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A. Introduction
Entire span of human history divided
into 2 periods:
• Stone Age -- Preliterate
 Paleolithic -- old stone age
 Mesolithic -- middle stone age
 Neolithic -- new stone age
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• Metal Age -- coincides w/ history of

civilized nations

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A. Introduction
3 Periods of Prehistory:
• Paleolithic -- implements were made from
chipping pieces off a large stone & using the
core that remained as a hand ax or ‘fist
hatchet’
• Mesolithic -- the chips were used as knives or
spearheads & the core thrown away
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• Neolithic -- witnessed the supplanting of

chipped stone tools by implements made by
grinding and polishing stone

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A. Introduction
1.a Paleolithic period (Greek paleo = old, lithos
= stone) - dated around 1,750,000-10,000 BC
and further divided into:

1.a.1 Lower Paleolithic -- longer period covering

75% of the Old Stone Age Lower Paleolithic
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men had the capacity for speech and logical

thinking; discovered that stones could be chipped
and the sharp parts can be used for
cutting. They used hand ax or fist hatchet.
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A. Introduction
Earliest Stone Age Men:
1. Zinjanthropus boisei – found in the Great Rift valley
of Tanganyika in Central Africa
• Tools: bones of large animals, tree limbs & chunks
of stone, perhaps broken or
crudely chipped
2. Java man (Pithecanthropus
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erectus) found in Java in 1891

3. Peking man (Sinanthropus
pekinensis) – discovered in
Peking bet 1926-1930.
4. Fontechevade man – found in 1947 in caves of
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Charente, southwestern France.
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A. Introduction
Earliest Stone Age Men:
5. Homo neanderthalensis – discovered in the valley of
Neander, Dusseldorf, western Germany in 1856
• Evidence to have abandoned the use of fist hatchet
• Improved methods of chipping stone – dev’t of
spearheads, borers, and much superior knives &
scrapers.
• Advancement in non-material culture
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• Evidence of flint-working floors & stone hearths in

cave entrances, suggesting a co-operative group life
& possibly the beginnings of social institutions
• Practice of bestowing care upon the bodies of their
dead, interring them w/ them in shallow graves
tools & objects of value
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Hearth, Bruniquel Cave, France
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A. Introduction
Earliest Stone Age Men:
6. Cro-Magnon – found in Cro-Magnon
cave in Dordogne, France
• Tools & implements better made: not
merely from flakes of stone & an
occasional shaft of bone
• Other mat’ls were reindeer horn &
ivory
• Complicated tools included bone
needle, fishhook, harpoon, dart
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thrower & @ the very end, the bow &

arrow
• Wore clothing, even made buttons &
toggles of bone & horn, on animal
skins
• Made accessories from animal teeth &
shells
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A. Introduction
Earliest Stone Age Men:
• He cooked his food evidenced by big hearths, probably used
in roasting flesh
• In Solutre, France, was a mass of charred bones, estimated to
contain the remains of 100,000 large animals
• Built no houses except a few simple huts in places where
natural shelters did not abound, he was not completely
nomadic
• Evidences found in caves indicate that he must have used
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them seasonally

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A. Introduction
Earliest Stone Age Men:
• Group life now more regular & highly organized
• Communities included prof’l artists & skilled
craftsmen
• Bestowed more care upon the bodies of the dead:
painting the corpses, folding the arms over the
heart, & depositing pendants, necklaces & richly
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carved weapons & tools in the graves

• He formulated an elaborate system of sympathetic
magic designed to increase his food supply
• Cro-Magnon could count, first mathematical record
• Must have invented a crude system of writing
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B. Influences
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Laurel
P leaf flint Solutrean mammoth bones
Cave drawings, Chauvet, France, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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A. Introduction
1.b Mesolithic period (meso = middle) - dated around 10,000 until 4,000 BC, characterized
by improvement of the Paleolithic period.

• transition from hunting-gathering to primitive agriculture

• unstable climate that made life difficult for the stone age people
• learned to fish and eat plant resources like acorns, hazelnuts, and nettles
• the beginning of the domestication of animals.

The Mesolithic technology are the following:

• land development: they cut down trees to make fire and burned swamps and wetlands to
build roads for boats and canoes to safely cross
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• left the caves and started building houses and fishing vessels
• microliths (very small stone tools) mounted together as points for arrows and harpoons.
• Did not just use stones but also animal bones, antler and wood to make adzes and
chisels. Evidence of their use of needles, and fish-hooks were found.
• Larger tools, such as clubs, were made of ground stone. Polishing of stone was also seen.
• Improved hunting and gathering practices allowed for an increase in leatherwork and
basketry. Baskets were used to trap fish in streams.

