Platforms and Pyramids Played an Important Social and Religious Role in the Ancient Cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Pre-Columbian America. Choose One of These Cultures and Discuss How These Roles Were Expressed in

FINAL ESSAY 5. Platforms and pyramids played an important social and religious role in the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt and pre-Columbian America. Choose ONE of these cultures and discuss how these roles were expressed in their architectural treatment, function and spatial context (i.e. within a city and/or a natural landscape).

The cultures of Mesopotamia have been influenced by different civilisations across different phases of the Mesopotamian era. Even though the civilisations occur through different times, there was continuity and also evolution in both sacred and residential architecture. In addition to similarities between periods, there were also completely new architectural concepts both in the plan and functionality of the space. Religion and its relation with the natural landscape played a foremost role in the life of Mesopotamians and together with different social, economic and even political concepts; they are the influential factors that dictated the architectural expression of that era, from the Ubaid period (5000 B.C) until the fall of Babylon (539 B.C). In order to better understand the how and why different architectural approaches were taken during different phases in Mesopotamia, this essay will provide a detailed geographical and chronological analysis on both the temple and residential architecture. Various examples will be illustrated to form the argument of this essay.

Mesopotamian civilisation emerged in an environment where each element in cosmos different. Some are stable such as the four seasons but some are more violent such as the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates. In such apprehensive and fearful environment in which human could not resist the natural forces, gods were produced and the elements of the universe were personified. Each god was associated to a specific element and was worshipped to receive in return the basic commodities for survival. Based on this ideology towards nature, elements of nature had a huge

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