronze age Car Wars! Yes cars and trucks predate motors.



Intrigue. Read heroditus - one of my top ten fave books. All that Marduk stuff of him seizing power a set up by his dad Enki (or Ea if your old school sumerian). He started the killing first by killing Apsu with a sleep spell and a knife, advised everybody and made a magic son to rule universe). God says Ea one of his names in bible. Enki also made defective people for drunken bets, raped and ate his daughters (plant and herb goddesses), advised humans be made and made molds (some not so good but he offers uses for defective ppl), stopped humans becoming immortal and saved humans again and again from wrath of gods and helped Sumerian Noah save human kind with that flood bit.