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A. Introduction
1.c Neolithic period (neo = new) - circa 10,000 BCE until 3,000
• stone weapons and tools were made by grinding and polishing
instead of chipping.
• Bearers of Neolithic culture scattered throughout Northern Europe
and Africa from western Asia.
• have better mastery of the environment and were less prone to die
from changes in climate or the failure in their food supply
• domesticated animals and developed agriculture, the 2 factors that
were responsible for a settled mode of existence
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• increased population due to a stable food supply, so bigger

communities then villages to cities emerged
• developed the arts of knitting, of spinning and weaving cloth; they
also discovered how to produce fire by friction
• Pottery was invented to preserve and store their food supply.

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A. Introduction
Another very important development is the establishment of social
institutions:

Family – may be both monogamous and polygamous forms, possibility

of polyandry and polygyny;

Religion -- an expression of a sense of dependence on a power outside

ourselves, a power which may be spiritual or moral (Radcliffe-Brown,1952); early
religion was ritualistic and not really a belief system. primitive man believed
that unless he performed sacrificial rites, rain and other natural phenomena
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will occur. This was due to his dependence on nature for his existence.

State -- an organized society occupying a definite territory and possessing an

authoritative government (Spencer, 19); community customs was the law, the
blood-feud is the way to administer justice;

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A. Introduction
This period is also credited for the following:
• Invention of the calendar to guide people when to plant and
harvest crops.
• Discovery of metal tools like bronze and then iron initially for
agricultural use.
• Development of irrigation
systems
• Metal weapons became a necessity to defend their villages and
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resources

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A. Introduction
2. Metal Age
This period started around 4,000 BC and ended about 405 BC. Metal Age is further
divided into Copper, Bronze and Iron periods.

2.a Copper Age (c. 4500 - 3500 BC) - Another name given to this period is
Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos = copper + lithos = stone) and is also recognized as Eneolithic or
Aenelithic (Latin aeneus = copper).

• Copper was a predominant metal used before early man discovered that the addition of
tin to copper could create bronze which is harder and stronger than copper or
tin. Metallurgy was believed to have started in the Fertile Crescent.
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• Tell Halaf in Syria was discovered to have a copper metallurgy technology that is older
than the copper axes and adzes from Catalhoyuk in Anatolia.
• The Yarim Tepe in Iraq, a late Neolithic settlement, also yielded copper tools and
weapons.
• Copper mining and smelting in Timna Valley (Yemen) dates to about 7000-5000 BC.

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A. Introduction
Polychrome painted pottery is another characteristic of the Chacolithic era.
• Pottery with wall openings possibly for burning incense and storage jars with spouts
were also found.
• Farmers domesticated animals like sheep-goats, cattle and pigs but continued with
hunting and fishing.
• Milk and milk by-products were important as well as fig and olive.
• Local products were used and traded for copper and silver ores, basalt bowls, timber and
resins.
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A. Introduction
2.b Bronze Age (ca. 3300 - 1200 BC) - The start of the period marks the end
to the Stone Age.

• Sumerians are believed to be the first to start adding tin to copper to make
bronze.
• tools and weapons made from bronze are harder and more durable than
copper
• rise of kingdoms or city-states under a central government led by a
powerful ruler.
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• well-known Bronze Age kingdoms include Mesopotamian Sumer and

Babylonia, and Athens in Ancient Greece.
• developed societies with high degree of specialization, laws in place of
customs and a wide network of trade relations with other kingdoms
thousands of kilometers away.
• Cities grew from independent city-states and later as empires.

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A. Introduction
• Greece became the activity center on the Mediterranean
• Cycladic (from Cyclades Islands) civilization in the Aegean Sea
around 3200 BC.
• The Minoan civilization emerged in Crete a few hundred years
later, who had the first advanced civilization in Europe.
• traded timber, olive oil, wine and dye with Egypt, Syria,
Cyprus and the Greek mainland for their metals and other
raw materials.
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• Aside from the early centers of civilization, other agrarian societies

emerged and nomadic pastoral peoples also developed.
• They traded and fought with farming clans and city states that
the more developed civilizations regarded them as
barbarians.

