Ancient Mesopotamia, July 15th

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Swap Due Date: July 15th, 2019
Sign Up date: By July 5th, 2019
Withdrawal deadline: none, but please communicate!
Number of Cards: 3 for 3
Number of Participants: unlimited

Ancient Mesopotamia, aka "Sumerians, Assyrians, and Hittites, Oh My!" - open media

Scorpion Men, Winged guardians, Epic of Gilgamesh, and cuneiform, the art of Ancient Mesopotamia is really quite fascinating and stylized. At the same time, it is often eclipsed by the wonderful work of the Ancient Egyptians. This swap is to celebrate the artwork created by the peoples of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, or the Mesopotamian River valley.

Time Frame: pre-history up through the Persian Achaemenid Empire, so roughly 550-330BC. Other major groups to use for searching: Akkadians, Uruk, Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians, Kassites, and more.

Style: I'm open to any style on this - you want to do an anime version Queen of the Night, go for it. The major requirement is it has to be an image associated with an Ancient Mesopotamian civilization.

Here are a couple of my examples:
1_20190513_223000-1002x1450.jpg 1_20190513_222517-1436x1028.jpg
Click image for larger version.

Research. If you're like me, you'll probably need to do some looking. Here are a few sites that I liked. If you find others, please share.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cultural Advising Group
The Louvre - great collection, but you'll probably need to search
British Museum - you'll have to play with this site a bit, not the easiest navigation.


Swap Requirements ~
1. Each card must relate to an Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization.
2. All cards should be standard 3.5” x 2.5”
3. This swap is 3 for 3. An extra card for the host is welcome, but completely optional.

Other stuff
Mailing Information ~
* Include username, real name, your state/country and the swap name on the back of all cards - and put username and swap name on all envelopes sent.
* US Participants – Please include EITHER a clearly written SASE or a mailing label and stamp.
* International Participants - Please send a clearly-addressed envelope or mailing label and I will cover postage.
*Late cards past a day or so will be returned.

*When you receive your returns, please leave I-Trader for your swap host and rep points for the artists of the cards you receive. Also, in your rep points, naming which card you received is nice, since people like to know where their artworks end up.

Participants:
1. jo.on.the.go - Received Returns!
2. Leydab - Received Returns!
3. BetsyG - Received Returns!
4. CastleQueen5 - Received Returns!
5. dsign49 - Received Returns!
6. Asharnanae - Received Returns!
7.BluSkyHare - Received Returns!
...
 
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  • #16
A couple of interesting facts about Assur. "The god Aššur and the city of Aššur are inseparable, as the deity is the personification of the rocky crag called Qal’at Sherqat in Arabic that towers high above a bend of the river Tigris."

There was a massive temple structure to the god Assur and eventually it included many of the other gods.
The name of that temple is ‘Wild Bull’, the name of the door is ‘Protective Goddess’, the name of the lock is ‘Be Strong!’ and the name of the threshold is ‘Be Alert!’

The sanctuary and its constituent parts were considered animate, even sentient. They and all objects used in the temple were created and maintained by expert craftsmen: builders, carpenters, smiths, goldsmiths, scribes, and others. The temple craftsmen were also responsible for the fashioning and awakening (with a ritual called the ‘Opening of the Mouth’) of the statues of Aššur and the other gods revered at the city."

Quotes are from Karen Radner's Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction.

Much of the early excavation was done by the German Walter Andrae. The excavated material was split between the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin and the Oriental Museum in Istanbul.
 
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  • #18
There are a number of winged figures I've come across. The scorpion men are pretty cool too. I'll see what I can find out about winged figures.
 
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  • #19
As the Egyptians are known for the pyramids, so ancient Mesopotamia is known for the building of the ziggurat. Wikipedia has a nice article and images, but Getty's also has some nice images too.

E-temen-an-ki, “Building of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth” was dedicated to Marduk. It may have also been the inspiration for the Tower of Babel in the Judeao-Christian-Islamic tradition.

It seems there were constant renovations, reconstructions, etc with Etemnanki and probably other ziggurats. This was interesting about Nabopolassar and his successor Nebuchadnezzar II.

The royal inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar hardly contain any reference to political or military
events. Their topic is mainly the king as builder of temples, defensive constructions and
palaces, and the king as restorer of rituals and cultic ordinances. (quote from the scholar Rocio Da Riva)
 
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