Sumerian architecture

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The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian structures comprised plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar nor cement. As plano-convex bricks (being rounded) are somewhat unstable in behaviour, Sumerian bricklayers would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest every few rows. They would fill the gaps with bitumen, straw, marsh reeds, and weeds.

Mud-brick buildings eventually deteriorate, so they were periodically destroyed, levelled, and rebuilt on the same spot. This constant rebuilding gradually raised the level of cities, so that they came to be elevated above the surrounding plain. The resulting hills are known as tells, and are found throughout the ancient Near East. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds, not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until recent years.

Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails.

Scribes were also important to Sumerian architecture, to make records of construction carried out for government, nobility, or royalty.

Ziggurats

The most impressive and famous Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats -- large terraced platforms with temples on top. Such ziggurats may have been the inspiration for the Biblical Tower of Babel (see Etemenanki).

Ziggurats typical of the Ubaid period were built very high on a platform of mud brick. On these large platforms were built gradually smaller and smaller concentric platforms, although sometimes there were ground level temples more typical of the protoliterate period. These were similar to some modern buildings in the shape of ziggurats. Many temples had inscriptions engraved into them, such as the one at Uqair.

See also: Art and architecture of Babylonia and Assyria

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