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A. Introduction
2.c Iron Age (ca. 1200 - 600 BC) - This is an archaeological period
when ferrous metallurgy was the dominant technology.
• presence of cast or wrought iron in tools and weapons is not the
determining factor of it belonging to the period because early man
started experimenting with iron even before this period.
• Tutankhamun's dagger made of meteoric iron comes from the
Bronze Age.
• Archaeology identifies the end of Bronze Age and the beginning of
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large-scale iron production around 1200 BC.

• the shift to iron was due to trade disruptions and shortage of tin in
the Mediterranean around 1300 BC that forced metalworkers to
find an alternative to bronze.
• Many bronze implements were recycled to make weapons during
that time.

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A. Introduction
• The invention of the wheel, the first writing systems were the
notable accomplishments of the period.

• This period suddenly ended in 1200 BC because of what scholars

believe to be a combination of natural & man-made disasters.
• earthquakes
• invasion by nomadic tribes may also be blamed
• Archaeological evidence of droughts (leading to famine) in the
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eastern Mediterranean lasting over 150 years may have

contributed to the collapse of the Mycenaean, Hittite and
Egyptian civilizations.

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A. Introduction
• Iron Age was believed to have started in the Mediterranean and Near
East after the collapse of prominent Bronze Age societies.
• Tools and weapons made from iron and steel were being
manufactured in Asia, Europe and some parts of Africa.
• However, in ancient Greece, this was a period of cultural decline. This
is also the era when nomadic pastoralists developed a state that
would become known as Persia.
• Iron only became superior to bronze when the early people learned
to add carbon in the metal, also known as carbon steel.
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• earliest evidence for iron-making incorporating the appropriate

amounts of carbon found in the Proto Hittite layers of Kaman-
Kalehoyuk, dated to around 2200-2000 BC.
• Earliest iron smelting using the furnace was found at Tell Hamme in
Jordan dated around 930 BC.

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B. Influences

Architectural history is a product of

the natural environment (geography,
geology and climate), and human beliefs
and activities through time (religion,
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social/historical aspects).

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B. Influences
B.1 Geography
• Near East was located at the intersection of 3 continents of Asia, Africa and
Europe
• 3 broad zones: the Arabian peninsula going north to Syria, the Fertile
Crescent, and the coastal areas of the Aegean, Turkey & Levant
(Mediterranean). The area is surrounded by the Mediterranean, Black,
Caspian and the Red Seas, and the Persian Gulf.
• complex topography of desert, mountain ranges with pocket oases.
• early settlements was the area along bodies of water on the western portion
• eastern portion the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have headwaters on the
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Taurus Mountains of north-eastern Turkey and the Zagros Mountains of Iran,

then joins towards south and dislodges onto the Persian Gulf.
• Water from the seas and river, for both agriculture and barter, was the main
factor for the creation of cities in ancient times.

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B. Influences
• Water features also define territories and function as defensive
barriers for the ancient Near East had a lot of sub-regions, namely:

• Minoan civilization: Cyprus and Crete

• Mesopotamia: Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia and Akkad
• AncientEgypt
• Elam
• Levant: Canaan, Ugarit, Ebla, Mitanni
• Anatolia: Hittite Empire, Assuwa, Arzawa
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• Caucasus and the Armenia (Urartu)

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B. Influences
B.2 Geology
• The mountain ranges and their caves were the common shelter
sites.
• Around 8000 BC, the cultivation of barley, wheat and other plants
began.
• Building stone, precious metals and timber were rare in the region
but may be exchanged for agricultural products with neighboring
tribes.
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• Plentiful supply of soil which, mixed w/ water into mud, produced

sun-dried bricks.
• Bitumen available in Mesopotamia and the neighboring plain of
Susa (Elam) was first used in Neolithic times as mastic. Eventually
its water-proofing properties were realized and used to reduce
erosion of mud-brick walls.
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B. Influences
B.3 Climate
• The Holocene period (12,000-11,500 BC) is a geologic
time when plants thrived in the warm and moist
climate.
• This is also termed as the 'Age of Man' because man
became the master of his environment.
• earth began to warm to spread forests across the
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Zagros and Taurus Mountains.

• Prehistoric man's food supply was threatened with
the extinction of mammoths as they failed to adapt
to a warmer climate.

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B. Influences
• Agriculture, therefore, was a necessity.
Melting ice fed the rivers of the Near East.

