Editing Mesopotamia (section)

==Art==
{{main|Art of Mesopotamia}}
The art of Mesopotamia rivalled [[Art of Ancient Egypt|that of Ancient Egypt]] as the most grand, sophisticated and elaborate in western [[Eurasia]], from the 4th millennium BC until the [[Persia]]n Achaemenid Empire conquered the region in the 6th century BC. The main emphasis was on very durable, forms of sculpture in stone and clay. Little painting has survived, but what has suggests that painting was mainly used for geometrical and plant-based decorative schemes. Most sculpture was also painted.

The [[Protoliterate period]], dominated by [[Uruk]], saw the production of sophisticated works like the [[Warka Vase]] and [[cylinder seal]]s. The [[Guennol Lioness]] is an outstanding small [[limestone]] figure from [[Elam]] of about 3000–2800 BC, part man and part lion.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=24–37}} A little later there are a number of figures of large-eyed priests and worshippers, mostly in alabaster and up to a foot high, who attended temple [[cult image]]s of the deity, but very few of these have survived.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=45–59}} Sculptures from the [[Sumer]]ian and [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]] period generally had large, staring eyes, and long beards on the men. Many masterpieces have been found at the Royal Cemetery at [[Ur]] (c. 2650 BC), including the two figures of a ''[[Ram in a Thicket]]'', the ''[[Copper Bull]]'' and a bull's head on one of the [[Lyres of Ur]].{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=61–66}}

From the many subsequent periods before the ascendency of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Mesopotamian art survives in a number of forms: cylinder seals, relatively small figures in the round, and reliefs of various sizes, including cheap plaques of moulded pottery for the home, some religious and some apparently not.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|loc=Chapters 2–5}} The [[Burney Relief]] is an unusual elaborate and relatively large (20 x 15&nbsp;inches) [[terracotta]] plaque of a naked winged goddess with the feet of a bird of prey, and attendant owls and lions. It comes from the 18th or 19th century BC, and may also be moulded.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=110–112}}

Stone [[stela]]e, [[votive offering]]s, or ones probably commemorating victories and showing feasts, are found from temples, which unlike more official ones lack inscriptions that would explain them.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=66–74}} The fragmentary [[Stele of the Vultures]] is an early example of the inscribed type.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=71–73}} The Assyrian [[Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III]] a large and solid late one.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=66–74, 167}}

The conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and much surrounding territory by the Assyrians created a larger and wealthier state than the region had known before, and very grandiose art in palaces and public places, no doubt partly intended to match the splendour of the art of the neighbouring Egyptian empire. The Assyrians developed a style of extremely large schemes of very finely detailed narrative low reliefs in stone for palaces, with scenes of war or hunting. The [[British Museum]] has an outstanding collection. They produced very little sculpture in the round, except for colossal guardian figures, often the human-headed [[lamassu]], which are sculpted in high relief on two sides of a rectangular block, with the heads effectively in the round, and five legs, so that both views seem complete. Even before dominating the region, they continued the cylinder seal tradition, with designs which are often exceptionally energetic and refined.{{sfn|Frankfort|1970|pp=141–193}}
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File:Mask of Sargon of Akkad.jpg|Bronze head of an Akkadian ruler, discovered in [[Nineveh]] in 1931, presumably depicting either [[Sargon of Akkad]] or Sargon's grandson [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Naram-Sin]].<ref>M. E. L. Mallowan, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241589 The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period from Nineveh]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421004953/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241589|date=21 April 2020}}", ''Iraq'' Vol. 3, No. 1 (1936), pp. 104–110.</ref>
File:Striding lions - Processional Way of Babylon - Pergamonmuseum - Berlin - Germany 2017.jpg|Striding lions from the Processional Street of [[Babylon]].
File:Assyrian Winged Bull.jpg|[[Lamassu]], initially depicted as a goddess in Sumerian times, when it was called ''Lamma'', it was later depicted from Assyrian times as a hybrid of a human, bird, and either a bull or lion—specifically having a human head, the body of a bull or a lion, and bird wings, under the name ''Lamassu''.<ref name="GL109">{{cite book |last1=Leick |first1=Gwendolyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pqEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |title=A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-64102-4 |pages=109–110 |language=en |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-date=21 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121170406/https://books.google.com/books?id=_pqEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Livius.org">{{Cite web |url=https://www.livius.org/la-ld/lamassu/lamassu.html |title=Livius.org |access-date=10 March 2022 |archive-date=1 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601064047/http://www.livius.org/la-ld/lamassu/lamassu.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
File:Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian costumes and decorations (1920) (14741970056).jpg|Assyrian ornaments and patterns, illustrated in a book from 1920
File:Detail, Nebuchadnezzar II's Building Inscription plaque of the Ishtar Gate, from Babylon, Iraq. 6th century BCE. Pergamon Museum.jpg|alt=|Detail of Nebuchadnezzar II's Building Inscription plaque of the Ishtar Gate, from [[Babylon]]
File:Artist’s impression of a hall in an Assyrian palace from The Monuments of Nineveh by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1853.jpg|alt=|Artist's impression of a hall in an Assyrian palace from ''The Monuments of Nineveh'' by [[Austen Henry Layard]], 1853
File:Ashur god.jpg|alt=|A [[Neo-Assyrian]] relief of Ashur as a [[feather robed archer]] holding a bow instead of a ring (9th-8th century BC)
File:The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III receives tribute from Sua, king of Gilzanu, The Black Obelisk..JPG|alt=|The [[Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III]]. The king, surrounded by his royal attendants and a high-ranking official, receives a tribute from Sua, king of Gilzanu (north-west Iran), who bows and prostrates before the king. From [[Nimrud]]
File:Genien, Nimrud 870 v. Chr. Aegyptisches Museum, Muenchen-4.jpg|alt=|"[[Winged genie]]", [[Nimrud]] c. 870 BC, with inscription running across his midriff.
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