The Epic of Gilgamesh and Sumerian Culture Essay

Ziggurats are a key part of Sumer and its religious beliefs and were not Ziggurats were not easy to build. In fact, they took a very, very long time to make, years actually. Sun baked bricks built up the core of the monstrous structure, while fire bricks made up the sides of it. The base of the Ziggurat were many temples stacked up on top of each other with stairs that go all over. The facing were glazing browns, reds, blacks, whites, and oranges. Each Ziggurat was a little bit different though. They were usually about 210 feet in length, 150 feet wide, and over 100 feet tall. The size of these are unreal! 210x150x100 = over 3,350,000 square feet. That’s huge. The immense temple has many churches and rooms for the Sumerians pray to their many

History has been passed down but have never been documented. About 2000 B.C.E., history has been recorded on cuneiform tablets. From circa 1900 – 1600 B.C.E. Gilgamesh stories and literature were recorded by the Akkadians. But without the cuneiforms, an invention credited with the Sumerians, there probably would not be stories, literature, or history of the Gilgamesh to be passed on to know about today. Another invention credited with the Sumerians, is the ziggurat. The ziggurat was established by King Urnammu from circa 2500 – 2050 B.C.E. It was made of mud brick. The Sumerian’s architecture were square or rectangular that was made of mud bricks but the layout of the temples were built on raised platforms. The temple is actually on top of the ziggurat. It is believed that it will bring worshipers closer to heaven. Without the ziggurat, which was credited with the Sumerians, religious beliefs would have stayed the same. With the ziggurats, the Sumerians valued the religious

The Sumerians were the citizens of the first Mesopotamian civilization and they had created many technological advances such as the wheel, plow, and the cuneiform writing system. The Epic of Gilgamesh is thought to be one of the greatest pieces of cuneiform literature. This story focuses on Gilgamesh, who was said to be the king of the Sumerian city of Uruk, who is two-thirds god and one-third human. It also focuses on Enkidu, who was created by the goddess Aruru in order to rid Gilgamesh of his arrogance. The epic’s portrayal of Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s relationship explains how highly the Sumerians thought of their civilized accomplishments and how they had little respect for the environment

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest epic known to date. It is an old Babylonian tale first written down in Sumerian. The first known copy of the epic is dated to around 2100 to 2000 B.C.E. However, it is believed to have originated many years earlier passed along though oral story telling. The epic was used in Babylonian schools to teach literature to students (Puchner 36). In ancient times, the Epic of Gilgamesh was widely read from Mesopotamia to Syria to Levant and Anatolia. The epic was also translated into non-Mesopotamian languages such as Hittite (Puchner 34). The story we know today was expanded upon around 1200 B.C.E. by a Babylonian priest. “The eleven-tablet version may be said to have assumed its present form during the latter part of the second millennium”(Abusch 618). It was then written down again and stored in the library of an Assyrian king named Ashurbanipal (Ziolkowski 55-56). It was thanks to this act that

In the heart of the mesopotamian desert there was a civilization called the Sumerians. The civilization were a prime and firm civilization. They had built Big strong cities. The sumerians were an intelligent race. From the mud homes the civilization built they built huge mountains. These mountains were seen from miles away. These mountains were the homes to the gods. These huge mud brick mountains were called the Ziggurat. The ziggurat was a temple the sumerians used to worship the gods for hundreds of years.

One of the most important aspects of Babylonian religion and tradition, and probably the best known, is the ziggurat. Ziggurats were huge structures with a temple far above the ground. This Temple would have belonged to the city god. The city ziggurat would easily be the most noticeable building in the city, towering above any people visiting their city. They could reach up to 150 ft. high as well! But how did they build these mesmerizing temples? The materials they used, the platform they designed, and the time and effort they spent on the ziggurats made them stand out and be the most conspicuous building in Ancient Babylon.

Sumer was a region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Sumerians are known for the extraordinary temples they built which are called ziggurats. The greatest colossal ziggurat stood in the city of, Ur, which is where Abraham in the Bible lived. Amazingly, this ziggurat had seven layers, each smaller than the layer below. This ziggurat reached a towering height of 160 feet and covered more than 30,000 square feet. At the top of it Sumerians placed a couch and a table for the moon god, Nanna just in case he stopped by to visit. Each ziggurat which was a temple was dedicated to the gods.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is probably the oldest written story in the world. One don’t even half to read far into the store where it talks about Gilgamesh thought of as a hero. He was a protector of his people. “Supreme over other kings, lordly in appearance, he is the hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild bull” (“Tablet I

The first monument in Mesopotamia, The Ziggurat at UR, is a temple that was built around 2100 B.C.E. by the King Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur. This monument was built for the moon god Nanna, he is the divine patron for the city. This structure is significant because it would have been the highest point in the city. This would be the place that the citizen would come to and bring their surplus and would then receive their food allotments. They would come and store harvested crops in honor of the Nanna.

Thousands of years ago, deep in the ancient desert of Mesopotamia, a tribe known as the sumerians, built a massive temple dedicated to their gods. Inside this temple, they sacrificed many things, including their own kind. On the outside, strong mud brick walls, four giant tiers, and three massive staircases held this structure together, this building was the biggest point in the city of Sumer. This massive temple was called, a ziggurat.

In Mesopotamia culture, there are structures known as ziggurats. A ziggurat is one of several buildings in a temple complex. In Minoan culture, they have places known as central courts. A central court is a large outdoor room in the center of the Minoan palace. Both, ziggurats and central courts, are sacred architectures with multipurpose. Ziggurats have housing for the deity and central courts can be used as a passage way to get to housing for kings/rulers. One of the main purposes of both structures is to perform ceremonies or rituals. However, central courts are also used for spectator events such as bull leaping and for merchants/craftsmen to perform their tasks for trade. The final similarity is that both architectures are designed to

In the city south of Mesopotamia known as Sumer, there were these large stepped structures called “ziggurats”. Ziggurats were elevated buildings raised on a flat plain with a temple or shrine mounted on top. This elevation was very helpful in keeping the shrines from flooding and protecting their artifacts within. Ziggurats were the most extraordinary remains to come from the Sumerians.

The plains of the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lacked areas of stone quarries and trees that the Sumerian's could use for building structures. Without wood or stone the Sumerians used mud-brick without the use of mortar or cement to construct their buildings. In time their buildings would deteriorate or if destroyed would require the remaining structure to be leveled and then rebuilt on the same spot. This eventually raised the level of cities above the surrounding plain. They also developed the arch by constructing and linking several arches which enabled them to build a dome. If available Sumerian temples and palaces would use stone and wood in order to build buttresses, recesses and half-columns.

Extraordinary constructions of monuments seem to have been the staple for the ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization yet their purposes proved somewhat different. For the Sumerian civilization, the construction of the ancient monuments served a multiple purpose as social, economic and religious centers and in the latter half of the third millennium B.C.E. the Ur-based civilization focused on building schemes for their administrative, economic and agricultural benefits. In contrast, the Egyptian civilization during the peak of the Fourth Dynasty’s power during the reign of the first three rulers of the dynasty: Cheops, Khufu and Menkuare] focused on building projects aimed at edifying the political and religious power of the civilization (Wake 29). Indeed, one needs only consider the fact that while the pyramids of Egypt served as funereal complexes for their rulers the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia served as cultural museums and offices for their people.

The author of The Epic of Gilgamesh is unknown although we do know that it was written around 2700 B.C.E. From there it must have been passed down in Sumerian societies by word of mouth until 6000 B.C.E when it was written down and signed by a man named Sin-Leqi-Unninni.