• Moisture from the Mediterranean was captured by

Taurus and Zagros Mountains, converting an arid area
into a productive ecosystem.
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• Farming without irrigation (dry-farming) in some parts

of Mesopotamia was possible with ample rainfall.

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B. Influences
B.4 Religion
• Religion in the ancient Near East was mostly
polytheistic in nature with the common belief in the
forces of nature.
• possible spread of religious beliefs was through cultural
contact with other groups in the region.
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• earliest to appear were Mesopotamian mythology and

Egyptian religion (ca. 2500 BC).
• It was the Sumerians who designated high grounds as
sacred places, the possible model of Greek Acropolis.

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B. Influences
• The highest authority was the triad of storm (Enlil), water (Ea)
and sky (Anu) gods. A later triad included the moon (Sin) and sun
(Shamash) gods, and the goddess Ishtar. A belief in the mother
goddess, (Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Cybele) who was more
patronizing of humans than the other gods, developed into a
cult. Common religious practices were:

• Purification and cleansing rituals

•
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Sacrifices (plant, animal and human sacrifice) and libation

• State-sponsored religions (theocracy)
• Divination
• Magic (invocations, conjuring and talismans)

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

What were the character and types of buildings created by the

prehistoric people in the Near East? An architectural typology (a
classification of characteristics found in buildings) is the result of the
influences of site (geography, geology and climate) and user requirements
(religion, social and historical influences).

3 broad typologies were identified: dwellings, shrines and temples,

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and tombs. group life.

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1. Dwellings

1.a Cave dwellings

• caves in the mountainous regions of the ancient Near East
determined the site for the development of civilization.
• simplest, most durable shelter for prehistoric men is the
unmodified natural cavern.
• Flint-working floors and stone hearths where huge fires
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have been made were found inside caves suggesting co-

operative group life.

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Mugharet Es Skhul cave on Mount Carmel, Israel
Mugharet Es Skhul cave on Mount Carmel, Israel
Raqefet Cave, Israel
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1.b Huts
• the first man-made structure using various local materials
such as wood, stone, grass, branches or earth.
• As Neolithic peoples settled down to begin agriculture,
they started producing food that needed to be stored and
defended.
• aside defensive tools, their houses showed increase in size
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and complexity, improved resource use and building

technology.
• Category: Wood and grass hut

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Ohalo II, near Lake Lisan, Israel (ca. 20,000BC)
Ohalo II, near Lake Lisan, Israel (ca. 20,000BC)
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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

• Category: Stone hut

– foundations sunk beneath the floor made of 2-3 cm
thick packed clay.
– structure was covered with a layer of charcoal
presumably the burnt remains of a roof or
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superstructure, and the presence of a hearth and a

grindstone for polishing stones.

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Kharaneh IV, Jordan (ca. 18,000 & 14,000 BC)
Kharaneh IV, Jordan (ca. 18,000 & 14,000 BC)
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1.c Pit-houses
• Houses in the ground used for
providing shelter from extreme
weather conditions.
• Example: Abu Hureyra, Syria (ca.
13,000-12,000 BC) - walls were
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probably built of perishable materials

such as wood and mud, with central
wooden posts supporting thatch roof.

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1.c Pit-houses
• Example: Ain Mallaha, Israel (ca. 10,000
- 8,000 BC) - one-room houses with
subterranean floors and walls about 1.2
meters high were made of
drystone (without mortar).
• thatch roof or animal hide was supported
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by wooden posts.
• hearths inside the dwellings. Walls and
floors were decorated in solid white or
red, a Near East feature of the time.

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1.d Tell
• A tell is an artificial mound from an
accumulation of mudbrick remains and other
refuse, usually associated with the Near East.
• It is usually comprised of more than 2 houses.
• Example: Tell Mureybet, Syria (10,200 -
8,1000 BC) - rectilinear houses made of mud
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brick creating a tell. When the old houses

collapsed, a new house was constructed over
it.

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• Example: Jericho or Tell es-Sultan, Jordan (ca. 10,000 -
9,000 BC) - recognized by UNESCO as the oldest town
in the world.
– Collapsed houses made of sun-dried mud bricks were used as
base for new houses.
– 25 building levels was discovered.
– Circular plan of 5 meter diameter houses with sunken floor
evolved into rectilinear structures around the end of the
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Neolithic period.
– The whole town was surrounded by walls about 4 meters
high, except on the east side where the spring was located.

