Mesopotamia Image Dump 6

 

Nice Babylonian city and royal scene

Put all my Mesopotamian bronze age posts here - this is latest
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/p/mesopotaimian-adventures.html

Ass pulled chariots in city state wars of Sumeria. Possibly battling Akkadians.

Another fanciful hanging gardens and canal scene. Ill do a post of all the pre 20th century versions one day. They are pretty over the top and inaccurate.

A king enjoying family time in a place garden

Persian soldiers entering Ishtar Gate. Babylon, Persia and Sythia destroyed Assyria only shortly before. Persians blocked river and snuck in under the gap left by lowered river. Babylonians busy enjoying food left out for them. Doh.

Eridu is the city of Enki and was a coastal connection to the Holy land of Dilmun where the gods lived and adam and eve came from (Bahrain). The seven fishy sages came here to re teach humans the arts of civilization ofter the flood. Kish was city where Kingship began. Eridu is supposed to have a water gate to the great subtereanean deep beneath the world. The sea has a plug with a jade seal. By the end of Assyria this city was hundreds of miles inland due to constant laying down of sediment. Kawait didnt exist when Eridu was in its heydey. Early Ishtar and Anu holy places too.

 
A bit over the top and ziggarutt not painted loud colours but idea of vegetation and roof gardens has crept inti illustration more and more. Newer city art have those roof gardens more green.

More hanging gardens.

More hanging gardens.

 A bit more Persian but nice - dont know what Frank Miller on

 Babylonian King and Sythians talking over ruins of Assyria. Egyptian troops help arrived 4 years too late (doh). Babylon didnt last much longer. Still Mesopotamian, Uratu and Elam were a big influence over Persia.

Another nice chariot scene

Another nice chariot scene

Assyrian vs Nubian

Sumerians building walls and Ziggurat. Note the lack of flying saucers and space gods helping. 3000BC had the lowest labour cost in history so that might have helped the pyramids and Ziggurat more.

 A city bridge crossing view

 A Persian king looking at his booty in babylon.

Ziggurat building

Reed woven house and mud brick walls as used by marsh Arabs for over 5000 years. Stone and metal were scarce resources. I had mythic Sumerian beginning party go to mountains to collect rocks for door posts in civic buildings. Such buildings could be built on a reed raft also.

An early reconstruction of military of early Ur about to be sealed in kings tomb. Only known burial of living servants, courtiers and soldiers found so must have been unusual king. Some peoples worshiped Vedic gods in Mesopotamia so perhaps was some link in this aberration.

Eridu sacred barge of Enki. Gods statues might travel by barge to visit other gods in other cities. Temples are doll houses for adults.

 Eridu holy precinct

This is probably Dara Happa from Indus civilization but similar intense urbanization and mud brick engineering produces similar outcomes. A proven trading partner with Sumeria and Elam.

A very good view of Babylon. I recon would be more visible people and farm structures.

 Eridu I think

Nice city probably Assyrian but coat of arms fro Sumerian era visible and gates look like Ishtar gates so an excellent mash up

Assyrian costume liths based on statue and wall relief art. Id still like to read a good essay on all the types of Assyrian soldiers. UniSA has encyclopedia of near eastern history which is awesome. Might visit libraries next time in South Australia,

Ceremonial procession of king with statue of a storm god like Enlil or Adad - lightning bolts in hands. When those priests used the extra holy month made up of extra days of lunar calender in solar year must have been a big party.

 I looked for this book for years and was disapointed by how dated it is. Still entertaining but some irrelevant comparisons based on mistakes gets annoying. This is the same kind of flawed crap that Stechkin and his space men in mesopotaimia theory uses. Plus he makes mistakes any student in the world can check online now. He is only person to have made certain mistakes and he is followed by thousands of jerks, Aliens in Assyria might be fun in a fantasy game or novel but not as the basis for a whole psuedo historical crap people take seriously. Unfortunately the purpose of history for many is to abuse it for current dickery.

A king overlooking city from some skyscraper overlooking the biggest bulding his civilization ever produced???

 A fairly old reconstruction but quite nice king looking over city scene

A king procession

Some ornament source books

One element I like of Babylonian magic and religion is sanctioned and and unsanctioned magic. Outlaw spell casting gets you chucked in river to let river god judge you. But within a massive temple there might be A specialist exorcists, a sanctioned sorcerer, astrologers, diviners, priests who are healers or experts in reading gods will and animal eviscerating sooth Sayers and many specialists. I always imagined a city with hanging gardens and massive royal parks would easily accommodate Druid. A Ziggurat is a man made symbolic mountain. Botanical gardens and zoos might justify a druid class to manage them. Actually I think druids being on fringes of civilization did copy religious ideas from Mesopotamia. The Tree of life, alphabet and taxonomy list based education, calender making, monoliths and other mutual intrests make me think if any civilization deserve druids, Mesopotaimia would be it. Ningizzida is a tree snake fruit wisdom healing divination cult i always liked. He is the constellation Hydra

Egyptian bride for Mesopotaimian king. Egypt pretty much a weaker more backward rival for early period but after battle with Hittites at Quadesh, Egypt never a power again. Assyria conquered Egypt but by fall of Assyria they were allies against the new powers like Sythia and Persia. Egypt never considered threat by any Europeans. Greeks, Romans and Victorian robbed Egypt and felt kindly of it as an exotic territory. But the Babylonians and Assyrians. Some Englishmen in 1600 escaped Iraq, other Europeans told locals english up to no good and were spys. Has retained mystique very different to Egypt. Who gets the the most books in your museum gift shop? French seem a bit more keen on this history. German is good for Persian translations.

A nice view of Ur type city with at least roofs being used a bit

 A ghostly ziggurat. Id be wary. Ghouls and lamia and succubi and demons or worse.

 

 Another ziggurat like Ur in middle of nowhere. Id be suspicious,

 

An Assyrian up to no good

lotsa good wargaming and military info especially for Sumerian intercity warfare
Battle Donkey Wagons Advance!
http://sumer2sargon.blogspot.com.au/