Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats 1

Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats

Veronika Kalugina

ARC 2031-01: History of Architecture to 1400

October 12, 2021

 Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats 2

Located in the Mesopotamian region, Assyrian civilization was widely famous and successful
because of its military innovations and architecture development. Highly defensive cities and effective
battle tactics helped them to remain the most successful power in the Mesopotamia region up until ca.
612 BCE. A religious Assyrian culture was focused on building cities with ziggurats, as a symbol
protection of the gods. A typology of a ziggurat was common throughout the Mesopotamian region. It
served as protection of the temple, located on the top, from local weather and climate conditions and
serve as a connection point between people and their gods. Assyrians used a variety of building
resources available in the region, like adobe bricks and stone, to build stable, durable structures for the
most important places in the city, ziggurats, a house of their gods, and palaces, a house of their king.

Climate and Geography

The geography of the region played a significant role in the success of the empire by defining
culture and architecture of Assyrians. Around ca. 671 BCE, an empire covered the territory from
Caucasus mountains (Azerbaijan and Armenia) to Zagros mountains (territory of Iran), as far as an
Arabian desert on the South (Saudi Arabia), and as far as Cyprus Island in the Mediterranean Sea, and
then reaching the territory of Egypt as well (Fig. 1).

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Digital Collections BYU Library, Map of the Assyrian Empire. Contentdm. March 29, 2005.
 Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats 3

The climate of the region was very settled, warm, dry weather with enough rain coming in during
the winter months. Zagros and Taurus mountains on the north-east provided plenty of natural resources
and Mediterranean Sea on the west brought the moisture to provide rain precipitation over to the
region (Ur 2017, 16). Assyrian land was fertile for local agriculture due to the climate and presence of
two major rivers of the region, Tigris and Euphrates, where most of the city settlements were located as
shown in Fugure 2. The rivers provided well-needed fresh water for the city settlements, supported, and
helped local agriculture to thrive. Additionally, a yearly flooding pattern of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
added needed nutrients to the soil, making it good for crops like wheat, barley, and millet as well as a
variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts. The ability of Assyrians to grow plenty of food without additional
efforts played a significant role in the expansion of the civilization and its success (Muscato 2017).

Besides the significant importance of the rivers in farming, Assyrians used them as a
transportation tool, creating routes for ships loaded with grains, wood, stone, etc. It was critically
important for Assyrians to be able to transport building materials and resources needed to build sturdy

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Map of the Assyrian Empire. Wikimedia. May 24, 2018.
 Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats 4

structures that would last centuries. Ships went up and down the river, carrying and trading goods with
other cities along the river, which created an influence and control over surrounding settlements. Under

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Digital Collections BYU Library, Map of the Assyrian Empire. Contentdm. March 29, 2005.
 Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats 4

the rule of Sargon II, Assyrians expanded their trade routes from Tigris and Euphrates rivers even further
to the Mediterranean Sea, traveling up and down the east coast and then taking other regions under
control as shown in Fig. 2.

Religion and Society

Assyrians shared antient Mesopotamian religion beliefs with Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations.
Assyrian civilization believed in multiple gods
and a concept of an afterlife. They practiced
Sabaism or astral cults religion, worshipping of
sun, moon, stars, and other deities associated
with a worship of forces of nature (Fraser
1841, 97). And a Ziggurat was a clear
representation of their religious beliefs and
social hierarchy. A platform structure, mostly
represented by square or rectangular bases
with multiple levels, in a shape of a stepped
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pyramid, with staircases up to a temple dedicated to the local deity.

Ziggurats were sacred and not the place for a public religious ceremony. The purpose of the
ziggurats was to bring the temple closer to heaven and serve as a bridge to connect heaven and earth. It
meant to provide access from the ground level to the temple, which was accessible only by kings and
priests, highest level of social hierarchy, to attend to the needs of the gods.

Religion and state were merged in Assyria, meaning a king was a god’s representative on Earth.
People’s duty was to serve their gods and their king, who ruled on behalf of the gods and had
responsibilities of an administrator of the empire, lawmaker, and commander for the Assyrian army.
Moreover, religious leaders or priests were considered a conciliator between people and the gods. They
were valuable and powerful members of Assyrian society. Each Assyrian city had its god or goddess,
sometime multiple, to whom it was dedicated.