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• Example: Catalhoyuk (7300 - 6200 BC) - big
settlement with complex urban structures located in
the moist climate of the Konya basin.
– a double tell of 2 large mounds of nearly 21 meters high
and believed to have been occupied by at least 3,000-
8,000 inhabitants.
– Terraced mud-brick houses formed on the east mound of
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Catalhoyuk while a settlement from Early Bronze period

developed on the west mound.
– Mud-brick houses in honeycomb arrangement populated
the east-mound village.

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

• Example: Catalhoyuk (7300 - 6200 BC)
– Houses occupied a 13 hectare-area with small
individual houses measuring 30 square meters which had
adjoining walls shared by neighbors.
– Mud bricks were supported by wooden beams and
buttresses and grouped around a courtyard.
– Main entrance was thru the opening on the flat roof with
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ladders going down to the main room and adjacent

storeroom.
– Small windows located high in the walls and roof opening for
ventilation were common features.
– Blank walls acted as a defensive feature of the

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• Example: Tell Hassuna
– Dry irrigation was the legacy of the Neolithic Hassuna
culture.
– Level 1 of Tell Hassuna yielded hearths and pits over
which rectilinear houses of 2-3 rooms made of pise or
tauf (packed mud) surfaced.
– Underground storage houses were lined with
bitumen. Levels 2-6 of the tell were larger adobe stone
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houses around open courtyards.

– Baking ovens and refuse pits showed they kept domestic
animals and dogs.

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• 1.e Palace
A palace is the official residence of a king or chief of
state (merriam-webster.com). The size and type of palace
architecture is a testament to the kind of rulers that
inhabit them. In the ancient Near East, some palaces
were adopted from temple architecture to seal the ruler's
divine epiphany. Some palaces include a temple within its
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complex of spaces. The ruler's importance can be seen in

the size of the throne room, and his economic power can
be equated with the size and number of his storerooms.

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• Example: Palace @ Mari, Syria
– Discovered in 1933, the ancient City of Mari has been the
subject of French archaeological studies for over 75
years. The site of Mari led to the discovery of Ebla and
provided archaeologists and historians a clear
understanding of Bronze Age Syria.
– Mari was a royal city founded around 2900 BC which
contained Tell Hariri and the royal palace of Zimrilim, the
Amorite King.
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– The palace had courtyards finished in alabaster, fountains

that were supported by superior plumbing and the
earliest murals of political ceremonies with beautiful
gardens as backdrop.

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• Example: Palace @ Mari, Syria
– Mari palace can be accessed thru a ramp passing the
towered gate leading to the large
courtyard. Architecture was used as a propaganda to
display the power of King Zimrilim thru massive
structure and expensive materials. The palace has
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300 rooms on the ground floor and another 300 on

the upper floor. For more info about Palace at Mari,
watch the video on the next page.

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2. Shrines and Temples
• Architecture can be used to organize society and
affirm power. Shrines and temples fulfill not just the
religious aspect but also that of citizenship or sense
of belonging.
• "Temples and shrines were not constructed in
isolation, but existed as part of what may be termed
a ritual landscape, where ritualized movement
within individual buildings, temple complexes, and
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the city as a whole shaped their function and

meaning." 1
•

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• 2.a Shrine
– A shrine is a dedicated place for an important or
holy person of a society. "Shrines may take up an
entire room, a hillside, or the bank of a river."2

• Example: Dumat al-Jandal, Middle East -

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believed to be built by pastoralists in small

nomadic groups.

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– The prehistoric monumental ruins is one of thousands
found in the Arabian Peninsula and the southern
Levant.
– Other sites include 'kites' (alignment of stones that
archaeologists think may have been giant traps for
hunting), tombs and other platforms of the type.3
– Carbon dating the human remains found in the area
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determine that the tombs were from 8,000 to 50 CE.

– Drystone walls surround the triangular platform, one of
which contained 2 niches.

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• Example: Rujm el-Hiri (Arabic "stone of the
wildcat"), Israel
– A prehistoric monument possibly as old as England's
Stonehenge.
– unlike Stonehenge which is built of huge monoliths,
Rujm is made up of 42,000 pieces of basalt rocks that
totals approximately 40,000 tonnes.
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– The circles have a maximum height of 2 meters and

the outermost circle measures around 160 meters.

