this video is sponsored by maurer digital though we already have and will continue to see and analyze more art from the ancient world in this video i want to expose you to the types of material art that were common in mesopotamia during the bronze and iron ages the first and most common type of art from ancient mesopotamia is pottery made out of baked clay it's often the most useful artifact for archaeologists because changes in the style of pottery or other ceramic objects can help them to identify and date the different early cultures that once occupied
a given area bowls jars cups boxes and other objects or at least fragments of them have been found all over mesopotamia and the fertile crescent one can say that it's the oldest recognized art form in the ancient near east though often formed in distinctive shapes and painted with geometric designs and later animals the pottery of ancient mesopotamia even during times of great cultural achievement and prosperity was relatively basic in comparison to those of other cultures the earliest clay pottery to have been discovered dates back to around 7000 bc and was shaped by hand and then
baked over an open fire about a thousand years later hotter more controlled firing was made possible with the introduction of primitive kilns which themselves were made out of baked clay bricks in addition to shaping them by hand early potters also used simple molds into which they pressed moist clay which were then baked over a hand-operated potter's wheel over time as this technology advanced it allowed for the mass production of such bowls and jars which were needed to help feed the growing population though by 2000 bc some pottery in babylonia and also assyria began to be
glazed in bright colors they were still relatively simple in comparison to those of egypt and later the greek speaking world this is because most people who could afford ornately decorated pottery actually preferred jars bowls and utensils made of silver gold copper bronze glass or even stone all materials that we'll take a look at shortly before we get into the next form of artwork i'd like to thank the sponsor of this video maurer digital and introduce you to their exciting berlin wall nft project i found this to be extremely interesting because as the name implies it's
an nft art project that tells the extraordinary stories of the berlin wall to both raise awareness of its history and raise money for various charities the project brings together five talented artists who are building a digital berlin wall consisting of 10 316 unique art pieces one for each day that the wall stood the goal is to introduce new generations to that turbulent and important era of history and what the fall of the wall represented in the fight for democracy and freedom each nft tells a different story about the lives and struggles of the people who
were affected by it and the general impact that it had on the spread or curtailment of democracy and individual freedoms the great thing about the project is that the majority of the proceeds go to various globally recognized charities and organizations that promote freedom fairness and democracy including doctors without borders amnesty international and more to date the berlin wall nft project has raised over a quarter million dollars for such charities in its first two drops which were completely sold out the next drop will be on january 18th and if the previous two are any indication will
sell out fast so if interested in this unique project check out the links in the video description or visit malware digital on the web of all of the crafts in ancient mesopotamia metalworking was probably the most important it was essential to all aspects of life such as agriculture where it was used as the primary material for plows to of course weapons and armor made of bronze and iron it had its household purposes as well and was used for cups bowls jars and the like such items were not only considered more valuable than their clay and
ceramic counterparts but also much more durable though archaeologists have excavated the remains of several metalsmith workshops most of the metals smelted there were actually not from the region mesopotamia had and still has few deposits of useful metals and so these had to be imported for example most of the copper that found its way into the great cities of sumer and akkad came from anatolia iran and kanan tin was even harder to get and likely came from mines in anatolia and as far away as central asia both of these elements are needed for the creation of
bronze which by the fourth millennium bc became the principal alloy for many useful objects such as weapons helmets cooking utensils pins plows plates and eventually for statues both of gods and kings though used much less gold silver and electrum which is a mixture of gold and silver were also relatively common in the urban centers of mesopotamia due to their malleability these metals were used a lot in jewelry we'll get to that shortly though the use of iron has been dated to at least the 4th millennium bc it didn't really take hold in mesopotamia until its
widespread use by the hittites which encouraged its adoption by others around the end of the bronze age so this brings us to another common type of material art that we see in ancient mesopotamia and that is jewelry which used many of the metals and alloys mentioned earlier in addition most fine or luxury jewelry included precious and semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and jade like most metals these were also imported mostly scholars believe from afghanistan from objects discovered in the graves of elites as well as reliefs from the walls of buildings both men and women
valued and wore jewelry common to both genders of higher social status were strings of beads amulets and bracelets made of bronze silver or gold earrings were also popular and generally in the shape of rings crescent moons cones and sometimes animal or human heads next we come to my personal favorite art from ancient mesopotamia cylinder seals these were generally made out of small pieces of stone or clay but sometimes also copper bronze silver gold bone lapis lazuli or even shell they were engraved with pictures and or short inscriptions that formed impressions when pushed onto soft surfaces
which were usually wet clay the images could depict anything a specific event the image of a ruler or priest complex geometric patterns an animal a scene from daily life or a battle but most seem to have had some religious meaning or reference and contained images of deities or some scene from sumerian or local mythology creating the images on cylinder seals was delicate work and due to their curved rather than flat surfaces it was quite difficult for the artist to create correctly proportioned scenes and figures like the seals of today these impressions were used to identify
or verify official documents seals have been found on official royal correspondence legal documents marriage contracts account ledgers on jars doors basically any surface where some sort of verification was necessary cylinder seals have been extremely important finds for archaeologists because they've provided valuable information about ancient mesopotamian religion mythology kings governors and other rulers and have even helped to verify the dates of specific events during the third millennium bc sculpture became an important form of artistic expression in both mesopotamia and the ancient near east in general though it had been around for much longer than that actually
thousands of years before the first cities the earliest sculptures were made of clay but much like other forms of art that we've discussed they were soon formed out of other materials including wood different types of stone and metals such as copper and bronze some were hybrids that were carved or whittled from wood and then covered with thin metal an example of this are the remains of the bullheaded harp found in the royal cemetery of oor the core material was wood but it was covered by thin layers of gold and embellished with lapis lazuli the best
preserved sculptures that we have are those made of stone many of which can still be seen in museums all over the world good stone though was hard to find and so much of it had to be imported from other areas such as southwestern anatolia and the mountains of iran most of the limestone gypsum and alabaster that we see in statues figurines and wall reliefs came from these areas however the most valuable or prized stone was diorite which was mostly imported from what's today oman in those days known as magan or macan for many sculptures were
luxury items and may have been used for decoration most seem to have had a religious purpose and were used as votive offerings to be placed in temples and other sites considered to have been holy it was believed that such statues especially those of deities and even individuals contain the spirit or essence of the one being represented inside them perhaps the greatest number of surviving statues and beliefs come from what was once ancient assyria specifically the palaces and temples of kalhu or nimrud durshorukan ashur and of course nineveh whether they were statues of great kings animals
mythical creatures or reliefs on wall panels depicting great battles or glorifying rulers sculpture in mesopotamia seems to have reached its zenith during the neo-assyrian period so i hope that you now know a bit more about some of the primary material arts of ancient mesopotamia which you'll be seeing a lot more of in upcoming videos as always thank you so much for stopping by i really appreciate it i'd also really like to thank grandcake69 yap de graf pastafrola michael lewis daniel allen danny vanek lenextv robert morgan frank tim lane sebastian ortado correa franz robbins brendan redman
faridun darachanji jimmy daruwala share kam farhad kama and all of the channel's patrons on patreon for helping to support this and all future content check out the benefits to being a patreon member and if you'd like to join feel free to click the link in the video description you can also follow history with psy on instagram facebook and twitter as well as continue to listen to special audio programs on the history with psy podcast thanks again and stay safe [Music]