Architecture and Materials

Assyrians were very successful in building solid, reliable architecture, especially with innovation
of iron tools that were widely used in construction (Miller 2013, 1). Besides the main function of a

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Mesopotamian Region. Facts and Details. September 2018.
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ziggurat, it also served as a protection of a temple from the river floods, by rising it well above the level
of the valley. With a wide accessibility of mud and clay in the region, Assyrians used it to build homes,
palaces and ziggurats (Jordan 2004). Ziggurats and palaces, the most important structures in the cities,
Assyrians build with adobe (Fig. 4) and baked brick. Adobe brick was made by mixing sand and clay with
water to a plastic consistency, then sun dry it (Augustyn 2020). All of them were locally accessible in the
region and easy to handle. And for the bases of the temples, ziggurats, they preferred to use stone for
the firmness due to the seasonal flooding of the main rivers (Miller 2013). Stone was widely accessible
for them; good limestone and marble were extracted from the local mountains. Another possible reason
why Assyrians preferred to build ziggurats using
stone extracted from local mountains because
they believed ziggurats symbolize mountains as a
connection point between the gods and people.
Moreover, Assyrians mastered the technique of
the decorated polychrome glazed brick, mostly
used for ziggurats and palaces-the most important
places in the city where gods can reach the men
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and men can reach the gods.

One of the distinctive features of the Assyrian architecture of ziggurats was that they were made

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4
Adobe. Wikipedia. August 31, 2021.
5
Hageneuer, Sebastian. Reconstruction of the Anu-Adad temple in Ashur by Walter Andrae, 1909.
ResearchGate. January 2016.
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Harmansah, Omur. Ashur. ResearchGate. February 2012.
 Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats 7

double, dedicated to two deities at once, which was unusual for the Mesopotamian region. Figure 5
shows the reconstruction model of the double temple of Anna (god of the sky) and Adad (god of rain,
thunder, and lightning) and its placement in the city of Ashur (Fig. 6). Assyrians believed that the cities
were protected by the gods if there was a presence of their temple.

Around the 8th century BCE Assyrian ziggurats became seven-stage. They were used by the
priests to observe the sky and draw horoscopes. The most famous is the seven-step Ziggurat of the
Sargon II Palace in Dur-Sharrukin (Fig. 8). Figure 7 we can see the placement of the ziggurat in the city.

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According to scientists, seven tiers of the ziggurat represent the sun, the moon, and five planets visible
in the sky (Fazio 2017, 18) and can be interpreted as a lunar calendar (7 levels X 4 sides of the ziggurat =
28 days in lunar calendar). Every one of the seven tiers in Dur-Sharrukin ziggurat had its own color,
associated with an individual planet (1-Saturn-white; 2-Jupiter-black; 3-Mars-red; 4-Mercury-blue; 5-
Venus-light red; 6-Moon-silver; 7-Sun-gold) (James 2008, 57)(Fig 8). Ziggurats had a deep meaning of the
connection between gods and their people. Massive, hierarchical, balanced architecture presented
ziggurats as a highly valuable and powerful place for Assyrian culture.

Conclusion

7
Dur-Sharrukin. Wikipedia. July 27, 2021.
8
Saeed, Ahmad. The Alchemical Ziggurat.
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Ziggurats served the most important religious function of Assyrian society. They provided a
connection bridge between people and the gods. Ancient Assyrian civilization believed that their
primary duties were to serve their king, a god’s representative on Earth, and protect a house of the god,

7
Dur-Sharrukin. Wikipedia. July 27, 2021.
8
Saeed, Ahmad. The Alchemical Ziggurat.
 Assyrian Culture and Ziggurats 7

a temple on top of the ziggurat, in exchange for gods’ protection of their people. To prevent damages
from local weather and climate, Assyrians used stone and adobe brick, the most durable building
material that was accessible to them for the construction of ziggurats and temples. Ziggurats have stood
the test of time because of the way they were built until the collapse of Assyrian empire in 612 BCE.
Their cities were captured and destroyed by Medes and Babylonian civilizations leaving only ruins
behind.
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