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

• Example: Rujm el-Hiri
– It has a burial mound at the center of 5 concentric
circles made of heaped stone rubble.
– Unfortunately, the grave was already removed
when it was discovered.
– The structure is also called Gilgal Refaim
(Hebrew "Wheel of Giants") 4 and is about 5,000
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years old. Watch the video

here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9
&v=7D6p8Kw5WV8

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2.b Temple
The temple is a sacred place associated to a
religion. It is the accepted house of god/s. The
temple is where people go to do the rituals of their
religion.5

• Example: Gobekli Tepe (12,000 bp) -Discovered in

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1994, it is recognized as the world's 'first temple' and

believed to be older than the development of
pottery, metalworking and of other megalithic sites.

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• Example: Gobekli Tepe (12,000 bp) -
– Located on a hilltop in south-eastern Anatolia in
Turkey, the 300 meter diameter shrine is part of a tell
with a height of 15 meters approximately 760 meters
above sea level.
– The 'ceremonial center' of Gobekli Tepe is composed
of 20 circular stone walls which are concentric,
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containing limestone stelae (pillars; stele if singular)

that are T-shaped and carved with images of wild and
dangerous animals.

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• Example: Gobekli Tepe (12,000 bp) -
– The circular rooms were buried at the end of their
use, thus preserving the structures and relief
sculptures.
– Animal bones found in the area show butchery marks
suggesting that the place was for feasting. 60 % of the
mass of animal bones belong to wild gazelles with
some sheep, cattle and pigs.
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– The early people who built and visited Gobekli Tepe

were hunting wild animals and harvesting crops in the
area.

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• Example: White Temple of Uruk (Warka, Iraq) -
Seen from a great distance on the flat plain of Uruk,
White Temple stands on the Anu Ziggurat and
together is approximately 40 feet (12meters) high.
– It dates back to the late 4th millenium BCE and dedicated
to sky-god Anu.
– The ziggurat is a platform with 4 sloping sides, like a
stepped pyramid.
– Ziggurats are made of mud-brickks and were the heart of
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the political system where the ruler was regarded as a

descendant or representative of god.
•

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

• Example: White Temple of Uruk (Warka, Iraq)
– A steep stairway is the only means to reach the top of the
ziggurat.
– The temple got its name from its white finish inside and
out. It measusres 17.5m x 22.3 x and the sides face the
cardinal points. It has a tripartite plan consisting of a
long rectangular central with rooms on either side, a
typical Uruk 'high temple' plan. It had 3 entrances in a
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bent axis (90 degrees to face the altar) from the ziggurat
ramp, requiring visitors to circle the temple to appreciate
its vantage view.

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

2.c Ziggurat
A stepped pyramid tower that is a religious and civic
structure of Mesopotamian cities built around 2200 until
500 BCE. The steps may vary from 2 up to 7 levels. Its
core is made of mud brick and covered on the outside
with baked brick. Ziggurats have no interior spaces and
were usually built square or rectangular in plan of about
50 meters square. There are 25 known ziggurats in
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Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria and their average height is

170 feet (51meters).
•

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

• Ziggurats were the largest of Sumerian structures,
built over the generations with surrounding
rubble to create a mountain-like structure with a
shrine on top.
• Ziggurats were often decorated with painted clay
mosaics, sometimes shaped like a cone, which
would be pressed into wet plaster to create a
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beautifully colored and decorated exterior that

would have shimmered in the distant sun.6

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

• Example: Nanna Ziggurat, Ur (Iraq) - Also
known as the Great Ziggurat of Ur, it is a well-
preserved and best-reconstructed ziggurat.
– It was built for the moon goddess Nanna around 2100
BC by King Ur-Nammu and finished by his son, King
Shulgi and restored in thee 6th century BCE by King
Nabodinus.
– Made of giant bud bricks that measure 190 x 130 feet,
there are 3 platforms with 3 stairways leading up to
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the shrine.
– Historians believe that the topmost platform served as
bedchamber for Nanna.

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C. Arch’l character & bldg. types

• Example: Nanna Ziggurat, Ur (Iraq) -
– A storage space can be found on the topmost platform for
clay tablets containing detaled stories of the gods and
goddesses, and accounts of tributes paid to the ruler.
– The sides of the ziggurat face the cardinal points,
suggesting it served the purpose of an agricultural
calendar. It was also considered as an administrative
complex of Ur. Learn more about the Nanna Ziggurat by
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watching this
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=
2&v=sIGOFlFoCLc&feature=emb_logo